Your help is needed to help high-risk foster care youth in Texas.

Art with Heart received a request from Jorge Sanchez, MSW Clinician at Southwest Key Programs, a nonprofit in Austin, TX that helps youth by providing a stable and positive environment to turn young lives around. Because of their work, thousands of youth have been diverted from prisons, jails, and institutions, enabling them to stay at home with their families and out of trouble.

Their new Community Connections Program serves bilingual (Spanish) youth who were recently released from a detention facility.

Formerly a social worker with Casey Family Programs, Sanchez received Chill & Spill training last year. Says Sanchez, “I found the books to be very effective in getting foster youth to express themselves.” He continues, “I plan to run a Chill & Spill workshop at our center every Wednesday at 6pm. Many of these youth are gifted at drawing and writing, but just don’t have the words to express themselves.”

The only catch is that he doesn’t have the budget to be able to afford to bring the program to the kids. Would you be willing to sponsor 24 books? If so, please go to http://artwithheartshop.org to purchase the books on his behalf and have them sent to: Jorge A. Sanchez, SW Key, Community Connections Programs, 3017 S. 10th Street, McAllen, TX  78503.

Chill & Spill Report to the Community Luncheon

The year-long evaluation study conducted by MEM Consultants reveals the strength of the Chill & Spill program in establishing meaningful connections with troubled adolescents and youth. Learn about the effectiveness of the Chill & Spill Program with evaluation study partners such as Casey Family Programs, Friends of Youth, and YMCA of Greater Seattle Youth Adult Services. This is a must-attend session for anyone working with hard-to-reach children, ages 11 and above.

When: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Cost: $15 per person, includes lunch and a copy of the Chill & Spill Evaluation Report

Who Needs to Attend: Youth-serving nonprofit organizations, school counselors, social workers, therapists, and others working with youth in crisis

For more information and to register, click HERE.

“The best thing about Chill & Spill is that it lets me write what’s flying around in my head so I can see it more clearly.” ~ Teen in  C&S Workshop

“Chill & Spill helped me through a lot of stuff. It wasn’t just an ordinary journal where you just write your feelings down. Instead of just writing stuff down and reading it over, it actually had some stuff to tell you after what you told it.” ~ Kayla, Age 18

Through your generous contribution, Art with Heart will have the power to help teens dealing with physical, sexual or emotional neglect, abuse or violence. Unresolved trauma and grief can show up as behavioral issues both at home and at school and can adversely affect relationships.

A gift of $150 sends a package of Chill & Spill books plus art supplies to local teens experiencing crisis, to ease and unravel the uncertainty of the chaos in their lives. Through your donation of “Chill & Spill,”  you will create a safe place where these teens can share their understanding of their past life experiences and work through their feelings of pain and loss in a positive and constructive manner.

Visit Art with Heart’s website today to make your contribution!

Ann Field, Illustration Chair of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California, and Mark Todd, the cover artist for “Chill & Spill” and Art Center instructor, wanted to find a way to introduce the work of Art with Heart to their students.

After several conversations, Mark introduced an book project to his illustration class, asking them to create a personal book inspired by activities from “Chill & Spill” guided journal. Over the next seven weeks, the class will meet once a week and go over their ideas one-on-one, as well as in the group. At the end of the semester, they will have created a collective book that Art with Heart can use to help engage other youth.

We are excited to see how it turns out! In the meantime, the students will learn more about the power of creativity to heal.

Word from Africa continues and now, we have some photos that we can share with you.

As a reminder, this is a group of 10 young women from Soweto who are utilizing Chill & Spill as supportive curriculum to the group’s theme of gender equity, girls’ empowerment, and encouragement of leadership skills through creativity.

The leader, Stacey, recently visited Letsema Care Centre, a place that cares for 100 orphans.  She was inundated with requests by more young girls asking if they could join her group. So, she is continuing the group process with as many orphan girls as she can before she runs out of Chill & Spill books.

She writes, “Two girls have already written on every page in their Chill & Spill journal and stuck photos of their moms that had passed away. The writing revealed their process of mourning and coming to terms with their loss.”

Donations are needed to help us send more Chill & Spill books to her so she can continue this important work with girls affected by overwhelming poverty, child-headed households resulting from the HIV/Aids pandemic, crime, and teen pregnancy. Along with the books, we also want to include a care package of art supplies that the orphans can use, as they don’t even have ballpoint pens(!).

$150 will sponsor a package for five orphans (this includes postage to South Africa, which is quite costly). Donate today and write “South African Orphans” in the memo.

We recently received a request this morning from a mental health counselor at a local shelter for a donation of Chill & Spill books for Hispanic teens. With your help, we can send her enough books to help 50 boys.

“I work with boys ages 12-17 who have been detained by immigration and have had many struggles throughout their lives. I have been using Chill & Spill with them and have been translating it on my own into Spanish since our boys are Spanish speaking and we absolutely love it.

“Would it be at all possible to get some books donated to our program? It would be amazing for them to actually get their own book since – as of now – what I’ve been doing is typing up the activities and gluing them into their composition notebook.”

If you would like to help out, please donate today and put “C&S for Hispanic Teens” in the memo. We would need to raise $1,000 to help them. Thank you!

I had an amazing meeting with a social worker the other day who has been using Chill & Spill with her clients. She shared this story:

“Chill & Spill is a clinician’s dream come true. It has helped me connect with my teens in amazing ways. For instance, before meeting a new gal, ‘Heather’, her therapist told me that she had been trying for two years to get her to open up, but to no avail. I thought immediately of Chill & Spill and started using it with her right away. Right away, she connected to it. As we worked through the book, Heather began to trust the process and a ton of stuff came ’spilling’ out as she kept exploring Chill & Spill. We discovered that she really needed to reconnect with her older sister and so I was able to facilitate that. You could see as she continued to work through the book, that many burdens she had been carrying around with her had been lifted. It’s been truly amazing to see how she has blossomed. Maybe we would have eventually gotten there on our own, but I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get there as quick as we were able to because of Chill & Spill. She was able to connect with her self and figure out what she needed.”

I continue to get updates from the group in Johannesburg, South Africa and am excited to share them with you.

For those who didn’t get the newsletter, the background on this is that a few weeks ago, a group of 10 women (ranging in age from 15 to 21) from Soweto, a township near Johannesburg, met for their first Chill & Spill group. Stacey, their leader, is a graphic-designer-turned-expressive-arts educator. The group is structured so that the older women help mentor the younger ones as they work through the themes of the book. Stacey chose to use Chill & Spill because it supports her group’s theme of gender equity, girls’ empowerment, and encourages leadership skills through creativity. She knows how these young women’s lives can be transformed through strong decision-making skills, peer support and self-confidence. This is especially important because they hail from an area which suffers from overwhelming poverty, high unemployment, child-headed households resulting from the HIV/Aids pandemic, crime, and teen pregnancy.

The first time the group met, Stacey, the leader, told me that at the end, “My heart ached when a few said that they won’t write in their journals till next workshop. When I asked why, they said they didn’t have any pens – so I gave them mine.” Since then, she was able to get some supplies donated. She writes:

This Saturday’s workshop began with a feedback session. Most of the girls said that they had written in their Chill & Spill journals regularly since the first workshop – one told me that she had been through the entire journal already!  She said that she couldn’t believe how she had enjoyed writing because she actually dislikes writing at school.

There was much excitement when I handed out markers and glue sticks that had been generously donated for them to take home!

Each participant answered the Exclusive Interview questions in Chill & Spill individually.  Then the exercise was translated into a group interview to encourage dialogue. Some concerns that were brought up included poverty, health, the challenges surrounding daily life such as public transportation, and they all shared a desire to learn and improve themselves. The young women did not have to share anything with the group that they didn’t feel comfortable with.

Then, we explored magazine collage, cutting out words that have meaning. The participants created thought and speech bubbles symbolic of their Exclusive Interview, creatively expressing their inner voices.

I wish I could share the photos, but I am awaiting permission. Believe me, they are wonderful to see!

Chill & Spill "Bridges" activity

As a student, Kelsey Field took Chill & Spill to Chile several years ago when she worked at a refuge for pregnant teens. In Guatemala, when a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock, they are put out in the streets. This refuge was created to take them in, care for them and teach them skills so they can make it on their own.

Now Kelsey is in Guatemala, working with approximately 500 students. She assigns “Chill & Spill” activities as as homework. As a result, some of her students have begun trusting and opening up to her.

Says Kelsey, “They are sharing their stories with me, and more importantly their dreams for the future. A lot of times here the students just don’t have hopes for the future, because the poverty where we are is overwhelming. I feel like, for the first time, because of the Chill & Spill book, they are thinking outside of just getting married, having kids and farming…”

In this blog post are some of the student’s artwork that Kelsey shared with us (NOTE: all of my translations are very rough…if anyone can translate better, please let me know!).

Another student's "Bridges" interpretation

The student’s artwork, right middle, was inspired by the “Bridges” activity. On the left side of the page, she writes, “It is difficult to start living spontaneously because there are problems to overcoming problems.” In the stream below the bridge, the student lists difficulties such as “the lack of financial resources, school work, hard sacrifices, and huge bad friendships and other bad people – negative things that I continue to explore.” On the right side of the page, near the victorious figure, she writes, “When I arrive at the finish line, I am strong, the most majestic and friendly. Here is where the happiness is the fruit of our efforts.”

Another piece she shared with us is also from the “Bridges” activity. On the bridge itself, the student writes, “We must strive to achieve what we want.” Under the bridge, in the turbulent water, she writes about things she is trying to overcome, such as Discrimination, Poverty, Work, Bad Habits, Problems. On the left side of the bridge (where she wants to get t0), the student repeats the thought that she must work hard to get to where she wants to be, but adds, “Nevertheless, there are things that happen, difficulties we must face,” and “to reach a goal is to achieve a great dream.” The last illustration depicts the students life goals, which include “tener buenos amigos” (To have good friends), “tener fé” (to have faith),  “No mas pobresa” (to not to be poor anymore), “no mas delincuencia” (to not be in trouble anymore)…

Therapist Annie McCall and I conducted an intensive Chill & Spill training for staff at Sound Mental Health in Auburn for two days, with 24 therapists in attendance! This training was different than any we had done before, as we had additional time to get more in-depth.

Annie went over each page, diving into those that would have the deepest and most meaningful impact for the youth they served, focusing mostly on foster care youth.

Cigar boxes became the base for three different artistic expression activities: “Powerful/Powerless,” “I Really, Really Feel” and “My Place” from Chill & Spill. The front of the box was collaged by things that made them feel Powerful – the back contained images of things that made them feel Powerless. The inside front cover held a letter they wrote to themselves inspired by the prompts in “I Really, Really Feel,” to be opened at a later milestone date (such as a birthday). The inside became a found object collage that represented their safe place.

One of the therapists told us, “This was by far the best workshop I’ve attended in helping to provide for youth!”

Casey Family Programs sponsored this training and the result will be a Chill & Spill outreach group for foster care teens and ‘tweens in the Auburn area over the next year.