HEALING TOGETHER
Arts-based Research
About
In partnership with Mending a Crack in the Sky and Midaynta Community Services, this project engaged a group of Somali-Canadian mothers, each of whom had lost children or close community members to gun violence, in a series of body-map storytelling workshops. Through the workshops, the mothers opted to create a collective body map to showcase their grief, healing and resilience, and sisterhood. Their artistic creation will be used as a call to action for policy change, a protest banner, and a public gallery exhibition piece, demanding justice and seeking peace. Our research team is currently analyzing post-project qualitative data that were collected to explore workshop participants’ experiences.
Publications
Healing together: Body-map storytelling with mothers who lost a child to gun violence
Begun, S., O’Connor, C., Lucas, V., Chowdhury, R., & Bautista, C. (in progress). Healing together: Body-map storytelling with mothers who lost a child to gun violence.
COMING SOON
This Is Me
With support from the Children’s Aid Foundation, 21 young people in the child welfare system participated in virtual body-map storytelling workshops to explore their experiences and self-expression.
Sharing in the Healing Journey
In partnership with YWCA Toronto, this PHAC-funded project evaluates Expressive Arts programs to help mothers and children heal from family violence.
Global Health Research with Youth Experiencing Homelessness
Funded through a Melbourne-Toronto partnership grant, this project convenes interdisciplinary researchers from Canada and Australia with shared interests in global adolescent health and health inequity.
