Today is the day!

Today is the day that you can start helping refugees process their ROOTS through art-making experiences towards ROUTES full of hope and resiliency.  

Today marks the first day of BuildaBridge's Roots to Routes - a month long campaign to raise funding for the Refugee Project.  Since August 2011, BuildaBridge has served nearly 100 refugees through art therapy and therapeutic art-making groups as part of the Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative (PRMHC).  In that time, we have helped individuals blossom in their creative expression, helped facilitate an increase in group cohesion within specific ethnic groups, and joined a new collaborative, the Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience, through which BuildaBridge served an additional 50 participants.  Originally funded by the Department of Behavioral Health and DisAbility Services, BuildaBridge and the PRMHC's member partners have secured additional funding to sustain the project until the end of Year 3 (June 30, 2014).  Funding from Roots to Routes will allow BuildaBridge and both collaboratives to continue to serve another 100 refugees through art-making experiences.

What will the funds support?

• The opportunity for nearly 150 refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers to attend art therapy and therapeutic art-making groups in the community context in order to process their traumas and find hope, healing and resiliency. *
• Seven paid personnel including five art therapists, the project manager and the supervising psychologist
• Quality art supplies used in the four art therapy groups
• Space - the locations where groups are held require rent
• Reporting and assessment - art therapists complete attendance and an online assessment for each group which require monthly fees
• Start-up funds for groups with a newly arrived refugee population
• Administration of the project

*Children and clients of BuildaBridge's art therapy groups attend these at no cost to them. 

How can you help?

• Donate now online - designation:  Roots to Routes
• Write a check and mail to:  BuildaBridge International, 205 W. Tulpehocken St, Philadelphia, PA 19144   Memo section:  Roots to Routes
• Ask your friends and family to donate

What if you can't make a donation?
Spread the word!  Use your social media platforms and email to share information about the campaign. Every day, BuildaBridge will post a new piece of information about the project on the blog.  Copy and paste this text with the provided links to your platforms.

How else can you get involved?
Volunteer with us!  BuildaBridge engages creative people and the transformative power of the arts to bring hope and healing to children, families, and communities in the contexts of crisis and poverty.


Will you join us in helping refugees find new routes towards hope, healing and resiliency?