Painting Hope Engagement 2

This second engagement was a little more difficult. And didn't go quite as planned, but fun and exciting none-the-less. When working in community, nothing ever does go "as planned", and adjustments have to be made as you go along!

Kids slowly started showing up...And the artist was late....but we started with sidewalk chalk, and moved onto priming the wood.

The CNS worker and Tenant support worker came to get to know the children, and shortly after
Cst. Gallant and Simon the Safety Bear with the Calgary Police Service showed up. It's a good thing Simon had a translator. And it wasn't long before they stole the show away from the artist.

Part of the project was to educate the youth on graffiti, and why we don't do that and respect people's property.

The pictures I have do not do justice to the event. There were a 10-15 more kids there but were not included in the pictures, for multiple reasons. Some are language barriers and they didn't understand the media permission form, safety concerns, past history of domestic violence, or just a cultural reason, etc....

One little girl wanted to be a part of the picture but mom was away at work at the time of the engagement. She was unable to get a media permission slip signed as the only person who was home was her teenage brother watching her, not a guardian, and Dad was not in the picture anymore.

So we had her be a part of the picture, but stood to the side of the group so that I could cut and paste her out when I put it on social media. She will get a printed picture of the original later.

Our welcome rock was touched up with paint, a warm image into our community.

Our last engagement will be on Saturday August 29th, when we apply the colors.

Grand Opening will happen in September. I am so proud of these children and how they worked together as a group, as a community, and somehow, as a family, to make their homes a better place to live.