Our team of Creative Arts Specialists design programs specifically to meet the needs and personal interests of those being served:
- We facilitate healing and change in a safe and caring environment.
- We offer tools to “ARM” our clients as they learn life skills for both the easy and difficult days.
- We invite others to take ownership of their bodies and responsibility for their self-care and their well being
- We witness our clients having their own personal insights which is the crux of their recovery.
We began by looking at pictures of barren trees in winter and imagining the leaves that will come in the spring. The prompts were to write your source of strength and stability in the trunk, to write the beautiful little things from the present season in the branches, and to fill in the spaces between the branches with hopes and prayers. The women connected with the tree metaphor and enjoyed drawing and painting their trees. They wrote meaningful words and chose colors that expressed their hopes. To conclude, each woman shared her prayer tree, voicing what gives her strength, what beauty she experiences in her present, and what she hopes and prays for in her future.
An experience of doing movement enables one of the girls to feel strengthened in her body. She learns to have a voice, that she has choice and how to stand up for herself.
In her story book, one survivor uses different fabrics and a red pipe cleaner on one of the pages to depict the chaos, confusion, and pain of being sex trafficked.
A visit to the SF Museum of Modern Art makes for a pleasant day for the young women. They loved sharing their interpretations of different pieces of art. They dressed up, had coffee and snacks in the museum’s café and enjoyed a new experience. This was so fascinating for them that we went again just a few weeks later.
A day at the California Academy of Sciences exploring life under the water, life in the sky, and life on earth. The penguin exhibit was closed that day, but since have discovered the live penguin cam which they love watching.
A nature hike provides adventure and an awakening of the senses for the girls. They loved hearing the birds, feeling the wind, listening for times of quiet, seeing all the shades of green, feeling the leaves and finding patches of flowers and small streams of water they had never seen.
The girls explore ways to move their bodies to relax, restore and reenergize. They notice that simple movements can have impactful results. As they value taking care of their bodies, they learn to value themselves and as they value themselves it compels them to take care of their bodies
The girls explore ways to move their bodies to relax, restore and reenergize. They notice that simple movements can have impactful results. As they value taking care of their bodies, they learn to value themselves and as they value themselves it compels them to take care of their bodies
We are using scarves to express how we are feeling. Bored, tired, energetic, hesitant. Having something that is easy to move allows more ease for the body to move.
Writing and poetry are known to help communicate what may be difficult to speak with your voice, so the pen and paper become the voice. It is proven that writing down your emotions and all that is on your mind can help you release difficulty and pain as well as build your immune system!
Music and playing instruments become ways to balance out your body’s rhythm. Creating a beat, making a sound, feeling the vibration from the instrument through your body, listening to the sound you initiate can all be ways you give voice to what is happening inside.
