For our A Window Between Worlds workshop this month, we did My Haunted House. I wanted to
incorporate a holiday theme and a kind message as well. We decided for the message to be the famous line Albus Dumbledore has in the Harry Potter franchise, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” The children’s grandmother wanted us to focus the art workshops on teaching them to communicate their emotions and to learn social interactions as well as self-regulation. I started the prompts by asking them things they could understand at their age. With this workshop I told them, “Sometimes we face scary things, like haunted houses, but as Albus Dumbledore said, we have to remember to turn on the light.” I asked them to create their haunted house and after we would wrap them in their lights so we can keep the reminder that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

I have been working with this family for six months now. The grandmother fosters four children that are community placements. You wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t told you because the grandmother loves the kids as her own. She goes beyond providing them with shelter, food, and safety. Every time we finish an art project, she has the kids stand next to their art and she takes pictures and sends them to their mom. She does fun projects with them to keep them entertained while they are on break from school and uses her community resources to make sure they have everything they need.

Since I started working with the kids, we have learned to say please and thank you. We still struggle to share stickers with our siblings, but we are working towards that. During one of my earliest workshops with the kids, we did AWBW, Personal Needs Flowers, and the kids wrote, their mom. I remember the sadness that crossed the foster grandmother’s face. Art brings emotions and allows the safe space and time to share one’s story. I hope that the haunted house we created reminds them both that there is a light at the end of this tunnel. The art the children created brought the reminder of light and hope that we all can have, even in dark times. A Window Between Worlds has also been an amazing opportunity for this foster parent to invite and share the artwork with the children’s mom. It helps open the door for communication and build a strengthened fostering family community.

DVHEART services are made possible by Grant Number 90EV0470 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Its contents are solely the responsibility of A New Leaf and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.