As part of You Matter’s 180th year, we invited the people we work alongside, as well as staff and teams across services, to contribute towards a poetry collection about what You Matter means to them.

There was no expectation around style or writing experience. People were asked to write honestly about their lives, recovery, memories or experiences of support, and what followed was a collection of poems that felt personal, emotional, funny and, at times, difficult to read without becoming emotional.

The winning poem from the collection, I Walked In Tired by Paul, included the lines:

“I walked in tired, worn and low,
With heavy things I didn’t show.
You gave me time, a place to stay,
And hope that grew a little each day.”

Reading through the collection, it became obvious how many people remembered the quieter parts of being supported, conversations in kitchens, cups of tea, staff remembering names or somebody asking how they were and meaning it.

One contributor described trust being built “cup of tea by cup of tea”, while another wrote about arriving while “carrying everything I couldn’t fix” before gradually beginning to rebuild.

Several of the poems describe what it feels like to spend years feeling unheard, judged or defined by the most difficult parts of life. Others wrote about the difference it made to be treated as a person first, rather than being seen through the lens of homelessness, addiction, trauma or poor mental health.

One poem includes the lines:

“Not as a problem.
Not as a past.
But as a person still becoming.”

Another contributor writes:

“You Matter, even me.”

For many people involved, the collection became an opportunity to put experiences into words that are not always easy to talk about in everyday conversation. Alongside difficult realities, the poems also include humour, kindness, relationships and people continuing to show up for one another over time.

Paul’s poem finishes with the lines:

“You reminded me, in all this chatter,
Simply and softly… You Matter.”

While created as part of You Matter’s 180 year anniversary, the collection also says a lot about who we are today and the relationships that sit at the centre of our work.