We enjoyed a wonderful bookfair today at the downtown Bellevue Barnes & Noble. If you missed it, there’s still a chance to participate!

Between now and July 1st, you can shop online at Barnes & Noble, who will generously donate a percentage of sales to underwrite our programs. Just go to http://bn.com/bookfairs and check the box indicating that this is a Bookfair Order (enter code: 10177269). Thanks for your help!

A special thanks to Your Giving Group Real Estate Team at Windermere Yarrow Bay for sponsoring this event.

We recently heard from Veronika Mihalj, a teacher and Art Therapist from Canberra, Australia. She wrote:

I wanted to let you know the work you do is an inspiration! I receive your newsletters and have followed what has been happening with Art with Heart for a couple of years now. It is so wonderful to connect with like minded people who believe in the power of Art and creativity.

When researching Art Therapy resources for my own practice, I came across your wonderful organization and ordered your ‘Chill & Spill’ journals. They have been an incredible tool to assist me in numerous places where I have facilitated Art Therapy Workshops.

Since graduating with a diploma in Art Therapy five years ago, I have had some interesting experiences using art as a healing and community-building tool – particularly during my time in the Philippines and working with Indigenous Australians.

This image (left) is from Blue Gum Community School in Canberra. Chill & Spill has inspired our daily relaxations and visualizations. The “Fly Away” activity especially has helped me understand the children’s home life and therefore some of the challenging behaviors that have been occurring.

The use of metaphor is so powerful, the children love expressing themselves in this way and we learn so much about them as human beings.

When I lived and worked in Manila as an art teacher at the International School a couple years ago, some fellow teachers and I started a volunteer project where we facilitated expressive art workshops for street children.

It was amazing to see the children go from being so unsure about even making a mark on a canvas to being so confident in taking risks with color and experimenting with different techniques. There self-esteem increased as well as the potential for breaking out of the poverty cycle they have been a part of. Many saying that they wanted to sell their artwork! The photos (right) were from a workshop inspired by Chill & Spill’s “My Place” visualization activity. So, yes…your work has spread to the other side of the world!

The last photo (left)  is myself with a group of students who participate in my weekly expressive art workshops for Bungee, a resilience-building program for young people at risk of mental health issues. Chill & Spill again has inspired many of my workshops.

Once rapport has been built with the help of Chill & Spill, I facilitate many collaborative activities where children create art together to foster the idea of community.  They use lots of recycled items to make sculptures –a mermaid made out of CD’s; a whale made out of woven plastic bags. etc.

I have promoted your resources to many teachers and Art Therapists here in Australia. I will be coming to Seattle in August and would love to visit the source of Chil & Spill’s inspiration!

“Your Giving Group” and Barnes & Nobel of Bellevue have chosen Art with Heart to be the beneficiary of their Book Fair on June 26th. We hope you and your children can join us for a festival of fun and author book signings!

WHERE/WHEN:
Saturday, June 26 at Barnes & Noble Downtown Bellevue, 626 106th Ave NE, Children’s Stage

SCHEDULE:

11:00 – Authors Steffanie and Richard Lorig read Such a Silly Baby

12:30 – Author Margaret Chodos Irvine reads Ella Sarah Gets Dressed

2:00 – Authors Steven & Carmela D’Amico read Ella the Elephant,

3:30 – Author Samantha Vamos reads Before You Were Here, Mi Amor

After the readings, each of the authors will be on hand to sign your books and each presentation will be followed by question and answers. You won’t want to miss it! Be sure to print out and BRING THIS VOUCHER with you so that a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the books go to benefit children in crisis through Art with Heart’s programs and books!

Working as the Arts and Healthcare Program Coordinator for the only hospital within city limits that delivers babies keeps Sarah Colby pretty busy. The Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Teen Pregnancy Center is one of only two clinics in the entire St. Louis metropolitan area that offers comprehensive programming to expecting teen mothers in education, developmental and medical care.

Colby has witnessed and been inspired by the impact of Art with Heart’s therapeutic journal Chill & Spill has had on teens, and in result is “ordering them like a lunatic” to ensure that she always has a backup supply. She attests that the unique journaling process aids in providing a transformational experience for pregnant teens; as they work through feelings of shame, articulate the journey they are on, and turn their fear into celebration.

In an environment where much of the daily interaction is about vital signs and questions like, “Did you take your vitamins?” or “How are you feeling today?” – books like Chill & Spill acknowledge the psychological dimension of the teens’ health and well-being and allow them to delve into their feelings.

The journal process is often a private one.  As Colby states, ”sometimes they share, sometimes they don’t”, but the acceptance and openness that the process fosters for young moms-to-be instill confidence and self-awareness that has proven to be invaluable.

One of the most positive effects that Colby has noticed since introducing the Art with Heart curriculum is the buy-in from her staff.   Chill & Spill has made tangible the positive impact of patient reflection to otherwise skeptical hospital employees.  ”If the staff doesn’t own it or engage with it,” says Sarah, “its not going to happen.” Yet, she has found that when effective resources such as Art with Heart’s therapeutic books are provided, “others will gather around it and give it life.”

So what’s the next arts-inspired project to be born out of the Teen Pregnancy Center? Belly casting is due out next year.

Art with Heart recently hosted a group of delegates from six different South Asian countries. Each of the delegates were leaders in their respective communities and played an important role in bringing the arts to life in various ways. Their visit was part of a 3-week U.S. tour to learn how American nonprofits utilize the arts as a means of instilling peace and resolving conflict with high-risk youth. The World Affairs Council selected AwH to be one of three nonprofits they would visit while in the Seattle area.

During our time with them, we had the opportunity to share how Art with Heart’s work was helping children cope with trauma and crisis – how our books had no boundaries and were helping children not just here in the states, but around the world in other English-speaking countries.

We were honored to be chosen and humbled by our guest’s excitement and enthusiasm for what we were doing. One of the artists, Proshanta Karmakar Buddha, from Bangladesh, left Doris and I with a parting thank you gift that we will both cherish…portraits for each of us! Many of Proshanta’s prints and paintings are inspired by the themes of liberation and explorations of peace within his country. We hope that Art with Heart can inspire many artists to utilize creativity for that very end.

Thank you to the World Affairs Council for allowing us this unique and important experience!

Photo by Cassie Redstone

Art with Heart is fortunate to have amazing supporters who think up unique and wonderful ways to help us meet our mission to help children in crisis. New bride Christine Godlewski Wadden and her husband Joseph were thrilled to donate to a cause that was so close to their hearts.

“Art With Heart teaches patience, encouragement and hope through creative mediums. Sometimes when you can’t find the words to express how you feel, a piece of paper, a paint brush or a journal can be very powerful tools. The organization has always resonated with me because it’s how I best express myself as well,” Christine told us.

Some couples would rather give than receive, and Christine and Joseph decided that a charitable donation to Art with Heart was a wedding gift that would last – one that would show compassion to a child in need.

We are so grateful that they chose this wonderful way to start off their life together.

We receive updates from Stacey Rozen, who has been using our Chill & Spill curriculum with young women in South Africa. This was an update from a February workshop she held:

On a recent Saturday, a small room in Soweto was filled with a wonderful creative spirit. A group of young women, all orphans between the ages of 13 and 18, enjoyed a Chill & Spill workshop themed ‘From Our Hearts to Yours.’ I adapt all of our activities to fit relevant issues related to their lives here in South Africa, as they hail from an area which suffers from poverty, unemployment, child-headed households resulting from the HIV/Aids pandemic, crime, and teen pregnancy. They all live with guardians or are in foster care.

I chose to form this group as I believe strongly in the ‘girl effect’ – if we can uplift and empower young women the entire community benefits. There is a great need for a safe space to communicate what’s going on in their lives and we do it by providing a place for creativity, peer support, and a sense of ‘belonging’. Five of the group members had already received Chill & Spill journals six months previously when the group first began. Our group, named Mekgabiso Ya Pelo (“Art with Heart” in SeSotho), has grown and now there are 20 of us!

During our Saturday session, the new group met, and there was a grateful exchange of energy as they each received a Chill & Spill journal and art materials gifted by Art with Heart. I very much enjoyed giving the gifts to them.

February is the month of love, and so we focused on the love and care that each young woman can give to herself. Our theme was a variation on the ‘Me, Myself & I’ activity in Chill & Spill. I believe our potential is expressed through the quality of our experiences, so we discussed self-awareness, being good to ourselves, and loving who we are. It is important for each young woman to feel seen, validated and indelibly connected to each other through a sense of abundance.

I hope that the presence of a caring adult provides a sense of safety from which these young women can set out to discover and grow. I am touching just a few, but I hope that my touch is a significant one. Thank you to Art with Heart for their encouragement and for reaching out to us in South Africa!

Art with Heart would also like to thank The Sammamish Club for making this possible!

We received this letter the other week from a sibling of a cancer patient. I love this…

I am 10 years old and wanted to let you know that I love this book [Magnificent Marvelous Me] and I can express my feelings in here.

Before I did this book, I felt lonely like there was no one around. After I did this book, I felt really happy and important. This book helped me learn that it’s okay to show the world who I really am.

If you’d like to help kids like Lisa, please consider donating today.

We received this letter from a parent in Austin, TX:

My name is Kelly, I have a 7 year old daughter. She is the most loving child, but struggles every day with crippling Perfectionism. She has social anxiety, she is self-defeating and feels she cannot and should not do much to avoid failure. Her biggest issue is feeling inadequate.

We have taken steps to help her change how she reacts to things and how she sees herself and the world around her.  She is a very intelligent child and has fought us every step of the way. For Christmas I thought this book would be a fun way for her to open up about her feelings and express herself in a new medium. She did not touch it until today.

We worked together on a few pages in Magnificent Marvelous Me tonight. When I asked her about herself and how that page made her feel, she yelled, “I am awesome!“.

After she said it, she stopped and looked at me and we both smiled and cried.  She said she did not mean to say that, but it felt great. I have NEVER heard her say that unless she is forced to.

I cannot tell you how great this was.  It is a small thing, but a giant step for us.

Thank you so much. Art has always been very important to me and this is a great way for my child to open up to herself and express emotion in a new way. She is finding herself and I cannot say thanks enough.

Thank you,
Kelly Clark

Celebrate those who help hospitalized children cope

In March we celebrate women’s history and basketball.  It is also Child Life Month – an opportunity to recognize and honor those who provide special services for hospitalized children suffering from health-related challenges.

Children aren’t equipped to cope with traumatic health challenges like adults. That’s where Child Life Specialists step in. Terminal illness, loss of a family member or other serious hospital events can cause kids to feel frightened or confused. Before there were Child Life Specialists, they often faced these situations – and their emotions – alone.  The sights, sounds and smells of a hospital or watching a sibling undergo a painful procedure can create severe stress for a child, but with the help of these certified professionals, kids can better understand and manage these experiences.

The Child Life Specialist is a true hero who helps ease the burden of a child’s trauma with targeted interventions and creative tools that allow kids to work through their anxiety and express their feelings.  Hospital preparation, creative play and therapeutic art workbooks (such as those created by Art with Heart) are some of the tactics they use to help children understand what’s happening around them, foster an environment of emotional support,  and help them cooperate with the medical services they need. Research shows that the services a Child Life Specialist provides can help children through the stress of trauma and pain, causing them to actually heal faster – both physically and emotionally.

A while back, my own son received special treatment from a Child Life Specialist before his ear surgery, and I found that he wasn’t the only beneficiary. Both my husband and I found our anxiety levels decreased exponentially as we watched her demonstrate what was going to happen during the surgery in child-friendly terms. While in the waiting room, he happily worked through his “Oodles of Doodles” (Art with Heart) book and by the time they wheeled him off, he was happy and content.

So this month as we’re honoring women’s history and watching basketball, let’s take a moment to recognize Child Life Month.  While we all hope to avoid the need for these services, it’s nice to know that truly heroic professionals are there for our most vulnerable if they ever do.

Steffanie Lorig
Executive Director, Art with Heart
www.artwithheart.org