What defines “at-risk youth”? @JKPBooks

… being in danger of negative future events.

From: Camilleri, V.A. (ed.) (2007) Healing the Inner City Child- Creative Arts Therapies with At-risk Youth, London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers [p. 17-20]

These events, or their outcomes, can include depression, educational failure, addiction, unemployment, incarceration, poverty, or death, and are a result of a complex and often correlated set of risk factors… With information about risk factors and their outcomes, counselors and educators can work to prevent children from being victim of their circumstances…

Healing the Inner City Child presents a diverse collection of creative arts therapies approaches to meeting the specific mental health needs of inner city children, who are disproportionately likely to experience violence, crime and family pressures and are at risk of depression and behavioural disorders as a result.

The contributors draw on their professional experience in school and community settings to describe a wide variety of suitable therapeutic interventions, including music, play and art therapy as well as psychodrama and dance/movement approaches, that enable children to deal with experiences of trauma, loss, abuse, and other risk factors that may affect their ability to reach their full academic and personal potentials. The contributors examine current research and psychoeducational trends and build a compelling case for the use of creative arts therapies with inner city populations.

A must-read for creative arts therapists, psychologists, social workers and educators, this book offers a comprehensive overview of arts-based interventions for anyone working to improve the lives of children growing up in inner city areas.

RECOMMENDED:

Art Therapy Alliance 

 

 

Growing emotional intelligence through community-based arts. #inspiration #arttherapy #youthartisans

I recently came back to a wonderful article:

Aguliar, J., Bedau, D., Anthony, C. (2009) Growing emotional intelligence through community-based arts. Reclaiming Children and Youth: Art and Action, Spring 2009 Vol. 18, No. 1 (p. 3-9)

I reread it, keeping in mind my next project- developing centres for youth artisans.  The youth I work with present with a variety of issues including social anxiety, behavioral challenges, learning disabilities, substance abuse and mental health. My mission is to provide the opportunity for a reparative and holding experience in a safe and creative space in which the youth can take advantage of the opportunity to make art, express self, and deal with unresolved conflicts and feelings, learn life skills and participate in sustainable enterprise. In order to provide a healthy and educational way for  my students to carry their arts and craft making into the future and to earn a small income, I am now including youth art in my ETSY shop.  My goal is to start a local pilot project: a youth centre where artisans make/sell crafts and continue the legacy by training future generations and opening centres of their own.

My notes when re-reading the article:

The natural environment of the centre would teach skills that allow:

• the development of self-respect

• the promotion of mutual respect

• the valuing of differences

• the increase of literacy (including computer literacy, web-site development, financial literacy)

• the appreciation of arts and crafts

• the fundamentals of emotional development and intelligence

The project will blend arts and crafts with human relations, academic developments, problem-solving, life-skills, and workplace training.

The centre will be a safe place for diverse youth to learn together and work towards independent, yet common, goals.  Behavior disorders, fetal alcohol syndrome, mental health issues and the like will be embraced and supported.  The skills taught are universal for a variety of ability levels.  The atmosphere would be free of censorship.

The system of training and production will be sustainable, replicable- “the training that keeps on training.”

Why youth?  Adolescence (even when challenged by high-risk factors due to family, community, health, foster care, education, behavioral, personality, trauma) offers an ideal context for an introduction to emotional competency.  Those who have few opportunities would be provided natural means to systematically  build skills around emotional intelligence.

Two areas of focus to promote SELF-EMPOWERMENT:

• cognitive development (future planning, problem solving, directing or redirecting attention, motivated and sustained persistence at challenging tasks)

• relationship development (regulations emotions, prosocial behavior, social competence, moral judgment, safe haven to make strong connections, empathy)

The youth artisans will follow their own inspirations and develop original designs, while maintaining a high level of standard as they gain international recognition through ETSY and other websites.

THE CREATION OF ART CAN FOSTER A SENSE OF BELONGING, SUCCESS AND CREATIVITY

 

Book recommendation: Nurturing Queer Youth- Family Therapy Transformed #wonderfulstuff. Available at @LittleSistersCA!

I was asked the BEST question today by a young student.  ”You know that place on Davies Street [Qmunity, Vancouver BC], could we go visit that sometime?”  OMG- YES!!!

In celebration of this wonderful step by this courageous student, I recommend the following book, which I found at one of my all-time favorite bookstores, LITTLE SISTERS BOOK AND ART EMPORIUM:

Nurturing Queer Youth- Family Therapy Transformed , by Linda Stone Fish, Rebecca G. Harvey.

• Hardcover
• March 2005
• ISBN 978-0-393-70455-6
• 6.4 × 9.6 in / 272 pages

Nurturing Queer Youth provides therapists and other mental health professionals with the insight and guidance to assist… families. By integrating complex ideas about sex, gender, and identity, Stone Fish and Harvey go beyond accepting queer youth, to appreciating the gift that queer youth have to offer, not despite their identity, but because of it. [source]

I find this book validates how I work in my art therapy room, as I try to provide a safe haven.

“Youth develop in environments that confirm them, contradict the beliefs and behaviors that are no longer useful, and continue their support in the process… Embedded in relationships, children learn that they belong and are confirmed…” [p. 17]

"For refuge to be created, therapists must also practice the art of witnessing."

Also recommended (and available at Little Sisters):

Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein

Recommended reading: “The Best I Can Be- living with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Effects” by Liz Kulp

Many individuals I have worked with in corrections and youth I work with now are affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.  For excellent resources, go to:

FASD creates huge challenges for individuals affected but they are highly creative people and I am blessed to have learned so much from their unique way of living in the world.

Frustration occurs when the individual is not able to learn from consequence.  How does it feel to have FASD?  How can we help?  I have a large personal library of FASD books, all amazing, but one in particular stands out.

I highly recommend the book THE BEST I CAN BE- living with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Effects by Liz Kulp,  a first hand account from a teen living with FASD and her adoptive mother.  Heartbreaking, heartwarming and invaluable:

FROM AuthorsDen.com:

2009 GOLD WINNER YOUNG AUTHOR – MOM’S CHOICE
Liz, age 13 and Jodee Kulp provide access into the mind of a child with Fetal Alcohol. The book is organized into about 30 brief chapters, each dealing with a particular topic or issue: school, puberty, rages, honesty, listening, and much more. Every two-page spread in the book weaves together an entry from Liz’s journal written in her own handwriting; a literary statement about the journal entry; a quote from another FASD mom, dad, young or adult child, health practitioner, or expert; and Jodee’s keen insights and experiences.(source)

Persons working with FASE individuals must try different, not harder. – Jodee Kulp

Art Therapy book quote of the day from “They Call Us Vandals” #Swedish #Graffiti

The book isn’t for those who hate graffiti but about those who paint and about their pieces (graffiti paintings).  For me it is an ode to graffiti, in which it is clearly made evident that graffiti writers are not the clichés so often created by the media. (from Foreword)

For an excellent article on graffiti therapy go to : LINK

“The Graffiti Art Therapy Research Project was designed as a model for demonstrating the therapeutic possibilities of working with adolescent graffiti offenders from within their own realm of interest.  The project explores the effects of using the medium of graffiti art and culture to give these kids an opportunity to develop their creative expressions in a socially acceptable venue.  Through this experience the participants have the opportunity to explore issues of identity and self in community by engaging in art directives, facilitated by an art therapist, which can offer reflective insight and instigate therapeutic change and maturation.  The art therapy groups are co-facilitated by a youth worker who was once an illegal graffiti artist as an adolescent and is now a law-abiding, positive role model. Thus, the young participants are able to connect with and be influenced by someone they can relate to and respect, as opposed to an adult professional who represents the institution of authority.”

Graffiti room at Keith Lynn in a previous form! Now several layers of paint later it looks COMPLETELY different!

Art Therapy Book Quote of the Day ‘Hello Cruel World’ by @katebornstein

Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein

Today could be the last day of your life.  Whether or not you’re thinking of killing yourself, you could die at any moment.

Still here?

Excellent!  That’s called staying alive.

Considering that these could very well be the last few moments of your life, why are you spenidng such precious time reading this book?

And just who am I, trying to creep inside your head and talk to you about staying alive?  You have every right to know more about me.  So, here’s me coming out to you: My name is Kate Bornstein, and I’m a transexual. (p. 21)

Art therapy and alternative secondary schools matter!

I consider the process of art therapy in an in-house alternative secondary school setting as a process of building a creative family. I found a gem of a book in the parenting section of Indigo a couple of months ago:

The Creative Family- How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections (simple projects and activities for you and your children) by Amanda Blake Soule (2008) Boston, Massachusetts: Trumpeter Books, Shambala Publications, Inc.

At the heart of every mindful and loving family lie the seeds of endless creativity.  With patience, support, and just a bit of guidance, that creativity can flourish and grow in beautiful ways… Fortunately we don’t have to “teach” our children to be creative- inherent in the very core of children’s beings is the embodiment of creativity… When we give our children the space and encouragement to explore their own creativity, they can become our most inspiring artists, our most inquisitive scientists, and our most original philosophers.

Our alternative school is a place for kids with all sorts of needs, issues and backgrounds to explore their creativity in a nurturing, flexible and accepting setting.  We are family.

Here are some thumbnails from Monday and Tuesday this week in AT:

Sock creation inspired by artist Gary Baseman *UPDATED FEB 27, 2011!

Hannah made this bat based on a small character in a painting by Gary Baseman. FANTASTIC!

WE LOVE GARY BASEMAN and are so inspired by his art!

Hannah’s bat is almost 100% sock- except for the foam teeth, pipecleaner wing reinforcement and some paint!  She did an incredible job!  For more on Hannah see: ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Some of you may recognize Baseman’s artwork from the board game: CRANIUM

But there’s so much more!!! Be sure to visit the following site: http://www.garybaseman.com/

We continuously use Baseman’s book DYING OF THIRST as a resource for images in art therapy.  Wonderfully appropriately inappropriate.  Here you will see the bat that inspired Hannah:

Kat is a proud owner of Baseman’s Limited Edition T-Shirt:

** UPDATE FEB 27, 2011:

The bat “Hicky” by Hannah is off to its new home!  Artist Gary Baseman HIMSELF will be the new owner!!!  AMAZING!  He is doing a trade with Hannah.

Quote of the day: I just heard that my book “Dying of Thirst” is constant resource in art therapy sessions for at-risk youth. I am honored. – Gary Baseman, Feb 27, 2011

Other Baseman inspired work by Hannah: