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Ventura Initiatives |
Currently Reckoning has 2 locations for our initiatives.
We are collaboratiing with City Impact and Community Presbetarian Church in Ventura as we could not do it without our weekly volunteers, the financial support and prayers of so many. |
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| How we do it | Reckoning has developed a technique of building character and everyday leadership skills using art-making. We see personal transformation as a process, realzing change happens slow in the life of a person and in a community. It takes patience, love and dedication to build trust and create safe places for people to learn deeply. Read some of our stories to see the impact it is having. You will be encouraged! |
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- Cabrillo Village, Ventura
- Cabrillo Village is very much an effective work in progress. As Reckoning finishes up our Spring initiative our leadership team is greatly encouraged. Every week we are there with what we need to get the job done - this includes a hefty dose of hugs. Every week the children come. They have each become very dear to us. We are planning a wonderful celebration for them and their parents. We have a Mexican band playing, terrific art projects to show parents and the kids in the neighborhood. Rocks for the parents to make, gathered by the children themselves. Imagine with us what it means to at risk Cabrillo Village youth to have their parents and neighbors see all the art they have created! They are having a big part of designing the evening as an everyday leadership project. Lynne will put her artistic fingerprints on the displays. Then all our many hours, love, and artistic efforts will come to fruition and nobody will be more surprised than the youth! If it's anything like our last celebration, they will beam with pride and what they actually created.
- That's not all we're doing in Cabrillo Village. We're also delighted that local artist Rich Brimer will be teaching our art workshops this summer. We are actively recruiting young Hispanic artists to help him. This summer we are targeting especially tweener (9-11) youth, since this is the critical age where important decisions are made. Do I join the Cabrillo Village gang or not? Do I go down to the river bottom to do drugs or do I go to an art workshop? Cabrillo Village boys need an alternative way to spend their time. Rich has already been introduced to the kids at the art initiative now going on. Steven, a 7-year old boy, really wanted Rich to sit by him. He protected Rich's seat when he got up for supplies. Steven comes to Reckoning. His father is in prison and his uncle has "problems" which worry Steven a great deal.
- The right kind of pride is badly needed at Cabrillo Village. What we noticed this Spring was that the girls entering Junior High next year are undergoing some important developmental changes. We don't want to lose momentum with them, so we're planning a summer jewelry-making workshop with a very strategic purpose. Here the girls will get to make artistic decisions as we also teach them through making jewelry the skills of making good moral decisions. We have a professional jeweler teaching the class and a counselor working along side her to teach the decision-making component. The girls are very excited about this upcoming class!
- LightHouse, Oxnard
- At the Lighthouse in Oxnard, a residential treatment center for women recovering from substance abuse, I used the Scriptures below as a thematic focus to create a banner adorned with the fabric handprints of each woman in the program. They wrote their names on the palms of their hands and Scripture or words of commitment on each finger. These multicolored "leaves" were all ironed onto a blue felt banner background that contained the trunk and bare braches of a fabric tree. When they were done a tree of clapping hands emerged. I left glue and gold paint pens with them, and instructions how to do the finishing details. During the week I received an email from the program director that she had seen the women's creation and was REALLY impressed with its beauty. She described how proud the women were of what they'd created. But when I arrived the following Friday I was totally blown away. A number of new women had entered the program and they made sure each woman's handprint, Scripture and words of commitment were added to the banner, plus heart-shaped butterflies, silk flowers and green leaves. I was thrilled that they had taken ownership of their creation with a desire to extend the blessing to others.
- Lynne has had meaningful conversations as the women have created beautiful art. Some of the conversations have been transformational. In fact the class has been so successful they would like Reckoning to come every week! One woman in recovery has a college degree in dance. Lynne is now in conversation with her about the potential of teaching the youth at Cabrillo Village dance as healthy self-expression. On a human level we could never have thought of this happening!
