Budding Layers, Texture, & Color
The image above is of a protea flower, South Africa’s national flower. I’m struck by the vibrant fuchsia color of the petals — how this blends with the softer yellow and white hues at the meeting point by the stem, enclosing and protecting a dusty pink center of many delicate strands — budding layers of color and texture.
I couldn’t have asked for more on-the-nose imagery and associations than this image provides, as a beautiful reflection of our collaboration with 7 Passes Initiative. Informed by the notion of “layers of holding,” (as inspired by Katherine Frost’s in-class lecture on 10/19/20 about the Ububele project), we aim to support all the many layers of the 7 Passes organization within the design and implementation of our deliverables. The main concept of a “Budding Buddy System” implies in the title the intention of growing the potential and resilience of youth through relationships (layers of holding). We know that if we want the youth to feel supported, creating a foundation for transformation and “budding,” then we must support board members and staff as well. Additionally, one of the elements we are weaving into the project is the use of color — workshopping how subjective (personal and cultural) associations with color can be a grounding throughline week to week — e.g. “which color am I feeling today?” “which colors soothe and regulate me?” Lastly, a quick google search about the meaning of the protea flower yielded the perfect description:
“With its mythological associations to change and transformation, it’s not surprising that in the language of flowers, protea symbolizes diversity and courage.” (Equality [anti-racism] and courage are both values of 7 Passes Initiative).
Since presenting our first PechaKutcha, group 6 had a very productive and exciting meeting with the 7 Passes team where we were able to get their feedback on our offerings thus far and continue refining and elaborating. This feels like an exciting turning point because now the project really feels headed in a workable and meaningful direction, with textures, layers, and color coming together, adding richness and specificity to the deliverables. Currently, we’re working on designing the structure and look of the “Planning Tool” and “Lexicon of Expressive Arts Activities,” and are creating a prototype example of a possible way to develop a single afternoon’s activities. The social-emotional theme we picked to prototype is “active listening,” which we feel is a great starting point. Building relationships and creating safety as a foundation for practicing emotional expression and regulation begins with feeling listened to and heard, and with being able to hold the same listening space for others. Drama therapy/improv provides a wonderful set of tools for this; the core goal of improv is to always respond to any offer from another with “yes, and…” In order to accept offers, respond, and elaborate, one must be really listening.
One of the brilliant pieces of feedback from the 7 Passes team is to have the staff first go through their own version of the buddy system amongst themselves — being able to workshop it, learn from it, make adjustments as needed, and therefore be able to deliver it to the youth from a sound place. I love this idea and think it’s such a great opportunity to implement the concept of “layers of holding” starting with staff. When the idea was introduced I followed up by asking if at present staff receive any sort of supervision and I was surprised to hear that at the moment this isn’t the case — though there is an openness to it. I feel energized to brainstorm how to provide a Budding Buddy System model for the staff, and perhaps this can be the start of a model for supervision (at least peer supervision) for 7 passes. My major question about how to move forward with this would be if (and how) the staff/facilitators go through the social-emotional expressive arts activities as part of their process. Part of me wishes I could be there in person to facilitate a drama therapy and supervision process for staff to kick this off and offer some trauma-informed facilitation techniques and supportive holding. In any case, this suggestion brings to mind a really useful point made by Dr. Aisha Yousafzai during her talk to the class on 10/26/20 regarding how to introduce new content to providers — that being to consider, “what are the competencies of those introducing the intervention?” No doubt that directly experiencing an element, or elements, of the ultimate deliverables, would help prepare facilitators in a tangible way, getting a sense of their existing competencies in facilitation, and continuing to grow these.
