Art as an Intervention in Serving
Secondary Child Victims of Family Violence 2015-2017
Partnering Organization
Lingnan University
Project Period
Previous phase:
August 2015 – July 2016
Current phase:
August 2016 – July 2017
Participants
20-30 secondary child victims of family violence, aged 6-11 years
Location
Previous phase:
Tuen Mun Family and Child Protective Services Unit
Current phase:
Tin Shui Wai Family and Child Protective Services Unit
How it works
An inter-professional team of 5 social workers, 1 art therapist and 2 researchers oversee the project, which includes:
- Two series of 20-session group creativity workshops in a joyful, playful, safe setting.
- Sessions for parents to understand their children’s developmental needs.
- Training seminars on art facilitation for social workers
Impact
At the end of each series, the children showed improvements in expressiveness, engagement, social interaction and teamwork.
Project sustainability
“Training the trainers” is a core part of the project, for future sustainability. The art therapist train social workers on value of art therapy, and how to implement the activities, so that beyond this programme, they can continue to use art with child victims of family violence.
The children’s artworks
The artworks of these child victims of violence in the previous round showed common themes like traps, killing, death and weapons. Guided by the themes that arise in each child’s art, social workers helped the children work through these negative emotions through games, counselling and sharing.
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