Art is Prevention

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Community partners are indispensable in our work. One of the best examples is from SJCP’s partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Juan County.

One of the strongest protective factors for youth developing good refusal skills (the ability to say no to things like alcohol or vaping) is a trusting relationship with an adult who cares about them. In Art is Prevention, we teach small groups of participants at the Boys and Girls Club of Farmington, no more than 6 at a time, basic pottery techniques. The small cohorts allow the project director time to develop those trusting relationships with the participants. This program also allows the project director to have informal conversations with participants about substance use, stress at school, and other topics that might be difficult to have with school staff because of the size of classrooms. The small cohort size lends to these informal, but important, conversations.

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In addition, at the end of each cohort, the cohort participates in “critique”. Critique focuses on the positive aspects of the development process of creating art. Each participant tells the cohort about their favorite piece of pottery they made and why it is their favorite. After all participants have talked about their own pieces, the cohort walks around to each participant’s station and picks their favorite piece of their fellow participants’ work and tells that person why it is their favorite. Each cohort participant gets positive feedback from all the other participants. The confidence building that is evident in this small act is extraordinary!