Discovering the self within: One piece at a time

Growing up in the community of Rose Park as a child, the one thing that I always wished for was to learn different ways to positively express myself. I picked up on some from mentors that I had, but was never sat down and taught specific ways to positively express what was going on in my life. Knowing I had this desire as a child, I was able to see if something existed several years later. Upon looking into it, I found out that there still was not a program of this kind. Therefore, I along with my fellow student Mikaela Mokofisi created a series of self-expression workshops for youth in both the Rose Park and Glendale communities. We made sure it was a need in the community first, proceeded to create the workshops and implemented them throughout the summer and school year. We did this with youth from Capitol West and LIED Boys and Girls Clubs. Though they did not turn out exactly as planned, I believe that we had an impact on the youth and have built a foundation for the future of the self-expression workshop program.