Telling their story through art

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Bhutanese elders are telling their story through art.  Using a variety of art mediums, including painting as shown in these photos, the elders are working towards the creation of two permanent pieces that will communicate their journey and message to the next generation.  As part of BuildaBridge's contracted partnership with Nationalities Services Center for the Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience, BuildaBridge artists provide twice monthly art classes for the elders in South Philadelphia. 

Making connections through a Hopeful City

      The Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience (PPR) has been pleased to partner with BuildaBridge International since July 2013 in the provision of therapeutic arts groups for immigrant and refugee survivors of torture for the past year.  Through this partnership, we have been able to utilize the healing power of the arts to serve new Americans migrating from Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and others.

       Many of our clients arrive in Philadelphia without family or friends in the region.  They balance the demands of learning English, searching for and starting their first jobs in the United States, attending to medical needs, acculturating, and raising children.  Many of them are struggling with the emotional impact of their torture and trauma history, and the grief and loss associated with forced migration and fleeing persecution.  Torture survivors may experience isolation stemming from feeling as though others cannot understand the experiences they survived, a decreased sense of safety and trust in their environment, or depression.    Others are eager to begin forming new relationships, but as newcomers don’t know where to begin meeting people or how to start engagement with their new community.  PPR’s partnership with BuildaBridge International has allowed us to open doors for immigrant survivors of torture to begin developing meaningful, lasting, and healthy relationships with others and their broader community.

The impact of BuildaBridge International’s interventions was clearly evident on a recent trip taken by PPR’s Women’s Group to view the “Defining a Hopeful City through Art” exhibit at City Hall.  A.R. and S.D. stand beside the amazing artwork of another PPR client (image above), depicting the joining of Iraqi and American cultures and on display as part of this fantastic exhibit. During our trip, A.R. and S.D. discussed their visions of a hopeful Philadelphia and the importance of bridging cultural divides as they build new lives here.  A.R. and S.D. had attended some of the same events, but had never really had an opportunity to connect.  This exhibit, and the fundamental question posed of what defines a hopeful city and subsequently what their own hopes were, allowed A.R. and S.D. to share and laugh with each other.  

     We were made profoundly aware of the impact BuildaBridge’s interventions have had in the lives of PPR participants when a former client who had relocated to another city made outreach to his PPR case manager when he was visiting Philadelphia.  He had called to inquire if there were BuildaBridge groups on the weekend of his visit, and if he could attend.  He shared that he wanted to come back because PPR and BuildaBridge were like family, and while he liked his life in his new city, it was important for him to reconnect with his family while he was in Philadelphia.

When talking about services available to survivors of torture and war related trauma, it is all too easy to focus solely on the traumatic event.  BuildaBridge and PPR’s partnership helps to shift the dialogue to highlight the resilience so prevalent in the survivors we work with.  Through BuildaBridge, we are able to able to observe the process of recovery and healing as it happens – phone numbers exchanged between clients as new friendships are formed, parents and children dancing together, smiles that are widely given upon greeting, and people returning week after week to share in the art-making experience together.  We see a community of support and resilience develop, nurtured by the therapeutic arts.  

--Kerenza Reid, Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience, Project Coordinator 
Nationalities Services Center

Save the Date!  Saturday, November 8th - BuildaBridge's 2nd annual signature event - The Hopeful City  

Creating Healthy Boundaries

Over the course of one's lifetime, the boundaries of one's home, work and social environments will shift based on the choices one makes personally and professionally. 

 

For a refugee, personal, professional and social boundaries are often out of their control. 

• A refugee may not be able to decide on the country into which they flee.
• Though a refugee may hold an advanced degree in their country of origin, they may not be able to pursue a career in that sector because of the language barrier
• Upon arrival, the location of their new home is often determined by the refugee resettlement agency handling their case.
• A refugee often experiences the loss of social networks, anxiety regarding the uncertainty of finding new connections and the fear of isolation in the new country.

How does BuildaBridge programming seek to combat these at-risk factors and build protective factors among incoming refugee populations?
 

By providing culturally specific art therapy and therapeutic art-making groups in the community context for homogeneous and mixed refugee population groups.  These programs help refugees identify adjustment strategies based on the strengths of their communities in promoting success, strength, recovery and resiliency in a new culture.

Since 2011, BuildaBridge has provided such art groups to over 170 refugees from four countries, assisting them through the arts in acculturating to their new environment and developing healthy boundaries for their personal and professional lives.

Since June 2014, BuildaBridge has served 61 new refugees participating in five different art groups.  BuildaBridge artists, through art-making experiences that focus on academic, social, artistic and character development skills, assist refugees in re-building and creating healthy boundaries in their new environment.

Summer attendance June 2014 to present:
Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience women and children’s group:  15
Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience mixed adults:  6
Congolese refugees:  8
Bhutanese refugee elders:  15
REAP (Refugee Employment and Advancement Program):  17

Investing in Transformation

To invest:  to give or devote time, talent or finances for a purpose or to achieve something
To transform:  to change in condition, appearance or character

BuildaBridge's mission is to engage creative people and the transformative power of art making to bring hope and healing to children, families, and communities in the contexts of crisis and poverty. 

BuildaBridge envisions a world where all children are resilient, experience self-efficacy, and have a vision for their future. BuildaBridge dedicates its resources to building the capacity of creative adults and local communities to fulfill this vision.


For the second year in a row, The Sheila Fortune Foundation and the Union Benevolent Association have both invested in the transformation that has been occurring in the lives of the refugees BuildaBridge serves through the Refugee Project. Since April of 2013, the Refugee Project has served 110 refugees, 91 of whom were children.  Each child attending BuildaBridge groups learns key life lessons through art as metaphor, in addition to academic, artistic, social and character development skills.  Refugee children are also developing their identity in this new culture through art-making experiences that encourage:  1) the exploration of individual creative expression; 2) collaborative art-making, sharing of cultures and dialogue; 3) the child to love and accept themselves; 4) the affirmation of the culture from which they came and the future they envision for themselves; and 5) the ability to express themselves through art without the use of words.  Both the Bhutanese and Burmese refugee children's groups explored the life cycle of butterflies this year as a metaphor for transformation.  The caterpillar to the cocoon, chrysalis to the butterfly, and the flight of the butterfly...one of the most vivid and clear illustrations of transformation for children to understand and apply to their own lives.

BuildaBridge wishes to recognize and thank the following for investing in the transformation of the lives of the refugees we serve for a fourth year:

The Sheila Fortune Foundation - $3,500 grant
Union Benevolent Association - $2,000 grant

Discovering the Power of Unity

1.  Collage of children's work

Coming into the space of the closing for the Burmese children’s art group, I am surrounded by color and evidence of the creative activity from the term. While the work adorning the walls represents marks, choices and the creative meanderings of each child in attendance, a theme guided with intention and skill by our teaching artists defines the overarching take-away; the power of unity. Folded and bejeweled butterflies flutter around the room metaphorically proclaiming the potential for transformation. Uniquely drafted configurations of interchangeable body segments echo the practice of developing language skills and body-awareness.  A large collage hangs in evidence of a multi-stage exploration of color and design to create a meadow-scape.  But as the class discusses each project on this culminating day, what emerges as the common link between the projects is the progression from focusing on individual pieces to a weaving together of each person’s work to create  a rich and beautiful collaborative whole. As students reflect on this process, a recognition of the whole as greater than its parts emerges. Children talk about how much more efficient and how much more fun it was when they came together.

2. One piece from the collage

After the celebration, when I ask the instructors to share their thoughts about the class, Bethany Stiltner pulls out a photograph that captures it’s progress perfectly; the instructors had presented the group with a framed collage (Image 1) in which they had pulled together statements made and small works created by each of them during the first few weeks of the term. The children eagerly huddled around it-joyful, excited and surprised by how great it was!  Any part of it on it’s own may have been passed off as insignificant or even forgotten, but together, the piece represented an experience of community. The power of that revelation was palpable. Natalie Hoffman, who has been working with them over the span of three years noted how much their progress as a group echoed the sentiment of this moment. “They have grown so much… in their level of comfort with each other, in the way they now help and support each other and in their ability to work together and function beautifully as a unified group.”

3. Child eager to enter the classroom

As a newcomer to this class, this reality was in clear evidence at the get go when I arrived early.  I found a group of children on the corner, eagerly waiting to get in. Several of them stood peeping through the door to check in on their space. Upon entry, with the teachers yet to arrive, they scurried around readying the classroom with mats and nametags, searching for the BuildaBridge Classroom Motto and Rules, knowing they needed to go up.  They were proudly displaying their initiative and graciously inviting me to help them set up what was very clearly their space. They owned it and the rituals and expectations of the class and they owned them all together. I was in good hands, welcomed and guided by a community of young children who knew where they belonged and relished in that belonging as an important, evolving part of their lives in a place far from home.

--  Julie Rosen, BuildaBridge Community Relations Assistant & Teaching Artist

Rebuilding a Future

From L to R: Julie Teixeira, two PPR clients, Christine Byma, Rebecca Asch, NSC case manager Laura; seated row L to R: Jessica LaBarca, PPR client, Julia Crawford, PPR client

The Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience (PPR) Spring term concluded May 18th with a time of sharing, food and celebration of clients' accomplishments.  Clients in one group shared the Shoji lanterns they recently created while clients in the second group shared the art journals they created.  The Shoji lantern project is described below.

Shoji comes from Japanese architecture and is a wall, room divider, or door covered with translucent paper, allowing light to shine through. Shoji lanterns were used to light the front of temples and shines and were later used to provide light during tea ceremonies.  The Shoji Lantern project focused on two main themes, building and light. Building and emergent sub-themes such as patience, resiliency, and rebuilding were reflected in the art making process as group members were confronted with the challenge of creating a sound structure. The theme of light was made a profound appearance in the tea ceremony where group members were able to view the lanterns warm illumination. The Shoji Lantern project became a poignant metaphor describing the experience of migrating to a new land; how to leave an often complicated life behind and how to patiently rebuild your future. 

The PPR Summer term will re-start at the end of June. 

Music introduced Burmese children's group

Music and movement are now incorporated into the Burmese refugee children's group creating a multidisciplinary art environment.  Lead Creative Arts therapist Natalie Hoffmann has a degree in Fine Arts - Painting and a Master's in Creative Arts Therapy.  Since the group started, children have engaged in various visual art-making experiences ranging from painting, collage-making and mapping activities.  Natalie found that the children were very quiet, shy and language differences seemed a barrier to their sharing of artwork. 

Artist-on-Call Liz Green joined the teaching team in September 2013 and has since incorporated chants and simple songs to assist the children in their transitions between art-making experiences. Children responded very well to this addition; the added structure to the transitions made them feel less chaotic and more ritualized.  Bethany Stiltner joined the team in April as the Assistant Creative Arts Therapist.  Bethany brings percussion instruments to each group for a music circle which is now a part of the welcoming ritual, a key aspect of the BuildaBridge Classroom Model.  Natalie has incorporated a movement/feeling circle as another element to the opening ritual activities where children express how they are feeling that day through a movement.  Natalie tracks the words and movements each child does each week as part of her assessment process. The creative talents each artist has now incorporated into the group has spurred the further development of children's individual creative expression.  This is why the BuildaBridge Classroom Model that includes a team-teaching approach with artists from various disciplines within a structured environment full of rituals helps refugee children find their identity in a new culture.