It’s a brand new year, and clients in our Learning & Leadership Centre are facing 2015 head-on. They’re creating vision boards, sharing the things that they hope the new year will bring. This is just one of the many workshops that members of the DDRC Craft Club take part in.
“The club started from me trying to develop some kind of connection with a few clients,” said Trask, who is quite crafty herself. She noticed that some clients who seemed previously unengaged, would come to life when she picked up her scissors and started to cut. She added that the club has also strengthened many client-CRW (Community Resource Worker) relationships.
The workshops are attended by both male and female clients, spanning a wide variety of ages. Trask explained that this can present a challenge, as she tries to find activities that are interesting to all attendees on top of being age appropriate. She will often find ideas on Pinterest or teaching websites, and modify them for adults. To date, they’ve done a number of different things: vision boards, 3D art, painting on canvas, advocacy art, card making, ornament making, and lanterns; they’ve even made their own “What I Love About Myself” books on Valentine’s day! Trask finds it amazing to see clients who tend to lose interest in activities quickly, or who struggle to express themselves, spend two hours creating a project that they can be proud of. “It’s a chance to get creative and try something different,” she added.
Here are just a few of the pieces members of the Craft Club have made:
