Fighting Words NI is a creative writing network that encourages and amplifies the voices of children and young people across Northern Ireland. Since 2015, the organization has reached more than 24,000 young people, offering free workshops to schools, youth groups, and after-school clubs, all designed to foster a love of writing and storytelling. Based at the Crescent Arts Center in Belfast, it's a warm, energetic place—and my first week there reflected exactly that.
From the moment I arrived, I was made to feel welcome by the whole team. On my very first day, I sat in on a Zoom workshop with a P3 class—seven and eight year olds—and got my first real taste of what Fighting Words does. My role was to act as typist while observing how Aoife, my main contact and supervisor, led the session. Watching her work with the kids was a joy; they were completely uninhibited and bursting with ideas. Together we wrote a story about aliens, which the children threw themselves into with enormous enthusiasm—including inventing their own alien names. Typing those out in real time was its own kind of challenge, given that complete gibberish turned out to be surprisingly difficult to render on a keyboard!
The following day brought a very different dynamic. I sat in on an in-person workshop with teenagers, and the contrast was immediately noticeable. Where the P3s had been instantly animated, the older group needed a little time and space to warm up. But once they found their footing, they were brilliant, and it was genuinely rewarding to watch their confidence grow over the course of the session.
By the third day, the pace shifted again. I spent more time with individual team members, getting a clearer picture of their specific roles and the different strands of work they each carry. To round off the week, I also had a meeting with the director of the Crescent Arts Center to discuss the possibility of volunteering at the Belfast Book Festival—an exciting prospect that I'm really hoping comes together.
All in all, it was a first week full of variety, warmth, and plenty of moments that reminded me why this kind of work matters.