Addressing Urgent Mental Health Needs
Youth living in quarantine during COVID-19 had their lives disrupted by school closures. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) families and youth were especially vulnerable to stressors of limited internet access, parents facing unemployment, additional responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and food scarcity. Their mental well-being has been tested without access to in-person socialization with friends, regular recreational, artistic, and extracurricular outlets typically provided at school, and ongoing racial injustice. Knowing the pervasive impacts of systematic oppression on social, emotional, and physical well-being, it is imperative to provide young people with avenues to develop and find confidence in their identities and voices through expressive creative activities.

Envisioning a Virtual Creative Arts Camp
The arts offer a positive method of coping with mental stress. In response to the mental health challenges faced by BIPOC youth during COVID-19 and the ongoing racial crisis, TYCL International is organizing a Virtual Creative Arts Camp for Positive Mental Health. Youth identified by community partners in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia will engage in a week of creative activities from painting to spoken word, from music to photography. The camp offers a safe and creative space to explore and express the emotions and experience of living through a global pandemic and the fight for racial justice, to find beauty in the art of their everyday lives, and to use the arts to support positive mental health through creative coping.

Building Sustainable Partnership Models
In launching this pilot program, TYCL is committed to equitable, just, and sustainable community partnerships. Our planning team is interdisciplinary and interracial, made up of a social worker + nonprofit leader, an arts administrator, and an artist + arts consultant. We collaborate to bring each of our expertise and voices to the table, and we center the needs of collaborating artists, community partners, and participating youth in our planning discussions. Artistic labor and outreach support are valued and compensated with financial and non-financial resources, and making space for the wellness needs of all minds and bodies is prioritized. Read more about our approach in our Medium article.

Join Us!
When: August 10-14 2020
Where: Google Meet | Zoom
Who: Youth ages 13-17 | Teaching Artists across media | Community-based organization partners

Youth
If you are a young person between the ages of 13 and 17, and you are experiencing emotional responses to living in quarantine and through the social justice movement, we invite you to join the camp! Use different art forms to explore and express those emotions and experiences, learn about how the arts can support your own positive mental health, and develop creative coping strategies for working through stress, uncertainty, and fear.

TYCL offers

• Internet and art supplies scholarships
• Free arts workshop, from dance to painting, theater to breath+meditation
• Free positive mental health support
• Creative publication and virtual exhibition opportunities

Sign up here to be a part of the camp

Artists
If you are a teaching artist and have experience working with BIPOC youth, we are eager to partner with you to support youth coping through crisis with creative arts.

TYCL offers

• An opportunity for alternative temporary employment to lead one or more camp sessions
• An invitation to collaborate to develop an equitable employment model between the organization and artists, including participatory compensation planning and pre- and post-camp support and feedback
• A lasting connection to network for future opportunities

Register here to collaborate with TYCL International’s creative arts camp.

Teaching artists in all artistic disciplines and media are welcome. For further questions write to us at summercamp@tyclinternational.org.

Community Partners
If you represent a community-based organization in New York City, New Jersey, or Philadelphia that serves the needs of BIPOC youth, and you are interested to collaborate to bring youth in your community to the camp, we are eager to hear from you!

TYCL offers

• Mutual partnerships that support resource and knowledge sharing
• Open conversations to discuss partner needs and offerings to build equitable relationships for collaboration
• A lasting connection to network for future opportunities

Reach out to us at summercamp@tyclinternational.org.