Summer Art Series from Safe Pathways!

Hey Brooklyn kids and youth ages 10-24! Join the VNS Safe Pathways Summer Art Series! Each week, youth will engage in a different, fun, strength-based art activity, to improve their resiliency skills, while connecting with their peers. Oftentimes, the activities can double as coping skills youth can use in times of stress or crisis. The series is drop-in, meaning it isn’t mandatory to attend all 8 weeks. Youth can participate as desired! The art series is free for all and snacks, along with fun prizes, will be given out weekly!

Info: Youth will draw a self-portrait and fill the background with affirmations and fun facts about themselves, as a way to practice self-love, recognize strengths, and share more about themselves.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Youth will draw a wheel of different coping skills with visuals, as a representation of different activities they can try when stressed, in a crisis, etc.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Youth will draw a garden that represents what is growing in different aspects of their life. Youth will add six garden beds, that each represent community (cultivating connections), creativity (projects to plant), spirit (practices to grow), growth and self-care (nourishment), actions (steps to take for vision to bloom), and release (what to compost). Youth will be prompted to identify and draw or write what is already growing and what seeds they would like to plant in each area of the garden.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Youth will paint a visual of what they envision their safe space to look like. This will also serve as a representation they can reference when feeling stressed, to help ground them and connect them to a more positive space.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Youth will be guided in filling creating their own rainbow. Once they have completed coloring, they will be guided in a breathing meditation where they trace the shape of the rainbow, breathing in as they trace their finger up the shape and breathing out as they trace their way back down to the other side of the rainbow. Each color will represent a different concept, for example, red represents warmth and they will be prompted to feel the warmth of their own body and think of things that are warm. They will repeat this for each color. (See exercise here: https://www.theottoolbox.com/rainbow-breathing/)

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Youth will decorate paper like a postcard of what they hope their future will look like. On the back, they will write a letter from their future self, including words of encouragement, advice, and a description of what their life is like, based on how they hope it to be.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Facilitator will share visual representations of different emotions. Youth will then choose a familiar emotion and reflect on which colors and shapes would represent it. Youth will then paint the emotion they choose, as they see it.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Info: Youth will create and decorate paper mailboxes and then write small notes of encouragement or affirmations for each person in the group, as a way to say goodbye.

Info: Youth have the choice to leave their projects face up on the table for others to walk around and see what they've created. If they do not want to show their work, they can simply flip over the paper. There is never pressure to share!

Host or Publisher Safe Pathways