Week 8

What I did:

Created a new proposal to send to the clinical psychologist I will be working with on this project- Orli Avi-Yonah. I then spent most of my 30 minute meeting with Hannah editing the proposal. This is the proposal that Orli will send out to Principals and schools that she has contacts with. (3 hours)

Read some of Rachel Simmon's Odd Girl Out- 1 hour

Worked on timeline for Dec. Review once again- 30 minutes

Brainstormed activities to include in my kit: 2 hours (didn't get too far)

Worked out sample journal that I might include in kit- 2 hours

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

My 30 minute meeting with Hannah was very helpful and once again focused me. We talked about coming up with activities that would be included in my kit so that I can present them to Orli. Also, these activities would be meant to better direct the girls with their drawings/writings/poems. We talked about perhaps creating role play activities etc...I have been having a lot of trouble with this. I just need to make sure that the girls are still going to be expressing themselves in a nonverbal way. I do not really want to open up a conversation with these girls about bullying- I feel this might make them feel uncomfortable.

-A possible activity that I came up with was creating stickers of words that girls can put together to form sentences that they find most hurtful. This words can also perhaps be used for them to explain what makes up a good friend and a bad friend, or words that they believe constitute bullying. This might help spur some ideas for their drawings.

-I also came up with the idea of creating small journals (not anything too professional) for them to take home and use. In Rachel Simmon's Odd Girl Out, she stresses the idea of the importance of journaling or using a diary. She says that they should write down who is being being to them or how they are being mean, and then trying to figure out what they can do to solve the problem. I think this is a great idea and a great way for the girls to be able to get out what it is they are feeling. I wish I would have kept something like this when I was going through these issues. This is another tool for them to express themselves in a nonverbal way. In this, I would also include blank pages to encourage them to continue the process of creating artwork or writings. I would also use this journal as a way to take into account what Orli explained to me about the 3 levels of bullying and not allowing one to feel empathy for themselves. We can either be hurt, hurt others, or be a bystander and just watch. Below are a few pages that I created to give a sample of what I was thinking for this journal.

Here is my updated timeline and plan for Dec. Review:

Timeline: 10/29/09

10/22 Meet with Orli

10/27 Complete Proposal to send to Orli

10/29 Come up with ideas & visuals for activities to be included in kit

11/03 Continue to create visuals of kit

11/05 Work on Grant Proposal

11/10 Work on writing pieces of brochure to send to Orli for review

Meet with Carole Lapidos

11/12 Grant Proposals Due, work on paper that will be included in kit

11/17 Work on packaging

11/24 Begin creating presentation and finish up loose ends

11/26 Thanksgiving- continue working on presentation

12/01-end work on presentation and finishing up loose ends

To Be Included in December Review

Proposal- tell my story and why I am doing project

Show how I came to idea (brief)

Provide research (brief)

Include people I have been working with & groups I am set up to work with

Show what is going to be included in kit and give visuals:

Activity examples

Sample brochure with filler text or actual text

Drawing I received from peers

Questions I will pose to girls

Provide brief layout of book (similar to Post Secret book)

This is the proposal that I sent to Orli:

My name is Carly Grafstein and I am a senior in the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan concentrating in Graphic Design. As a senior, I have the privilege of working on a yearlong project that is self-initiated and intended as a capstone to my education thus far.

For this project, I intend to focus on the subject of psychological bullying amongst elementary through middle school girls. This topic is particularly meaningful to me since I endured being bullied during my middle school years. I was rejected, excluded, psychologically battered, and somewhat scarred. I was ostracized and taken advantage of: I was the girl who had no one to sit with in the cafeteria, and the one who lent people money and was never reimbursed. For me, turning to art as a means of expressing myself became an outlet. I was able to enter into my own world and rid myself of the catty nonsense that I experienced everyday.

Eventually, I began to see through what these girls were doing to me and I was able to change my situation. I joined the tennis team, acquainted myself with girls that I felt comfortable with and transformed into a confident new student. Through my project, I want to be able to tell girls my story and let them know that they can be strong enough to not have to endure psychological bullying. I want to be able to share the therapeutic process of art with them, and allow for them to express their feelings in a safe, nonverbal way.

I am planning to bring my ideas to fruition through the design of a kit to be used by classes and workshops. This kit, which I am in the process of developing in collaboration with clinical psychologist Orli Avi-Yonah, will include a range of activities and the tools essential for the girls to create not only drawings, but also any means of nonverbal expression (poems, writings, collages, etc…). In this kit, I will also include a summary of my story and information about psychological bullying and ways to prevent it. Ultimately, I aim to compile the works in a book form at the end of my project. All of the pieces created by these girls will be anonymous to protect the safety of the participants. I feel this will be a good way to document results from the kit and to show all of the drawings/writings I collected. In effect, I also hope to bring attention to this issue through this book, as it is sadly so often overlooked.

What I think I should do next:

-Continue to create visuals of samples of materials that will be included in kit

-Continue to brainstorm activities to include in kit

-Continue to read Odd Girl Out

Week 7

What I did:

With Fall Break this weekend, I did not spend as much time on my project as I usually do. However, I think I was more productive than I have been so far.

Coming up with timeline: 45 minutes

emailing and coordinating with people: 30 minutes

Meeting with Orli: 30 minutes

Refining timeline: 1 hour

Reading Strong Moms Strong Girls Materials: 2 hours

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

Today I had a meeting with Orli Avi-Yonah, Hannah's friend who is a Clinical Psychologist and who has specialized with bullied girls in the past (she actually helped start the group Strong Moms Strong Girls). Hannah, you were right, Orli is such a great resource! She was so helpful and was really excited about my project. This was so helpful for me to hear someone who actually has experience in this field be very receptive to my project. Orli is very willing to help me with my project and aid me in whatever ways she can. She seems to have many contacts with schools around the area, and is willing to contact the appropriate people as soon as I send her a concrete proposal with what it is exactly that I would like to accomplish. It is so nice to know that I now have this amazing resource- someone who is very well established and knowledgeable in this subject. It is also so nice to have her be able to pull for me in the schools.

We also talked about ways to ask questions to generate the best responses from girls. We came up with these 3 questions:

1) Showing/explaining times when you have felt hurt?

2) Times when you hurt others?

3) Times when you observe?

She explained how you do not want the girls to feel empathy for themselves, as everyone is not only a target and is at some points an aggressor as well.

Julie Kaplan also emailed me telling me Strong Moms, Strong Girls would like to help me with my project but she would need a clearer explanation of it. Orli actually seemed to steer me away from this program and told me that she has all of the resources and contacts that SMSG has.

I gave myself a week by week schedule of where I should be each week before December Review, but I will sum it up. Basically, I would like to have the kit that I will provide to the schools pretty much all done for the review so that I can get as much feedback as possible. This kit will include a description of me and my story and why I am doing this project, information about psychological bullying, and instructions on how to use this kit and do the activity (perhaps this will all be a brochure?). I will also include all the necessary materials for the girls to create the pieces (drawings/collages/poems/writings) and the paper with the questions on them for them to do so. I may also include a self addressed envelope for the teacher to mail me the pieces. For December Review, I would also like a good sense of which schools have been receptive to my project and would be interested in using my kit.

10/22: Meet with Orli, create revised proposal to send to her

10/27: come up with color schemes for kit and typography

10/29:continue with themes

11/03:start working on writing pieces- section about me and my story and why I am doing this project.

11/05: continue working on writing pieces- send to Orli for review

11/10: create instructions

11/12: continue with instructions

11/17: work on paper to distribute

11/19: work on packaging

11/24: create presentation and finish up anything that needs to be worked out

11/26: thanksgiving

12/01-end: work on presentation and anything else that needs to be worked out

Ideally I will have these kits ready by mid January and will be able to have them used after that and will be able to collect until end of February and will then be able to put my book together. This book will just be documented my entire process and project, as well as the works that I received.

What I think I should do next:

Create a refined proposal to send to Orli for her to forward on to the various schools. I need to spend a lot of time on this to make sure I really make my project and ideas clear.

Week 6

What I did:

Proposal: 2 hours

Meeting with Julie Kaplan: 1 hour

Making connections and researching art therapists and teen groups in ann arbor: 1 hour

Starting to go through the reading that Julie gave me: 1 hour

Continuing other research: 1 hour

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

This week I feel I had sort of a reality check- which I think is what I needed.

On Saturday, I did a wide search of various teen groups in Ann Arbor that seem to be focused around helping youth deal with various problems such as being bullied. I decided to email different representatives in the groups to tell them about my intentions for my project and to see if they would be able to meet with me to further discuss or to see if there is any way I would be able to work with girls in their programs. Here is a list of programs I contacted:

-It's Great to be a Girl: http://www.oami.umich.edu/precollege/igtbag.html

-The Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative: http://watt.ewashtenaw.org/news/youth_development_initiative_faq.html/youth_development_initiative_faq.html#one

-Center for Creative Growth- contacted Susan Boyes who is an art therapist/artist:http://www.centerforcreativegrowth.com/

-Michigan Association of Art Therapy: http://www.michiganarttherapy.org/

-Ann Arbor Neutral Zone:http://www.neutral-zone.org/

I received a response for a woman at the Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative who was very interested in my project and whom I am meeting with next week.

On a different note, I say this week was a reality check for a few reasons.

First of all, Hannah's notes on my proposal were very helpful and made me think. We talked about how art therapy is a huge field and a big thing to undertake. She also suggested perhaps working on a project that is already underway. We came up with the idea of using my graphic design skills to create a kit to give to teachers and programs. Hannah also thinks her friend Orli will be a great resource for me. (We are finally meeting next week, Hannah!- thank you!! :) ) I guess I walked away from this conversation a bit confused as to whether or not this kid would still involve me collected art from these girls, however I decided that this is very important for me and I would still like to do this. I am not going to call myself an art therapist, because I am not. Yet, I would like to use art to have these girls express themselves and get out their emotions. Right after I talked to Hannah, I coincidentally received an email from Susan Boyes, an art therapist at the Center for Creative Growth. She wrote:

Hi Carly,

Here’s the issue. You can work with adolescent girls and bullying and you can implement a component of art-making as a process to help them express their experience but you shouldn’t call it Art Therapy unless you are an Art Therapist. There’s an ethical issue involved here. This profession requires rigorous education, testing, certification, and licensing, including ongoing continuing education. Some art educators, artists, social workers and some counselors cross that line and shouldn’t. It’s not fair to the clients you serve to misidentify yourself or your service in this way.

FYI: do not display or publish other people’s artwork in any way without a signed release that permits you to do so! You could be sued.

I will be happy to talk to you further about this if you like. I am busy this afternoon from about 2 to 5, but otherwise available to talk.

Susan Boyes, MA, ATR-BC, LPC

Registered Art Therapist, Board Certified

Licensed Professional Counselor

This was very eye-opening. I realized that it is 100% true, I am not an art therapist, and cannot pretend to be one. It also made me aware of the legal situation of collecting these artworks from these girls, and I will need to research and think about this.

I believe that making a kit would be a concise way for me to package everything together in a well-designed way. I would also want to include art pieces from women my age to show these girls.

I found an artist who did a very similar thing. Her name is Becky Rizor. Here is the blurb about her project, which was part of the larger project: Stop Bullying Now.

Resource Type: Poster and colorables

Publisher: Queen Bee Productions

Year Published: 2004

Words Hurt poster and colorables are an important and effective addition to your school or organization's character building and anti-bullying efforts. Designed by artist Becky Rizor to be inclusive, this heartfelt rendering of the mountable poster and student coloring sheets helps bring the importance of paying attention to what we say to each other. Packets include: Poster in color, 30 letter-size colorable sheets of the drawing with black lines on durable cover stock, a resource list, and suggested uses for the materials. Becky Rizor originally created the “Words Hurt” drawing as part of a local V-Day effort to stop violence against women and girls and has adapted it to become part of school and community programs. She is a graphic artist/illustrator who was commissioned by Oak Associates Ltd. of Akron to do cartoons for Norman Schwarzkopf, Margaret Thatcher and Colin Powell.

This was helpful to see that someone has done something similar to what I hope to do.

Today, I met with Julie Kaplan. Julie works for the Center for the Child and Family and is a staff member in the group, Strong Moms Strong Girls. I talked with Julie for an hour and she was SO helpful. It was really great for me to meet with someone who has not heard anything about my project and hear their response. She seemed very receptive to my ideas and very willing to help. I learned a lot about the program, Strong Moms Strong Girls and their intentions. Their goals are obviously all similar to mine, yet it is frustrating that they already have a working program that is funded with a large staff. It is hard for me since it is just myself and it is hard to get started and form connections such as the connections they have with local Ann Arbor schools (I don't know if this makes sense). She explained that it would not really work for me to lead a workshop with the Strong Moms Strong Girls participants since they often have trouble even fitting in what they want to do with their participants. However, she is very willing to get me in touch with the teachers at the elementary schools that the program works with, and is also willing to send an email out to past participants of strong moms strong girls and tell them about my project. She is going to talk with the other staff members more and get back to me. This was definitely helpful to me since it showed me that there is definitely hope with my project. I will for sure be in touch with her and she was a great contact for me to make. She told me that the program also needed help developing their logo and identity- something I thought could also be interesting.

All in all, this week I feel I discovered a lot!

What I think I should do next:

-I am meeting with Orli finally which I am really looking forward to.

-I need to read all the information that Julie gave me (there is a lot- but it seems really interesting and helpful)

-Meet with Chana Hawkins at the Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative

-Start thinking about what exactly I would want to include in the kit and some design themes- I need to think of key words!

Week 5

What I did:

This week was spent doing a few various things. Again, I feel like I am at a bit of a stand-still until I meet with an art therapist/social worker/ someone who works with girls this age to discuss my ideas and find a group of girls to start working with.

1) Coordinated with Julie Kaplan- works for the University Center for the Child and Family at U of M. Julie contacted me from my email to Strong Moms Strong Girls. I will be meeting with her this coming Wednesday (10/14). I am really looking forward to it! (30 minutes)

2) Contacted some of my friends to have them generate drawings/writings for me. This made me realize that I can get some very different responses and therefore had to weed through some of them. I just wanted to start collecting things, even if they may or may not be useful. I felt it was a good exercise. (1 hour)

3) Drafted my project proposal (3 hours)

4) Sent email to Ann Arbor Neutral Zone- suggested by Shay today. (30 minutes)

5) Continuing with my reading and research (1 hour)

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

Again, I am really looking forward to meeting with Julie. I think it will lead me in a good direction and give me some new insight. It will be interesting to bounce my ideas off of someone who works with this subject for their career. I am also glad that I have not met with anyone earlier because I finally feel I am able to clearly articulate my ideas (writing and having the proposal has helped so much!)

Here are a few of the drawings/writings that I collected from girls my age:

The text on the right says: In fourth grade I was severely bit by a dog and had to wear a bandage on my face for an entire year. The bandage covered my entire left cheek. The stories, whispers and giggles made me cry everyday. Not one day did my bandage go unnoticed. I felt as if the bandage was bigger than myself.

It felt good to start collecting things and having to ask people to give me something. I asked some girls my age to reflect on a specific event in which they remembered being psychologically bullied or mistreated by girls in elementary-middle school. I also asked them to handwrite whatever it is they wanted to tell, since I felt that would make their stories more personal. I'm still not 100% sure what to take from these pieces, however it was nice to start the process. Also, I saw how a simple question could evoke very different responses. For example, I had to discard some of the writings I got since they really seemed to be irrelevant. It is good to know that I have to be prepared for that. I think I am going to continue with this process to see what I get. I got this idea from our group session when we had to think of something to do with little time and money. Additionally, today while speaking with my group of 3 others sharing our proposals, the idea of reaching out to all the females in IP came up. They thought it would be interesting to ask for journal entries/ any artwork made during this time. I think this might be an interesting idea. Perhaps I should consider doing it before people may be going home next weekend for Fall break.

Also, today, I discovered the website lulu.com in class from Ashley. This seems like such a cool tool and a great option for me to make my book. You can also sell the book you make on this website, or get an ISBN number through them and sell it on amazon! I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but it is interesting to begin to think about my final product.

Lastly, my classmates today suggested creating a blog alongside my project. I have been thinking about this idea and I think it would be a really great tool. This way, girls can go online and look at other girls artworks to see that they are not alone in going through what they are going through. It would also be a good thing for mothers to see. Girls would be able to post whatever they want to the blog and share stories anonymously. It could be a cool thing to along with my project.

What I think I should do next:

-Meet with Julie!

-Hopefully get in contact with someone from the Ann Arbor neutral center

-collect more images/writings/stories from people my age

-Firm up project proposal

Week4

What I Did:

Honestly, this was probably my least productive week so far, or at least I feel like it was. I think that once I get into contact with one of the people whom I have reached out to, I will feel better off and start to really be able to throw myself into this project. Hannah, thank you for talking to Orli- I am definitely going to call her soon.

-I drafted an email and wrote to the group Strong Moms Strong Girls, as well as Janie Paul (thanks for that suggestion- Erica!) I am still waiting to hear from both of them. (30 minutes)

-I am also still in the process of really getting myself into the literature that I have picked up at the library and trying to discover more about art therapy and bullying in general. I spent about 3 hours in total reading and taking notes on my books. I am finding them very helpful and they are definitely making me feel more knowledgeable on the subject. I am also getting some good ideas from them. (3 hours)

-I also discovered a few more interesting websites that seem to be pertinent to my project. Stephanie- I read the interview with Rachel Simmons (could not seem to get the audio piece to work). Her book sounds so interesting and relevant that I decided to order it off amazon so that I could read it. Thanks for that resource! (1 hour)

-On Tuesday I also had a conversation with Sean that was very helpful. (15 minutes)

-Trying to come up with a question to pose (45 minutes)

-I am not sure exactly how I spent the rest of my time this week, but I am going to say that I spent at least the rest of the time just trying to think and take in all of the feedback and advice that I am getting. It feels weird to be doing so much thinking without actually making stuff, but I think that it is helping me really get organized. I also know that once I start talking to the resources that I am trying to get in contact with, I will have a lot more to work with.

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

Through the book Something To Draw On I thought about the idea of possibly working with the bullies as well. The author suggests asking questions such as: "Why do people bully? Can you think of a time you have been a bully, or seen someone else being a bully? Imagine you are that person for a minute. Why are you doing it? How does it make you feel while you are bullying? How do you feel later on? Children draw images to represent what is going on for the person who bullies.

-Another idea is having children make images of themselves feeling good and confident in relation to situations they find difficult: They are asked to consider what they are thinking about? How would they be feeling? What would they be saying to themselves?

-Another idea posed in this book is to ask children to represent a situation that causes fear or anxiety for them (such as speaking in front of a group, confronting someone or dealing with a bully) The children then, in a separate picture, represent themselves overcoming it or standing up to it- asked to draw the thing that they feel anxious about. How does it feel to be able to do it?

In the book Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children, there is an entire section on Art therapy groups, and working with a group of bullied girls for 10 weeks, for 1 hour sessions. "All group members are encouraged to bring in bullying situations that may haveduring the week, which may lead to role playing, discussion, or drawing. Each occured group member has his or her own drawing pad.

-I think this idea of working with a specific group of girls for a certain duration of time is very interesting. I also like the notion of actually being able to interact with the girls rather than just having them draw in a classroom setting without me having much interaction with them. This idea was also brought up by Anna in the small group discussion on Tuesday.

A few possible questions I came up with to pose:

-Draw what happens when you are treated poorly by other girls?

-How do others make you feel at school?

-How do you feel when someone takes away your rights?

-What are the times at school that you feel uncomfortable?

Conversation with Sean:

-I need to create a network that is supportive

-anonymity factor?

-handbook to give to school districts to make more accessible?

-creating a book for teachers to serve as a lesson plan?

-pen pal system?

-I need to consider the age group and drawing skills- I have been thinking that these girls are younger than they are, and perhaps some of them might feel uncomfortable drawing. Maybe I should also allow them to write or create poetry?

-perhaps creating a network between 10 different schools so the girls are able to see that girls in other schools are feeling the same way as them, and so the bullies can see what they are doing, however it is anonymous since they won't be seeing drawings from their school.

Here is my WHAT and WHY that I came up with:

Generation of drawings from 5^th- 7^th grade females who have been psychologically bullied to allow for victims to articulate themselves in a safe way and provide for nonverbal self-actualization, while in effect giving these girls more confidence and showing others the prevalence and severity of this such problem.

-I found today's class very helpful! It was so interesting hearing what my group had to say about possible projects that I could create if I had all the time and money or if I only had a week. I am definitely going to take some time to take these in.

Lastly, I found this program that is being done by Dove, which seems very relevant to my project, and it is interesting to see how they are doing this program and giving girls more self esteem.

http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/

What I think I should do next:

This week I am going to be very focused with making contact with at least one person to get me going. I am really looking forward to this interaction, and I now feel like I am able to articulate my ideas much better than I was a few weeks ago. From this, I will have a direction to take, however it is hard for me to predict what these people will say.

I am going to keep researching and reading, which I am finding very helpful- almost therapeutic in some way. I am also going to go over all the points that my group made today and think about taking ideas from a couple of the suggestions made.

That's all for now :)