BuildaBridge Community Programs

      BuildaBridge is pleased to announce the publication of its Year 4 Report of involvement in the Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative (PRMHC).   BuildaBridge PRMHC Year 4 Report

For a third time in four years, BuildaBridge is honored to be exhibiting its artwork at City Hall. This if the first time, however, that the Refugee Project has been featured on its own. As part of the City of Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Art in City Hall is a program presenting exhibitions showcasing contemporary artwork by professional and emerging Philadelphia artists.  The program strives to link visual artists with the larger community by providing the public with a greater knowledge and appreciation of their artistic achievements. The artwork highlights BuildaBridge's roles in the Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience, the Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative and its partnership with Nationalities Service Center's Refugee Employment and Advancement Program. The exhibit is on the 2nd Floor of City Hall, and can be viewed until October 2, 2015. For more information from City Hall,  read more here. 

Arts and culture are some of the most fundamental forms of self- and community-identification humans use to mold their identities and share their stories. Refugee populations are contributing to their new American communities through the arts as a means of sharing their cultures, histories, stories and above all, shaping their identities in a new environment.  BuildaBridge facilitates such efforts with refugees from over ten countries through the Refugee Project   - a multi-faceted program with memberships in two city-wide collaboratives designed to assist refugees, at all stages of resettlement in identifying adjustment strategies based on the strengths of their communities. The Refugee Project supports and facilitates art-making experiences for refugees as they pursue success, recovery, hope, healing and resiliency in a new culture. This June, during World Refugee Awareness Month, BuildaBridge launched its second season of arts programming for Nationalities Services Center's...

Mark, a refugee from Iraq, had been coming to the Mixed Adults creative arts therapy group at the Nationalities Services Center (NSC) for over two years as part of BuildaBridge's involvement with The Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience (PPR).  Sunday was the last group of the Spring Semester, and it also happened to be Mark's last group meeting for good.  “My case is closed here (at NSC),”  he announced, “So I won’t be coming again.”  There was disappointment all around.  He was the major translation help for the other Arabic-speaking group members, and he was the ‘senior statesman’ so to speak, for knowing how the group “went”, and for helping new members.  However, there also seemed to be a self-pride in his “graduation” from the NSC case management service. The group, led by BuildaBridge art therapist Rebecca Asch and drama artist Francesca Montanile, was finishing up the Altered Book project.  Sunday's prompt for the art-making was drawin...

This is a video message from the Bhutanese refugee community in South Philadelphia who called Nepal home for over twenty years. They are concerned for their brothers and sisters who have been affected by the earthquakes. They are praying for the victims, survivors and families and for the rebuilding and restoration of Nepal. BuildaBridge assisted this community in creating artwork that illustrated their memories of Nepal, concerns for the earthquake victims and their hopes for the future of Nepal. Since many from this community are unable to travel to Nepal help, they created this video message as a gesture of their concern for and solidarity with those in Nepal. The BuildaBridge-led workshops, artwork and video were made possible with support from: The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program:  Southeast by Southeast The Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative The Department of Behavioral Health and DisAbility Services Artists:  Jessica L...

During the course of three workshops, BuildaBridge assisted this group of Bhutanese refugee adults create a visual representation of their memories, concerns and hopes for Nepal. During the close of each workshop, the group sang the Nepal national anthem featured here as a gesture of their solidarity and concern for Nepal.  

“When I am dreaming, I dream about Nepal and I wish I could go to help them” said a Bhutanese refugee in response to the earthquake. Bhutanese refugees in South Philadelphia, many of whom spent twenty years in refugee camps in Nepal, are responding to the earthquakes through the healing power of art-making. The group's goal: To create prayer flags and paintings illustrating their fond memories of Nepal and hopes for Nepal's recovery and rebuilding. BuildaBridge International is assisting the group, many of whom contributed to the PPR mural, with creating artwork that reflects the group's responses to three prompts: Nepal as you remember it (stories and memories); Nepal today (concerned, imagined struggles Nepalis are currently facing); and Nepal in the future (hopes, and prayers for the rebuilding).  The art piece being created consists of four bamboo poles, seven feet high, that are linked together.  In each of the three sections are ca...