RedLine Youth Art Mentees Featured in Denver Journal of Education and Community
By Community Outreach Coordinator Moe Gram
The Denver Journal of Education and Community (DJEC) sources content from residents throughout the metro Denver area. DJEC invites residents to participate in conversations with their neighbors, familiar and unfamiliar, to cultivate journal content.
RedLine became aware of the Denver Journal of Education and Community (DJEC) in January of 2022. In early discussions about a potential partnership with DJEC, RedLine learned we were very much aligned in the ways we value community voice and advocacy for education.
DJEC and RedLine hold shared values of empowering and giving voice to our communities. We both work to create meaningful change in the worlds of education and art.
In the most recent Student Safety issue of the journal, DJEC used notes from a 2022 community conversation hosted at RedLine about the nuance of student safety. Last July, educators, community members, and artists who participate in our youth programming gathered together in our library for an afternoon chat.
The goal was to answer the questions: “What is a safe school? What are some things a school might need in order to feel safe for all students?”
While we did our best to be solution oriented, we learned from the conversation that there are so many factors that should be taken into consideration when making decisions about student safety.
In January of 2023, as a continuation of this conversation, mentees from our Youth Art Mentoring program at Whittier Elementary School spoke on their perspectives of school closures. They described a wide range of beliefs describing what they understand about the school closure process, what considerations decision makers should make, and what they view to be potentially valuable about the process.
As an added bonus, we were able to elevate the thoughts and perspectives of mentees from our Youth Art Mentoring program! Artwork and artist statements by our mentees are featured in this issue, and we are so very proud of the work they did!
In every issue of the journal, community members are asked to write a statement related to the article. I am very grateful to have contributed a brief note on my thoughts on student safety, which you can read here >
During my time as a middle school teacher and also in my many years of teaching after-school enrichment classes, I learned student safety has so much more to do with the whole child (beyond school shootings)—this can be physical, emotional, psychological, and even social.