Art Explorer 10: It's for a Good Cause

The Community Arts Project (CAP) was an opportunity where groups picked a topic of their interests and basically ran with it.  Here is what I mean... Groups were supposed to come up with a "campaign" that would raise awareness to one of many social justice issues in today's society.  My group decided to raise awareness for a social justice that had not only directly affected each of us, but every girl around the world.  That topic was Pre-Teen Female Bullying.  

We established the WORDS HURT GTA campaign, with the main goal of advocating and raising awareness to pre-teen female bullying.  We were looking to achieve this goal by giving a VOICE to young females.  Voice can be seen as an art element, as each work of art is meant to have a voice; basically, the story being told.  Through school presentations and participation in workshops, young females would be able to tell their stories and ultimately share their voice.

Example of Workshop: Secret World

Since 43% of girls fear harassment in school bathrooms (personal confrontation or written message on stall walls), we decided to create a mobile stall that girls can use to write their thoughts and feelings about bullying.  They can draw images, or write words, doing what ever works for their creativity. Girls will go in and use our special black light markers, to express their voices about bullying. The room will not have the black light on at this point so they will not see what any one else has written. After everyone has had the opportunity to go into the stall, we will switch on the black light and allow the girls to go in back, to show how bullying effects everyone. We hope this will help girls to share their stories and get their voices heard. 

The WORDS HURT GTA team has used social networking as a means of raising awareness and I believe we have established a solid foundation! Now is the time to continue spreading the word, in the hopes of actually establishing and maintaining this campaign and most importantly, making a difference!

**Note to Future Educators**

As a precaution, teachers should become familiar with the different forms of bulling, as it frequently occurs in schools. All teachers should discourage bullying and when witnessing an incident, it should not be overlooked.  Lastly, teachers must encourage the victims of bullying to come forward and share their voices.  It is extremely important that victims know their voices are being heard!