Finishing up Spring 2010!

Jasmine's "Shake That Habit" Recovery Journal

(front and back)

Other Journals made:

The Spring 2010 semester is coming to a final close, and overall we've had tremendous successful making so many journals this semester with our classes at the Tuerk House. We hope to be able to continue working there in the future, and hope you enjoy looking at and appreciating the time and effort the patients have put into their books!

Enjoy,

Caitlin Deane

Ingrid Schindall

New Books and Journals!

Check out some new journals that some of our recent ICF Patients at the Tuerk House have made. They've really been making some successful pieces of work this semester, and I'm so happy to have found a project that makes them feel proud, and that helps them take something home after their time in recovery.

Keep looking back for some more pictures of journals as the semester ends soon.

Enjoy,

Ingrid Schindall

Caitlin Deane

Springing Ahead at the Tuerk House

Hey everyone,

We're pretty much half way through this spring 2010 semester already, and its definitely flying by. This semester, we have a new CAP intern, Beka Burns, joining Ingrid and I. Beka has been such an asset to our team, and is also a trained and licensed yoga teacher. During the past couple of months we've been getting complaints from the patients of the Tuerk House that there aren't any exercise programs being offered to them. Since Beka and I are familiar with yoga practices and etc., her and I have been teaching Sunday Yoga Workshops for the past two weeks that include breathing exercises to help the patients focus and control their emotions. I feel that the yoga is really helping them reevaluate their feelings, meditate, and forget some of their negative thoughts. The lovely and talented Miss Ingrid Ninja Star, has also been teaching hoola-hooping lessons on Sundays as well which has been the talk of the Tuerk House ever since we brought in some of her handmade hoops!

In addition to all of the wonderful new activities at the Tuerk House, Ingrid, Beka, and I have also applied for a $500.00 grant to start a mural next month. We have been polling the patients weekly about what they would like to see in this mural and what they think would help someone else in their recovery situation. We hope to accomplish this task this semester or the next, and hope that our grant will be accepted too!

Here's a few photos from the past couple of Friday book making classes at the Tuerk House!

One's of the patient's "photo album" books

Jackie's Book (inside)

Jackie's Book (Outside Front Cover)

Andre made a book for his little daughter!

Karen's Journal

(Kalboy) Bob already made a book, so he decided to

make a graphite portrait drawing of another patient!

Enjoy,

Caitlin Deane

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase." -MLK Jr.

Merry Christmas

The Last Journals of the Semester

This week's lesson went really well! Overall we had about 8 new patients come to the class and all walk away with journals! Here's a few selections:

Sandy's Journal

Kelly's Panda Journal

Robin's Journal

Nick's Journal

Samantha's Journal

We had such a great semester working at the Tuerk House and are looking forward to helping out there again through the CAP Program at MICA next semester. Hopefully we will have ALOT more to show, and pictures of murals! We'll be back in January, but in the meantime, have a great holiday and enjoy!

Thanks,

Caitlin Deane and Ingrid Schindall

Lesson Plan #4

The Book to Begin it All: Where You Want to Be

Supplies:
- Yarn
- Paper for book interior
- Cardboard, foam core or stiff paper for cover
- Hole punch
- How to Make Book PDF
- Magazines, Construction paper, collage materials etc.
- Tape, matte medium and glue
- Brushes and cups
- Scissors
- Markers, pens, colored pencils etc.
-Book Activity List

Activity:
This week we wanted to focus on having the students come up a drawing or several drawings in their journal of a place that they want to be. This place can be a place that they have been to, doesn’t exist, imaginary, or a place tht they want to go to. We want to stress the importrance of memories, hopes for the futures, optimism, and positive expression. For new students we will teach them how to make a book, implementing the same technique used in the previous lessons. We will also provide a list of suggested topics for chapters or pages within the book.

Goal:
- Prompt creativity within the pages of their newly handmade books
- Create a positive outlook of themselves through art
- Provide a useful and tangible object to take away from the class (for new students)
- Learn about each other through the common bond of art
- Take a good look at the positive aspects of their situations
- Get out emotions that may be pent up or misunderstood
- Accommodate for our short time with patients
- Introduce a new and handy art making technique
Create a personal get-away space for thoughts and ideas

For us:
- Stress the importance of organization within the book to allow for future reflection
- Provide examples of how this book can be a great outlet for emotions and expression outside of class and that it can be easily added to.
- Get to know the clients personally
- Build positive relationships
- Stress the importance of documenting ideas and thoughts
- Gain trust and respect between us and the clients
- Provide a useful object of documentation for the clients to have forever

Pictures from Last Class 11/13/09

Last class was a great success, so many wonderful books were made. We wanted to have some pictures of the books for the blog so we asked for permission to take pictures of the students work. So here are some examples:
Johnny preferred to just draw so he used one of the National Geographics for reference and drew this wonderful fox.

Antoinette made a journal last week to write in so this week she made a book to draw in.
This book was made in in three phases the front cover which represent how he was when he came in, the middle page showed a picture of the ten commandments that were aiding him in recovery and the back cover showed a man with his feet on the ground which is where he would like to be once he has completed recovery.
April spent last class and a good portion of this class carefully cutting out these images. She told us that the two children she found in a magazine looked so much like her own children that when she saw them she cried. She made this book to write in and one day show to her own children. She also said that she would like to repeat this book making activity with her children.
Patricia was very proud of her first hand made book, she added a couple of pages to draw on but mostly lined pages to write on. She later added a quote on the front cover saying "There are no simple solutions, only intelligent choices."

Hopefully after next week's class we will have more pictures to add.