Instilling Hope Through Creativity
Grantee: WISE – Women’s Initiative for Service and Education
Seeking the well-being of children is an ongoing concern of all communities as the COVID pandemic ebbs and flows.
The Women’s Initiative for Service and Education in Cook County, along with the estate of Karen Smaby, wanted children to have a positive outlet to express their fears and concerns, and look towards hope. Writing and drawing are forms of self-expression, but also serve as a creative representation of social challenges facing youth.
Over 100 submissions of writings and artwork were received from youth in Cook County. These works were used to create a hardbound book titled “Squeezed, the Constrictor” with copies distributed to each participant, as well as the school and public libraries.
This production encapsulates the historic time children are living in and will help instill pride and a positive outlook in the years ahead.
This poem by Kyler Hanson, a high school student, appears on the back cover of the book:
SQUEEZED
COVID is like a
Boa Constrictor.
At first it appears
Long and menacing,
Asphyxiating.
However, once it
Loosens but does not
Fully leave, it is
Not hard to get used
To having a Boa
Constrictor around.
