The Meaning of Hope

Diaspora of Hope Project Description Overview

Telling our life stories through Art is a curriculum (series of arts-based lessons) designed to foster hope in children who live in poverty. The basis for this curriculum is taken from Manifestations of Hope in Music Therapy With Hospitalized Children by Charissa Tan a Master’s Thesis April 30, 2008.

[NOTE TO ARTISTS: We are asking that every artist read and learn this introductory material. This will provide the basis for how you work with children in Kenya, Haiti, and Guatemala. Local coordinators may wish to translate this into local languages. You are free to simplify. Full WORD document versions of Hope Curriculum are available for download.
Full WORD document version of the visual arts lesson Maps of Hope are available for download.]

Why the Arts for Hope?

Based on the work in Tan's research, Music therapy (and all creative arts) enhances spirituality (Magill, 2005). While we are NOT doing music therapy, we do recognize the therapeutic (healing) nature of art-making in the following:

1. Hope is a spiritual theme in [art-making]
   
2. Hope is defined as “an inner drive that strives for improvement in well-being and quality of life"
3. Hope shifts from hope for cure to hope for comfort, fulfillment and care for others.[Children] often feel helpless and hopeless
4. [Creativity] enhances a sense of control and also inspires hope and spiritual awareness

The process of art making involves and parallels the skills utilized in hope-building. Art making:

• involves and builds creativity,
  
• positive self-expression,
  
• perception ability,
  
• capacity for empathy,
• making choices,
  
• identification and expression of emotions,
  
• respect for self and others,
  
• teamwork & collaboration,
• risk-taking, and self-reflection.
  

Art-making helps build hope and helps meet universal needs of love, affirmation, meaningful productivity, purpose, and belonging.

The unique power of the arts rests with its ability to communicate truths nonverbally and metaphorically. Art products are created for the end of the course. They will stand as long-term symbols and reminders of the lesson material. They will be sung, acted, spoken, displayed, and danced to reinforce concepts and skills.

It is beyond the scope of this program to measure the lifetime impact of the program on each student. It is expected that the pre- and post-assessment that each class will complete will provide a picture of the changes to come. We believe that the lessons learned and experienced in the Diaspora of Hope will have a profound impact on their future and allow them to have a “voice” in society.

What is Hope?

Hope is the inner power that helps children transcend (move beyond) the present situation and toward a new personal awareness and enrichment of their spiritual self. Hope is is when a child realizes that a goal can be met.

An operational definition (more academic and therapeutic) is: Hope is an observable attitude of a person towards his or her current situation which is future oriented and comprises one’s waypower and willpower. It is has cognitive (thinking), affective (feeling), behavioral (acting) and interpersonal (relating) components.

How do children experience hope?

The life experiences that children have often diminish hope. However, hope can be nurtured using interactive and creative hope-fostering strategies. These include experiences that:

• encourage connection to others
  
• envision a future
  
• set a goal and initiate an (independent) activity
  
• focus on others beyond the self
  
• generate routes and options to goals
  
• evaluate reality

Aspects of Hope (You should memorize these. You can read the application in Leah's curriculum.)

There are two basic aspects of hope:

1. WILLPOWER (having energy to initiate & sustain a movement toward a goals)
2. WAYPOWER (having realistic routes toward goal)

There are aspects of hope within these categories.

Will-power (agency--the belief that one can do something--this is often called empowerment)

• Future-orientation
• Positive expectation
• Intentionality
• Initiating

Way-power (planning--this is planning and knowing the way to accomplish a life goal )

• Activity
• Realism
• Goals
• Interconnectedness
• Transcendence
  

The basis for teaching hope in this four day camp is the student’s life story. Stories will be “told” through drama, music, spoken word, and visual art. These stories will consist of their gifts, purpose, heroes, goals & aspirations, dreams, challenges, or timelines. The content for their stories (something about their past, present and future) will be developed during the art-making process by answering the following universal questions, which correspond to Aspects of Hope:

• Where do I come from (connectedness, gifts & abilities)?
• Why am I here (positive expectation-purpose; gifts & abilities)?
• What is the Good Life (realism, transcendence)?
• How do I get it (workable routes, activity)?
• What keeps me from getting it – challenges (activity, initiating, positive expectation, transcendence)?

Hope-Fostering Arts Strategy
The creative process of art-making utilized in this curriculum is a hope-fostering strategy. Students will have the opportunity to experience each of the 9 elements of hope during the creative arts process in which they will be engaged. Over the 4-day program, teachers will relate art-making to life lessons through art-based metaphors (symbols that have meaning to the children). This creates the teachable moment (the time when a teacher can speak a blessing of encouragement to the student).

This model of teaching-- art as metaphor--decides the messages to be taught. It means we need to develop the art-making project with the specific teaching elements. The process of that art form then conveys the metaphor within the art-making process. It sets up and anticipates specific points for metaphor bridging, or pronouncement (speaking blessings) to life. The art bridges the expression of elements of hope during the art-making process. The arts metaphor helps a student through other parts of their life.

Examples:

• In music, a call & response welcome song teaches names and fosters interconnectedness (element of hope), especially as the students become the “callers” as well as the “responders”. The teacher follows the song with questions about how listening to and connecting with others outside of class could help them.

• The “I come from…..” poem reinforces interconnectedness to elders, community and family. Teachers take advantage of the moments following the recitation of the poems to point out how where we come from connects us to a long history of others. The content of the poem provides content for their “stories” told through art, which can be a springboard from projecting their stories into the future.

• Each arts-based class teaches some elements or “tools” of that particular art form: diaphragmatic breathing, salsa turn, color mixing, character sketching, etc. The teacher points out that just as it is important to know the tools of the trade for an excellent art product, so it is necessary to know the “tools” they have to work with to create the work of art that is their life.

• Each art project will involve students in planning some aspect of the project together, making choices and setting timelines for how to accomplish its completion in four days; or planning aspects of the final exhibition. The teacher points out that just as these elements are necessary in doing the art project, so are they necessary to reach goals in life. Asking what are their goals & timelines, routes for getting there, etc., provides content for their “stories” through art.

• Each art project will include indentifying and overcoming obstacles to the art project (how can we attach pictures without marring them, how do we cut down a three-minute monologue to one minute in order to fit a timeframe, etc.). The teacher points out that the same processes used to overcoming obstacles in the art project are the same as those that can be used in life. Help students identify obstacles in their lives and have them apply some of the same principles or processes.

This curriculum incorporates all the elements of, the BuildaBridge Classroom framework. Teachers using this curriculum should first be trained in all aspects of the BuildaBridge Classroom.

Metaphors, key teaching points and other phrases and slogans related to this curriculum can be made into posters to enhance the classroom environment and learning.

Message/Theme/Metaphor:
Creating a hopeful life is like creating a work of art.

Curriculum Goal:
The Goal for the Diaspora of Hope is to provide an art-making experience that fosters, and allows young people to experience, discover, and express hope.

Curriculum Objectives:

• To teach students the basic elements of at least one art form (dance, spoken word, music, and visual arts).
• To teach students the 9 elements of hope-building.
• To teach students the BuildaBridge theme song, mottos, and values.
• To provide students a safe and creative learning environment
• To increase students’ awareness of purpose in the world through an examination of past, present, and future

Outcomes:

• 100% of the students will complete their art-making process as indicated by their inclusion in the final exhibition. The successful completion and exhibition of the art products are themselves the full expression, indication, and manifestation of hope.
• 90% of the students will effectively utilize basic art-form elements to produce at least one quality art product.
• 80% of the students will be able to state 4 elements of hope.
• 90% of the students will be able to express themselves on a Likert rating scale of expectation of fulfillment on at least one desire
• 100% of the students will participate in a final cohesive multi-art production as an authentic assessment of their knowledge gained in hopebuilding.
• 70% of the students will increase knowledge of hope-building as measured by pre-post test.

Those attending and participating actively in all sessions, completing all assignments, scoring at least an 80 (Excellent-Good) on the post-assessments, and participating in the final authentic assessment celebration will receive a Certificate in Hopebuilding.

Number of courses/lessons:
4 lessons over the course of 4 days

Learning intelligences utilized:
musical, intra-personal and interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal

Materials needed: (to be determined by lead teachers)

Evaluation method(s):
All classes will be evaluated using:

1. pre- and post-test questions (BI’S FORM TO EVALUATE BASELINE LEVELS OF HOPEFULNESS, RISK FACTORS, ETC.)
2. student observation sheet listing the aspects of hope and used for capturing examples and number of students responses on each.
3. Teacher report
4. pre-post on artistic skills for each art form (from teachers)

Final Exhibition
As students experience the art-making and creative-learning process, they will be preparing for taking part in a celebrative exhibition on the last day of the program. This will allow them to showcase what they’ve learned to their peers, teachers, family members, and guests. Teachers from each art form will work together to design an integrated celebrative exhibition that will allow a seamless display of the week’s creative work. This celebration will give everyone the opportunity to appreciate and celebrate what each student has accomplished, both, individually and collectively. The celebration acknowledges this yet unseen lifetime transformation, while commemorating their participation in the program—a small deposit on the rewarding return of their future.