Meet Simon, our tenant at Nottingham. For years, Simon struggled with addiction, a battle which deeply impacted his health, wellbeing and relationship with his daughters.

Since joining Hope into Action, Simon has experienced a remarkable change. In a recent conversation, he opened up about the transformation he's experienced and the support that helped make it possible. 

"they talk about empowerment in Hope into Action. That's been very important for me because it's empowered me to go and live a normal life again or try to, which has been beneficial to me."

🎧 Listen to Simon’s Story

In the audio below, Simon shares more about his journey. We hope his story moves and inspires you as much as it did us.

Read the Transcript below

My name is Simon, I'm from Hope into Action at Beeston.

I've been in Hope into Action for a year, last January, so about 14 months now.

And what it's meant to me is actually,  it's just been inspirational to be part of Hope into Action and Trent Vineyard Church and to realize there is hope after spending years in addiction and coming out of rehab.

And you know, they talk about empowerment in Hope into Action. That's been very important for me because it's empowered me to go and live a normal life again or try to, which has been beneficial to me.

 I've been a Christian all my life. Just took a lot of wrong turnings over the past few years and it's helped me to get back on track again with my faith. And with God's help, I've become quite a big part already of Trent Vineyard Church.

In less than a year,  I host on the host team, I'm on the media team. I volunteer with the  Arches in the Attic. I've got a job, a paid job that I work on a Monday morning cleaning and restoring the auditorium ready for the week commencing - whether it be conferences or Alpha meetings or whatever.

I play bass guitar for Trent kids.

Yeah, I just feel well loved, well liked, well supported.

My empowerment worker has been amazing. Patricia, you know, we've spent hours upon hours chatting. It’s just helped me to find who I am again, really.

And then just last Christmas, I got a job with Nottingham Forest in the ticket office.

So that was good because then I could work in a secular environment again and still get support from them.

And the thing is that it fits in with everything else that I do. It's a casual job and I can fit it in with my church duties and my program and literally everything else that I've built up over the past year.

So life, at the moment, is starting to feel very normal again after being so confused -If you like - and cloudy over the past sort of few years.

Got a fantastic relationship with my two daughters. Not that it ever wasn't, but obviously with an addiction that was a bit of a problem. So I’ve got a fantastic relationship with those and I'm just really excited to see what this year is going to bring

Thank you very much!

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