Hope Zine

Hope zine

Hello!

Thank you for picking up our Hope Zine.

Hope is a brand new story about the importance of being kind to yourself and letting go of your worries.

It was made with young people at Anstee Bridge who are finishing their school careers. They wanted to make it for you to pass on all the things they’ve learnt about being kind to yourself.

Anstee Bridge is a programme for young people in secondary school.

Here at Anstee Bridge, we spend a lot of time thinking about kindness. Our students learn to share their worries and think about ways to be kind to themselves and others.

We think it is really important to talk if you are worried. All of our staff are really good listeners!

One of the other things we do

at Anstee Bridge is think about the people in our community.

So, alongside our new book, we are hosting a fundraiser to say thank you to all the staff at Kingston Hospital for everything they have done for our community this year. You can also create a message of Hope and send it to us to share with hospital staff.

We would love you to join in!

Using this zine, you can colour in your own version of Hope using templates made by our students. Then go to the last page and make a collage!

Have fun!

All the staff and students at Anstee Bridge You can find out more about Anstee Bridge here: https://ansteebridge.co.uk

Hope a story

You can read the story with pictures online: https://issuu.com/bouncetheatre/docs/hope Or read it without pictures here: Everywhere Hope went, the rain came. It turned the world around her grey until she felt like she had turned grey too.

One day on the way home from school, there was so much rain, she couldn’t see where she was going.

The sight of the road home began to disappear from her eyes and Hope was swept up in the water.

Whooossshhhiinnngggg past everything she had ever known.

Until she found herself all alone.

She was falling through the ocean.

Suddenly, the waves split.

Two giant hands were holding her.

The giant hands were followed by two giant eyes, that were staring back at her.

Hope thought her heart would burst in fright. These han ds could squish her right up.

“Help,” was all she could manage to whisper.

Carefully, the hands shook her dry.

“You didn’t eat me.”

“SSSSSSsssshhhhhhhhh.”

Hope curled up in the giant hands, trying not to quiver in fright. They carried her so gently over the water, taming the wild waves until the grey dissolved into a clear, blue sea.

Blinking into the light, Hope could see colour again. Day turned to night and she fell asleep on the waves.

When Hope woke up, she found she was floating in a shell with a blanket of seaweed keeping her warm. She was all alone on the sea.

She noticed a bag beside her.

It was full of her favourite foods.

She began to eat and eat and the more she ate, the quieter the

strange noises were. With food and sleep, Hope began to feel calm.

“I should be able to colour but I’m not very good,” whispered Hope.

“How do I get out of here?”, she wondered. All of a sudden, her shell bumped into a rock.

The crab held up a pencil in one claw. His other claw was snapping clickety-clack with the excitement.

She decided having a go was better than a nipped bottom.

“Oi!” shouted a crab. He seemed too tiny to have such a loud voice: “I’m sorry,” said Hope.

She climbed up onto the rock to check the crab was ok.

The crab nodded to his rock. He had been painting it beautiful colours. When the shell hit the rock, it turned the painting into a blob.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined your rock.”

“Calm down, you haven’t,” replied the crab.

With a few quick strokes from the brush in his claw, the blob became a pot of gold with butterflies and flowers spilling out.

“Wow! That’s beautiful.”

“Thank you. You know, I like it more than my original plan. Everything happens for a reason.”

They stared at it for a while.

“Colour the flowers in,” snapped the crab.

Hope was a little nervous. Then she felt the warm sun on her face, the sound of the calm waves. She breathed in deeply and began to colour.

“It’s beautiful!”

Hope looked down in surprise. It really was beautiful.

“Stop should-ing yourself. You are perfect just as you are,” said the crab.

Hope began to cry.

“I just don’t feel perfect. I’m lost and alone.”

The crab snapped his pincers, clickety-clack, for her to sit down.

Hope sat down on the rock, next to the crab. They stared out across the water.

“How does it feel to be lost?” asked the crab.

Hope paused. She was a little afraid to answer. No one had ever asked her before.

“It’s grey,” she whispered, “everything is grey and sometimes I don’t know which way to go.”

They stared out to the water again.

“What do you see?” asked the crab again. Hope looked out.

She noted the warm yellow sun, the silvery threads woven in the rock, and the rainbow fish swimming under the waters.

“Colours” she said.

“Then you are no longer lost.”

“I don’t know how to get home.”

“Write down your worries,” said the crab. Hope did as the crab asked.

“Now put them down. Sometimes our worries take over and we can’t see the way forward.”

With that the crab gave her a cuddle, passed her his crayons, and dived into the water.

Hope called after him, “Can’t you come with me?”

“You don’t need me, Hope. You are full of magic!”

“Wait. What? How did you know my name?!”

As she sat on the rock, she realised she was so used to worrying,

she had forgotten to think about anything else.

She pulled out a crayon and started a little list of all the things she was full of. It was full of things people told her, nice things that she had done, things she was proud of.

When she looked at it, she felt a warm glow in her heart. The waves parted and the giant eyes were staring back at her.

“Ready?”

“Yes.” “Let’s go.”

She hopped into his hands, set down her bag, and they set sail.

Hope realised she’d brought her worries with her. As she looked down at them, she realised it was now or never. She began to drop her worries into the water.

As she let them go, the waves calmed, and the water became clearer. The hands stopped.

“You can take it from here.”

And she did. One step at a time.

Be Proud of Yourself “Start writing down your thoughts every day. Just spending five minutes thinking about your feelings can help you stay well. It is a nice way to stay kind to yourself.”

- Anstee Bridge Student

Make a list of 5 things you are brilliant at: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Feel free to add more!

You could even ask your friends or family to add to the list. Don’t be shy!

Look at all the things on your list that are brilliant about you.

Now we are going to make an affirmation. Your job is to write a really positive sentence about yourself to remind yourself that you are brilliant.

Good affirmations start with things like “I am ….”

“I have….”

“I can….”

Some examples could be • I am brave.

• I can make people feel they have a good friend.

• I have the power to do my very best.

What would yours be?

Write it here:

Now practice saying it every day! If you feel worried or unsure about anything, try saying your affirmation.

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Colouring Instructions for colouring in Welcome to the characters who live in the sea in our story! Each carries kindness in their hearts. They want to help Hope find her way home.

Can you colour them in?

Be like Hope REST

EAT WELL

One of the things Hope learns in the story is the importance of good rest. When she has had a sleep and something to eat, she feels better.

When Hope had some food, she found it helped calm her stomach.

How does sleep make you feel?

What can you do to help yourself fall asleep?

Try our breathing game!

Get into bed and get really cosy.

Pretend you are smelling your favourite food. Mine would be freshly baked cake.

Now, breathe in for three seconds to smell the cake. Then breathe out for three seconds.

Repeat.

Watch your tummy move up and down when you are counting. You could even put a teddy on your tummy while you do it.

Now, try and do this again – but this time try and breathe in and out for five seconds.

How many seconds can you do this for?

Think about how it makes you feel.

Does it help clear your mind? Could it help you get ready for sleep?

Draw some of the foods that help you feel calm here:

Share your worries SHARE YOUR WORRIES Worrying is something we all do.

We might worry about little things like running out of chocolate or big things like our friendships. Worrying is ok – but if your worries ever overtake you, like they did Hope, it is really important to share them.

“Try writing your worries down.

Don’t be embarrassed. We are all going through this together.”

- Anstee Bridge Student Did you know writing down your worries is good for you? It can help you organise your thoughts. You can use this zine to make space for writing down your worries.

“If you find it hard to express yourself through writing, you might want to try drawing and sketching it can really help.”

- Anstee Bridge Student Can you think of any other ways you can share your worries?

Helping others with their worries If someone tells you they are worried, it’s really important to be a good listener. Remember, you have to be kind to yourself too – so don’t promise to keep someone else’s worries a secret.

Here are some things you could say: • It’s ok to worry.

• We all get worried sometimes.

• Sometimes I worry about things too.

You can always tell a grown-up if you need help with your worries.

Which grown-ups can you turn to if you are worried?

Think about others At Anstee Bridge, we believe it is important to think about other people in our community. It helps us feel better if we are looking out for others. We also feel like we belong when we find other people who think like we do.

This year, we’ve been thinking a lot about keyworkers and the NHS. We’d like to invite you to join us in raising money for our local hospital.

About Kingston Hospital Kingston Hospital is a district general hospital supporting around 350,000 people in Kingston, Richmond, Elmbridge (Surrey), Merton, Wandsworth, and Sutton.

The hospital employs around 3,200 staff supported by 300 staff employed

by ISS and 350 volunteers.

Over the last year, all of these people have been working so hard to look after our community.

With your help, we would like to make a donation from all of the children and young people across Kingston to say thank you. This will be used to support staff wellbeing so they have a chance to be kind to themselves, in the same we encourage our young people to.

How to make your donation: With your school: If your school are getting involved in our colouring project, please listen to your teachers about how they’d like to make a donation.

If you are doing this independently, we’d be really pleased if you’d donate to our Just Giving. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ansteebridgehope You can find out more about the Kingston Hospital Charity here: https://www.khc.org.uk

Dream Believe Achieve Make a collage (Once you’ve coloured in the characters)

Cut out the characters, then glue them to the sea painting overleaf.

Now you have your own sea of kindness!