Researchers have begun to understand that the arts, broadly defined, can serve as a protective factor against a wide range of risks. In fact, the arts are commonly used in treatment settings for at-risk youth (e.g., Rapp-Paglicci, Stewart, & Rowe, 2011). In the public realm, JK Rowling, recently used her Harry Potter characters and wizarding world to help comfort a grieving adolescent (see:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harry-potter/11015674/J-K-Rowling-sends-Dumbledore-letter-to-Texas-shooting-survivor-Cassidy-Stay.html).
In this assignment, we will be exploring the ways that the arts (literature, music, painting, theater, photography, dance, sculpture, etc.) influence risk and resilience processes.
To begin, read over the following article:
Yohani, S. C. (2008). Creating an ecology of hope: Arts-based interventions with refugee children. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 25(4), 309-323.
Next, think back over the major messages about the importance of the arts from your GE Area C1/C2 and/or SJSU Studies Area V classes
Specifically for Area C2: Recognize how significant works illuminate enduring human concerns and how these works may influence risk and resilience processes.
Specifically for Area V: Describe how ideas, values, images, cultural artifacts, economic structures, technological developments, and/or attitudes of people from more than one culture may influence risk and resilience processes.
Thus, in this approximately one page (about 250 to 300 words) essay, you will reflect on the ways that different aspects of the arts can potentially decrease risk, promote protective factors, and facilitate resilience. You may choose to discuss your own experience with the arts in this context, the experience with the arts in this context of someone you know (use a fake name), make up profiles, or discuss these ideas in the abstract. However you choose to approach the assignment, the goal is to explore the possible ways and reason why the arts have the potential to decrease risk, increase protective factors, and promote/facilitate resilience at the individual and community levels.
Your essay will be assessed on: The quality of the writing, the quality of the ideas and explanation, understanding of arts as a protective factor, and the degree to which the arts are effectively linked to risk and resilience.