This fall, KIND’s Los Angeles office hosted a celebratory event in honor of Latinx Heritage Month and Mental Health Day. The event, titled “Cultura Cura,” which means “culture cures” in Spanish, was an art workshop for youth ages 5 to 12. The office’s social services team partnered with arts organization Give Kids Art, which provided a facilitator and donated art supplies for the clients to take home after the event.
The event began with leading children through a series of breathing exercises to help the clients ground themselves. Both breathing exercises and art activities are two of the healthy coping skills that KIND’s social services staff practice with our clients to promote mental health and emotional well-being.
Clients Making Art and Honoring their Roots
The facilitator from Give Kids Art guided the children through an exercise to create their own “tree of happiness,” to reflect on their roots—what they love about their home country—and the new roots they are planting in California. First, the children traced their hands to make the outline of the tree, including its roots, with their fingers as branches. The facilitator explained that the roots of the tree represented the children’s home countries and asked the clients to color the root of the tree with a color that represents strength. She then discussed what each branch represented: what they love about their home country, what makes them proud of their country, what they love in general, what reminds them of home, and what they like about the United States. The kids were eager to paint and pulled out their brushes with excitement.
After the children finished their trees, the facilitator explained how the trees honored their roots in their home countries and celebrated the new roots and branches they are establishing in their communities as they grow and learn new skills.
Incorporating their home countries and celebrating cultural heritage into activities is one way that KIND tries to make children feel welcome. Once the tree was complete, kids added their creative touch, decorating the tree and landscape with a variety of creatures and houses. One child drew a snail, another added a squirrel.
Seeing Change and Growth in Children
“It is so beautiful to see the shifts that happen in these events,” said Dennise Onchi-Molina, social services coordinator at KIND’s Los Angeles office who helped organize the event. “When they arrived at the office, the kids were shy and not talkative but over the course of the workshop they became really engaged and warmed up to the space and to each other.” She continued, “Teaching art to kids as a tool for social connection, emotional expression, and cultural celebration is a strength of KIND’s social services teams across the country. Events like these have a real impact on our clients.”
Dennise told the story of one of these clients.
There is one client who has come to multiple events at KIND’s Los Angeles office. His sponsor said she has seen his growth through each experience. He always comes home and talks a lot about the event. I have seen it, too. At the first events he attended, he stayed in his own corner and did not talk much. But gradually he opened up and this time he was active and engaged, talking and helping his younger brother who was there, too.
Dennise recalled another participant, a five-year-old who was nervous and shy to draw at first and said, “This is my first time. I don’t know how to draw,” but by the end his art came out beautifully. “We said to him, ‘Look! You did such a great job. You didn’t think you could do it and you did it.’ He was so excited to take the art kit home with him and keep drawing. Praise is so important with our clients, to reassure them and let them know they are doing great.”
Yesenia Gutierrez, senior social services coordinator who helped bring the event to life, added, “Watching these young artists pour their hearts onto the canvas, I saw not just creativity, but a deep connection to their heritage. Each stroke was a reflection of who they are, where they come from, and the powerful stories they carry within.”
Each client left with a drawstring bag full of art supplies donated by Give Kids Art to continue their art exploration at home.
After the event, the social services team created an art gallery in the office’s lobby where they framed and exhibited the kids’ art for a week, thanks to the building’s property management company ELAT Properties, INC. In addition to presenting the children’s framed art, there was a “KINDness table” with information about KIND and our work, as well as a shoutout to our partners including Give Kids Art, where anyone who passed by and viewed the art could write a note to our clients. People left messages of encouragement and celebration such as “You are worthy,” and “Continue to be strong. You are amazing and unique.”
