WARNING: Abusers can track your computer activity. If you are in danger, please call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-SAFE). And consider using a safer computer such as one from the library or a friend's house.
On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, DeafHope received the wonderful news that our
Children's Art Therapy Program has been chosen as the recipient of the 2007 Pearlie Roberson Award for Minority Research. DeafHope is deeply grateful to the Multicultural Committee and the AATA Scholarship Committee of the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) for this incredible honor! Thanks to AATA's support, we are able to initiate planning for our multimedia project, titled "Children Healing from Violence Through Art Therapy."
Let us tell you a bit about this exciting project! This project will feature a short DVD about the use of art therapy with Deaf children and hearing children of Deaf parents. These children have experienced domestic and sexual violence. The DVD will be in American Sign Language, with an option for English subtitles. Also included in this project will be an information booklet that provides information about the contents of the film. DeafHope will also develop a series of blogs and vlogs (vlog = video log, e.g. YouTube) on our upcoming new website that will discuss various responses of children to domestic and sexual violence.
By educating the Deaf community and our hearing allies who work with Deaf children and hearing children of Deaf adults, we can raise awareness about the impact of domestic and sexual violence on young survivors. DeafHope will also use the film in presentations and community events to explain how art therapy can address the impact of violence on children in a culturally affirmative way. When children survivors are given the opportunity for creative self-expression in a safe place, they are given the chance to reclaim the power that was taken from them as a result of trauma from violence. In other words, they can take control of their own healing process, which ultimately leads to removing the stigma of domestic and sexual violence, and to their own self-determination.
The Pearlie Roberson Award will contribute $600 toward the multimedia project, and it will be presented to DeafHope at the American Art Therapy Association national conference in Albuquerque in November 2007.
About DeafHope:
DeafHope is a nonprofit, community-based organization, established for and by Deaf women in January 2003. Our mission at DeafHope is to end domestic violence and sexual assault against Deaf women and children through empowerment, education, and services.
About the Pearlie Roberson Award:
According to the American Art Therapy Association website: (http://www.arttherapy.org/stscholarships.html),
the Pearlie Roberson Award was established to "provide financial support for a project, therapist, and targeted at exploring or explaining the multicultural aspects and capacities of art therapy."
November 9, 2007