A young teenage girl with whom we have worked closely with refused to come into the tent to work. She walked around us with a sullen expression. When we finally spoke with her, she stated, “There is no way I want to get close with anyone any more because everyone just leaves and no one cares.”

She would be moving to New Orleans soon as her mother had found a job and housing with relatives.

Another one of the families that usually works with us was evicted and their story continues.  This family of eight was living in one of the small camper trailers. The family includes three teenagers, two primary school age girls and a toddler. One of the teenage boys is an extremely talented artist. He created one of my favorite sculptures in our large collection. When housing wasn’t available for the whole family, the teenagers were moved to a homeless shelter and the mother and the girls moved to a small hotel room. The oldest girl attempted suicide and was hospitalized in a facility far from the family. Due to the distance and lack of transportation, no one was able to visit her. Currently the mother is working at a new job and housing has become available. The housing is in a very crime ridden part of town.  The mother is very concerned for their safety and future in this dangerous environment. It is difficult to raise children with temptation so near the front door. She has very limited choices as how to move on with their lives.

Like so many of these children, they will be entering a new school. There is a direct correlation with student drop outs and multiple school transfers, especially when dealing with teenagers. The main focus of this trip was to help the children transition back to school as the truancy rate at Renaissance Village continues to be high. These statistics reinforce our need for a Children’s Trauma Institute to provide treatment and support for these children. The art therapy team brought books and art therapy activities to help the children focus and settle into a structured school type environment.

We continued the assessment process using art therapy to identify children and families needing referrals for sustained mental health treatment.  We are able to refer the identified families and children to the mental health Blue Bus sponsored by Louisiana State University and staffed with talented mental health workers. The Blue Bus works with the children at the schools and at Renaissance Village. We are in the process of forming a partnership with the Blue Bus to provide an art therapist to join the team. The funding for the art therapist will come from Community Initiatives Foundation (CIF).

Children, especially teenagers, act out depression with aggressive, danger seeking behavior.  Many of the teenagers were displaying this behavior.  There was more than usual amount of fighting, hitting, destruction of property and stealing.  It has been difficult to engage several of the teenagers we had worked with us in the past. There was one teenage boy that continued to act out.  I decided to focus my attention on him and was determined to engage him in a drawing. When I finally was able to have him create a drawing I was somewhat surprised at the degree of depression and PTSD it indicated. He drew a regressed, simplistic, lone triangle house. To most, this young man looks like an angry young hoodlum. Underneath all this negative behavior is a hurting, angry, depressed young boy acting out his mental state.