Skip to main content

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?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PPR Field Trip to Bartram's Garden

On October 27, 2017, Sofya Mirvis, Chelsea Faulkner, and Julie Kring-Schreifels, teaching artists at BuildaBridge, led a group of six people on a field trip to Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. This trip began with a very tranquil and engaging tour through Bartram’s Garden. During the tour, everyone got to try out different types of edible wild fruit, flowers, and plants, including: passion fruit, figs, and locust pods. The clients also picked out their favorite plants, fruit, and/or flowers while on the walk through the garden to later draw, paint, or put on a sun print. When we got back from the tour, the group was given a demonstration on botanical illustration. In the demonstration, they learned about the history, the techniques necessary, and the resources that were available in the classroom for botanical illustration. Two alternative activities were also given: sun prints and printmaking. After the demonstrations, everyone excitedly and diligently got to work. Overall, the trip...
Post a Comment
Read more

Refugee Project Celebrates World Refugee Day at City Hall

On Saturday, July 9 volunteers from BuildaBridge led creative arts activities at Nationalities Service Center's World Refugee Day 2016 celebration. The event took place in the courtyard of Philadelphia Hall. The event was attended by many from the public as well as several familiar faces from our PPR and PRMHC classes. Visual artist Arielle led an arts activity where visitors were encouraged to create " prayer flags ." Prayer flags originate in Eastern cultures, and were originally used to promote compassion, wisdom, peace and strength (Wikipedia). It is believed that each one's message of goodwill will spread to the space around them. Each visitor was asked to use paint, glitter, glue, and sequins to create a flag representing "What does HOME look like to you?" Among the flags were images of hearts, smiles, and the word "love." We at Refugee Project think that the idea of home being "love" is an especially great example of how "home...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 gro...
Post a Comment
Read more