Inspiration.
Since I was dealing with children from broken homes, suffering from abuse of various types, (e.g. verbal, physical, and sexual; and neglect) I planned to develop the themes appropriate to their reality.
Some of the factors that impact these families are drug and alcohol related incidents, violence and loss of parents and/or siblings. Many emotions are unattended; to name just a few, they suffer from: fear, anxiety, sadness, confusion, loneliness, and insecurity so I decided to explore ‘the roles we play’ which would cover these themes in an unobtrusive manner.
Some of the factors that impact these families are drug and alcohol related incidents, violence and loss of parents and/or siblings. Many emotions are unattended; to name just a few, they suffer from: fear, anxiety, sadness, confusion, loneliness, and insecurity so I decided to explore ‘the roles we play’ which would cover these themes in an unobtrusive manner.
As this was my first interaction with this group of children my aim was to get to know their artistic capabilities and their needs. They ranged in age developmentally so I tried to establish common ground and trust. I was given 7 weeks to facilitate these art workshops thus I decided not to address any of these issues directly but rather to pave the way for work in the future; work that would explore issues at a deeper and more personal level.
The purpose of the first session was for introductions, helping me get to know them better, while the last session was a way of saying good bye. And in termination, to create expectancy of what good care is; how they can look out for care and ask for it in the future.
Here is a table of my weekly plan:
Theme | Explanation | Activity |
'who I am?' | exploring their cultural context | puppets |
'my feelings' | exploring feelings, feeling words and feeling colours | masks |
'the home or space where I feel safe' | exploring which spaces or places feel safe and who would they like to have close to them in these places | a fantasy tree house |
finding common ground in the group | a creative exercise that availed upon their similar dexterity so as to even out any feelings of performance anxiety or competition. | egg box animals |
'who is my family?' | they drew their family members with whom they lived, using the idea of a family tree or genogram | 'family tree’ |
'my fears' | making monsters, dinosaurs or fantacy animals | scary animals |
'the umbrella of love' | parents , teachers and other adults who are caring or look out for them | umbrellas |
Next time I will show you the children’s art with a short explanation of the materials and how they made their creations.
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