Black and Brown Solidarity | Planning

After three brainstorming sessions, the black and brown dreaming solidarity project has commenced. The youth worked on their creative projects with their respective groups this week. One group is working on videography, another on spoken word, and all the youth are recruiting for an art project where other youth in the neighborhood submit their art supporting black and brown solidarity.

We are still recruiting for our art project! Know any youth who would want to submit their art to be displayed at our convening on June 5th and paid $20 for their submission. Fill out this link to submit a piece.

Black and Brown Solidarity | Creative Dreaming, Second Session

We hosted our second creative dreaming session last night on black and brown solidarity. After dinner, we opened up with reminders of our values on what creates a safe space. The youth then answered some of our reflection questions on black and brown communities, some of the biases we may have, and what we can learn from them. Then we continued building on ideas and topics we came up with last session. For inspiration, Maya showed the youth some of the past creative projects TFD has done. Each youth took one topic we came up with last time and brainstormed some creative projects that related to the topic. After, they shared their ideas and commented on others they found interesting.

Thank you so much to everyone who came yesterday! We are still looking for more youth who are passionate about black and brown solidarity. Contact Maya (maya@thefirehousedream.orga) for more information. Our last dreaming session is March 6th, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM.

TFD 5-Year Anniversary!

Wow! TFD has turned 5 years old! We are so excited to celebrate another year of great opportunities and achievements that have made TFD what it is today. The Firehouse continues to create a safe space for BIPOC youth in the Proviso community. We do this through our 3 pillars creativity, mental health, and financial wellness. Through the beginning of our programming, we focused on building creative skills for the youth. Recently, we thought it would be important focus on mental health resources through our mental health kits and mental health workshops. We have had many achievements over these 5 years and we wanted to celebrate with our community.

First, we had our own red carpet for those who came to celebrate with us! Check out our gallery for some pictures! Then we went into social hour before dinner. Everyone was so excited for the taquiza grill. After we had a gallery which showed some of our highlights over the last five years. Mentees Maya (Spring ‘21) and Tracy (Spring ‘22) shared how the Firehouse impacted their lives. It was a beautiful night that we are so grateful to share with out community. Our hearts are so full!

Cheers to another year!

All Things Editing, Safe Spaces, And Intro To Graphic Design!

Photo Credit: @mariah_julianna_

Not only is photography difficult, but the editing process is a lot harder! During the first day of week 4 in mentorship, our mentees wrapped up the learning process of editing, partook in a safe space dialogue, and began the intro to graphic design! It is so awesome to see all that our mentees have learned in the past few weeks. We are eager for what is to come in week five!

Photo credit: @mariah_julianna_

EDITING IN LIGHTROOM

Our Executive Director Jasmine led a workshop where she showed our mentees how to use Adobe Illustrator. The mentees had several pictures that they had previously taken and they were eager to learn how to edit them!

Thank you Jasmine!