Artistic Expressions Of Life Transformations
Transformations:
Through art, ideas become new creations. Through life, people can grow, develop and journey through their life path to becoming the best version of themselves.
Every day, LifePath Christian Ministries makes these life transformations possible, beginning at LifePath’s women and children’s shelter. Tina Hildebrand, the shelter’s director, believes in the value of art therapy to help children staying at the shelter process the trauma of life events that bring them to LifePath. The organization recently partnered with The Children’s Aid Society Lehman Center in downtown York to pursue a grant that would enable LifePath staff to offer art therapy activities for mothers and their children staying at the shelter.
“The art therapy component is so important,” Hildebrand says, “because it’s an avenue that allows children to express what’s going on inside them through any medium.”
Those expressions can also be witnessed in the youth arts education program outreach with St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church’s youth group ministry. Beginning next school year, each week from September through April, children and teens will be able to connect with one another through creativity.
Leah Wiley, LifePath’s volunteer engagement coordinator, says she’s strived to focus the arts program curriculum around the idea of transformation, such as taking found objects from the LifePath Economy Stores and transforming them into new pieces of art.
Seeking a way to get involved with the York community, Angie Riley applied her experience in design and fashion toward volunteering for LifePath’s youth arts programming. “It gives the youth an opportunity to escape their daily routine and allows them to open up their minds to be creative,” she says. “Art is a way to express yourself through creativity. My goal is to inspire the youth to open up their imaginations and express themselves through art.”
INSIDER TIP
LifePath Christian Ministries welcomes year-round donations of art supplies, board games, Frisbees, bicycles, school supplies and more for its children and teens programs.
- 371 W. Market St. P.O. Box 1968 York, PA 17405
- 717.845.7662 (ext. 1107)
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- 371 W. Market St. P.O. Box 1968 York, PA 17405
- 717.845.7662 (ext. 1107)