North Shore Academy of the Arts

By Linda J. Steiner

If you ask Grace Meehan, student leader of  Mequon High School’s Kids4Kids, why her group is doing a collaborative arts project with children who are in foster care or youth aging out of the system, she’ll tell you it’s because there are a lot more similarities than differences among young people.

“People might have a bad connotation about kids in foster care,” she said, “but they’re still young like us, and they have bright futures.”

Kids4Kids, which raises money for and tries to increase awareness about foster care, has been involved since early this year in an undertaking called Project 3mpower. The project aims to build awareness in the public and camaraderie and self-confidence in the young people involved by artistically telling the story of foster life.

Under the guidance of instructors at the North Shore Academy of the Arts in Grafton, the Homestead students have been working along with children and young adults served by St. Aemilian-Lakeside, a 161-year-old social services organization in Milwaukee.

They have been creating a variety of artworks from painting and pottery to song, dance, drama and poetry. The works will be showcased at a culminating public event May 15 from 3:30 -5 p.m., at the Arts Mill Gallery & Boutique, 1300 14^th Ave., Grafton.

The project hopes to change the way the public understands and responds to the needs of foster youth. The name 3mpower comes from the goal of empowering three populations: foster and non-foster kids and the public.

“This helps them to see it’s not a bad thing to be in foster care,” said Jeanetta Watson, who is part of a St. Aemilian-Lakeside Independent Living Services (ILS) program that helps youth leaving foster care successfully transition to adulthood. Jeanetta worked at the last session, April 10, on a painting that will illustrate many of the emotions she experienced while in foster care.

“They seem like a nice bunch of kids,” she said about the Homestead students. “They want to participate and they wanted to learn about my experiences in foster care and how I felt about it,” she said.

Some of her experiences were met with surprise, said Jeanetta, who was in nine foster homes from the time she was 3 until she was 16.  “But we talked about how you’ve got to not worry about the bad, think of the good, and go from there.”

Another young woman in an ILS program, Kaitlin Harris, said the questions posed to her were good because, “a lot of people don’t know what it’s like to be in foster care, so I pretty much told them everything: going house to house, being in shelters. And everybody’s experience in foster care is different.”

“It’s a great opportunity, because some of the kids (in foster care) still don’t have resources, places to go,” said Jeanetta. “There’s a need to speak out.”

Grant Brogan, a Homestead freshman, said he got involved in the project because it’s fun. “And it’s a way to reach out to a different community and to help others. And you’re making new friends.”

A 9–year-old boy named Julio who is being assisted by St. Aemilian-Lakeside’s Family  Preservation Services, said it was pretty cool working with Grant. “He looks like Justin Bieber!” he said with a laugh.

“No matter where you grow up, we all have common interests, and it’s good to find those common interests,” said Patrick Tucker, also a freshman at Homestead.

As Unique Wilson from the ILS program worked on writing a song, she said, “It’s about hope and faith, not giving up, always having hope for tomorrow being a better day.”

Unique and Joann Hogan, another former foster young person served by St. Aemilian-Lakeside,  worked with Angela Mack, a performing arts instructor, on creating the song. The two young women do lyrics and melody and Angela is putting it to music.

“It takes a lot of vulnerability to write a song like this and it takes a lot of trust,” Angela said. “This is a song of encouragement to all people who feel like giving up.”

All the young people involved in Project 3mpower are looking forward to sharing their creativity with the public on May 15. The event is free and will also feature shopping at the gallery. For more information, contact Karen Johnson, division director of Community Services at St. Aemilian-Lakeside, at 414-465-5734. For more information on foster care and a variety of services to youth who must leave the system when they turn 18, go to www.st-al.org.