Nurturing the Interest of Kids in Group Homes

By: Ember Stone

In our Next Stop Studio program, we take the art bus to a Pinellas children’s group home to do art activities with kids monthly. Often, we see kids consistently over the course of years, which allows us to truly get to know them.  

We have one young artist who’s in his mid-teens, we’ll call him Cody, who has been in our program for a considerable amount of his childhood. We've learned that Cody enjoys technology, repetitive activities, and sketchbooks without lines on the pages (this is very important to him!). He is an avid illustrator with a whole crew of characters he consistently returns to drawing. Knowing these things about him, our team keeps Cody, along with our other long-time returning participants, in mind when planning activities for our visits.

We’ve seen Cody shine while making magnets, from the hand’s on, repetitive motion. He really took to creating comic strips that gave him space to focus on illustration and developing his characters. We also found ways to introduce technology into our materials by decorating blank CDs with sharpies.  

Our team will sometimes dream up how these activity choices could translate into careers or hobbies as Cody gets older. We imagine him as an illustrator, bringing narratives to life with his characters, or working as a sound engineer pulling levers and pushing buttons all day. These sweet moments with the kids in our community programs are where so much magic lies within the NOMAD sphere. 

Finding creative ways to nurture their interests while building connections is a key part in Next Stop Studio. You can be part of nurturing community by becoming a monthly donor or event sponsor and ensuring programing for our group home friends. Donate here.