Reverend Monsignor Emile J. Fossier
June 25, 2007U.S. weekly oil and gas rig count down by 2
June 27, 2007Have you ever wondered what’s inside the mind of a 10- to 14-year-old? How about an at-risk child?
The SoLA Center for the Arts will present its final art show of Project SoLa Friday at Southland Mall.
The show is an arts-in-education centered prevention program for pre-adjudicated youth. It will be on display at the TGMC Outreach facility from 6 to 8 p.m.
The works were created by students ages 10-14 who participate in the Families in Need of Services (FINS) program at Houma City Court, as well as the Le Cirque program in Senator Circle.
“It’s very important for the community to rally around the achievements of these kids. With all of us supporting them, there will be no one left to bring them down,” said SoLA Executive Director Jonathan Foret.
Project SoLa – the brainstorm of the center, Houma City Court system and Nicholls State University’s Consumer Science Department – is designed to encourage good work habits, provide sequential arts instruction, raise self-esteem in at-risk children through personal self-expression and to introduce youngsters to opportunities in arts. These goals are achieved through a well-designed curriculum based on the state’s Art Content Standards and self-esteem building art projects, according to Foret.
For 10 weeks, the youngsters made sculptures, masks and paintings, he said. Over the program’s duration, Foret said he could see the children change as they became more comfortable with using art to express themselves.
The program uses art as an intervention/prevention to delinquent behavior by specifically addressing the self-esteem needs of at-risk youth and encouraging the use of art as a lifetime management tool.
The program is supported by a contract with the state Office of Youth Development.
“It’s very important for the community to rally around the achievements of these kids. With all of us supporting them, they’ll be no one left to bring them down,” Foret said.
