International Indigenous Youth Council

Since its inception in 2003, Art from Ashes ( AfA ) has provided poetry and creative workshops to high-risk youth, facilitating expression, connection and transformation among the most neglected and vulnerable segments of our community. Executive Director Catherine O'Neill Thorn has been conducting transformational poetry and spoken word workshops at juvenile detention facilities, treatment centers, and schools including post-trauma workshops for Columbine High School students since 1992. When statewide funding for youth programs was cut in 2003, Thorn was motivated to establish a nonprofit to serve struggling youth with a proven process that helps build strong interpersonal skills, encourages literacy, and empowers young people to lead confident, violence-free lives. AfA has since provided creative workshops with more than 60 partnering organizations for more than 3, 000 young people who have survived traumatic events, are victims of abuse, neglect and/or poverty, and are at risk for or engaged in destructive behaviors. Moving beyond contemporary therapeutic models and arts programming, AfA provides a forum through creative expression for recognizing and acknowledging previous traumas ; removing the barriers that isolate young people from each other, from caring adults, and from society ; and allowing youth to experience health and hope rather than the expectation of further victimization. Offers of assistance and in-kind donations would also be very much appreciated. For other ways in which you can help, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Nick_Orf or link to our SUPPORT page. As an example of the expression, connection and transformation process, the Phoenix Rising program combines the articulation of painful events or circumstances in the lives of struggling young people ; the opportunity to release the pain and fear of those experiences among peers and mentors ; and the guidance that allows youth to use strong, healthy words that encourage an identity based on choice rather than victimization.