In the information age, students are bombarded with information in many forms and with varying degrees of reliability.  The Visual Arts Program teaches students 1) media literacy and journalism, 2) multi-media and mass communications, and 3) peer training and transitional leadership.  The media literacy portion of the Visual Arts Program instructs students on how to question the sources of information and analyze it critically.  It also teaches students to look in their own environment for stories and ideas and how to express those ideas. 

The mass communications portion of the program combines instruction in print layout and web design to communicate their stories and ideas to an outside audience.  The third part of the program consists of the group work between the media literacy students and the mass communications students to develop and produce media products while learning peer group training and leadership skills. 

The purpose of the Mending Young Minds (MYM) Visual Arts Program is to integrate therapeutic practices with visual and media arts to encourage individual development.  Participants will learn to critically think about the world around them and work together to create multi-media communication expressing their ideas.

Program

The MYM Visual Arts Program is an evidence-based instructional program designed to create an outlet for middle and high school students to express themselves freely through visual arts and multi-media communications.  In-class mentoring for students will integrate therapeutic practices into the classroom activities. The program will offer hands on training in areas of media literacy, multi-media publications and journalism, web development, and in-class peer mentoring. 

The program will teach a total of thirty students, consisting of fifteen media literacy students and fifteen mass communications students.  The students will work together to produce a newsletter and a web page with original content relating to their world.   The media literacy students will be responsible for the content and the mass communications students will be responsible for the appearance.  The students will be taken on inspirational museum tours centering on African-American history in Baltimore.

Program Schedule

Classes can be held during normal school hours. The program is designed to run in one semester with classes five days a week but can be customized.