Using Sketchbooks to Facilitate the Group Process with At-Risk Youth

ABSTRACT

There is a small body of social work literature on working with youth who are at risk in group settings using expressive art modalities. Authors have begun to explore the specific benefits of this and have found interpersonal and intrapersonal improvements, among other positive outcomes. The following article provides an overview of a particular ongoing activity, Sketchbooks, used to facilitate group process. In this article, the authors describe how individual Sketchbooks help foster therapeutic and strengths-based group factors in The Youth Public Arts Program (YPAP), a psycho-educational art program for youth who are at risk. The following describes the Youth Public Arts Program, the Sketchbook activity and 6-week curriculum, and examples of how the therapeutic factors are manifested in this particular group program.

KEYWORDS:

• At-risk youth
• community-based art program
• group work
• sketchbook
• therapeutic factors