The Skillman Foundation

While we ultimately want the activities and approaches to be decided by our youth and adult allies, some of the past wellness activities we have done in the past can help to inform their decisions. Most recently, we have implemented art therapy for our youth, which has provided a healing creative outlet. Given how positively it has been received from the youth, we imagine that an arts-based approach could be continued to support their wellness. We have also put on 482Fun Days prior to the pandemic to celebrate the organizing work done by our youth and adult allies. Fun Days have included a community potluck, games, and an acknowledgement of the graduating youth from the YOC to relieve stress in a collective and celebratory manner. These past examples will help to inform what type of wellness activities our youth and adults choose in their participatory budgeting process. But as the pandemic and the conditions under which our youth and adults do their work continues to shift over the next year, so will our approach to support wellness. We imagine these events will be shaped significantly by the social and political moment we are in upon receiving the funds. Therefore we want the approach to be determined when the grant period begins.