The Healing Project believes that by understanding, identifying and providing opportunities to support, develop and teach healthy nutritional habits, it will help struggling neighborhoods realize better, sustainable results for disconnected and disadvantaged children and their families.
In March 2007, The Healing Project launched a series of after-school classes for children. Led by teacher, Adele V. Lonas, each of the classes combines geography, language, literature and art while introducing nutritional concepts relevant to the projects at hand. Each of the classes is taught in both English and Spanish.
Early childhood education is the key to shaping behaviors and instilling good habits and by offering extracurricular classes free of charge, The Healing Project hopes to encourage and sustain the healthy lifestyles of the children living in New York City. Eventually, The Healing Project plans to expand this extracurricular program nationally.
The Our Stories program was introduced at Hour Children in July 2007. Hour Children, located in Long Island City, New York, is an organization that works with women who are or were formerly incarcerated in New York prisons. Hour Children provides care and services for children while providing a safe home environment for mothers and their children in each of its five residences.
The Golden Ruby Plums is the result of a summer devoted to exploring folklore, learning about language and the art of storytelling using words and illustrations, and understanding nutrition by identifying the ways in which nutritional concepts are used in stories.
Adele Lonas leading the Our Stories Class
Adele Lonas distributing freshly printed copies of Golden Ruby Plums to the authors and artists.
Tara (on the left) and Natalee, and behind Natalee are (from left to right) Jesenia, Krystal and Casey examining the product of their effort.
Tara and Natalie proudly sharing their hard work.
Marie displaying the illustration she personally created.
Krystal displaying the illustration she personally created.
The children were overjoyed to see their works of arts and their words displayed in a book. It is difficult to relate the profound impact this program has on these young authors and artists, but their expressions betray an reinforced sense of personal worth by actively participating in the creation of their own stories.
The printing of the books would not have been possible without the support of Jennifer Fox and Roberta Comrie. We are also indebted to Ann W. Marr, PhD, The Head of the Lower School of Convent of Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT; and Phil Yee co-founder and Technical Director of PanMedix. Ann and Phil were kind enough to volunteer and assist the children in producing their first two books The Golden Ruby Plums and The Special Box.
In a few weeks, we will be posting photos of the second Hour Children Class receiving copies of their book, The Special Box.
THP is gratified to have benefited from the sponsorship and support of such a distinguished group of donors, volunteers and professionals.
Finally, none of the children’s programs would be possible without the dynamic leadership and dedication of program manager, Adele Lonas.
Due to the success of the programs, demand far outstrips our capacity. If you would like to sponsor a class and join our team, contact Melissa Marr at The Healing Project. Also, one can make donations online to The Healing Project through a Network for Good.
No comments:
Post a Comment