By Joyell Nevins

Art class inspires homeless teens

When your next meal is a question mark, “dream big” may not be a part of your vocabulary. But several teenagers at Father Joe’s Villages now have a visual reminder of what their future could hold.

In one of the buildings, stretching from the floor to the ceiling of a rec room and reaching into the hallway is a vibrant mural. The mural is a culmination of an art project called “How to Draw Your Dreams.”

“That visualization has a lot of power,” said Ali McGraw, who taught and led the project in conjunction with the tutoring center C2 Education.

To go along with their mission of encouraging kids to dream big, C2 Education came to Father Joe’s with the idea for the art series. They had already been working with Father Joe’s teens in subject tutoring and SAT/ACT test prep, and the Village jumped on board with this new project.

Deacon Jim Vargas, Father Joe’s president and CEO, said that while the Village offers several supportive opportunities to its young people, this idea “stood out” with its unique approach to “fostering positivity.”

In the classes leading up to the mural creation, McGraw encouraged the teens to think expansively and to make their dreams as wild and huge as they could.

“I told them ‘you want to climb a mountain? Then draw the tallest mountain in the world — we’re dreaming big,’” McGraw said.

The art class series was open to anyone in the Village who was 15-18 years old. The first two weeks started with the teens drawing individual posters and pictures to represent their dreams.

Then McGraw took those symbols and pictures and implemented them into one continuous mural. The drawing spreads across ceilings, window sills, doors and walls.

During the final week, McGraw and the teens worked together to paint the mural.

The rec room now contains giant representations of a wolf howling at the moon, a tattooed Minnie Mouse, kids blowing dandelions and a yin-yang dream catcher. On the walls, birds fly, an elephant trumpets and a sun sets in the desert. Intricate patterns crisscross on the ceiling.

The mural pulsates with life and emotion.

“When I saw how the final mural turned out, it was inspiring,” Vargas said. “It’s clear to me that working on this project alongside a talented local artist was a one-of-a-kind positive experience for these young people.”

McGraw noted that in the beginning, many of the teens were really nervous, but by the completion of the project they were wholeheartedly into it.

“It was amazing and they were awesome,” McGraw gushed. “I loved how much they loved the project.”

Vargas noted the joy that came through the teens while they worked with McGraw.

“We saw that the young people truly enjoyed reflecting on what they are passionate about and translating that into artwork,” he said. “This mural project was also a fun way for these teens to exercise a new type of creativity that they don’t get to practice every day.”

It’s also a way for the young people to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride — a visual reminder that they were a part of something bigger than themselves.

“They can look at this years down the road and think, ‘I did something awesome,’” McGraw said.

The project is also a dream come true for McGraw. It started with a peace sign when she was just a child.

“When I was 5, I drew a giant green peace sign on my parents’ freshly painted wall,” McGraw said. “Needless to say, they were less than pleased, but that was when I knew I wanted to paint every wall, everywhere. I eventually realized that I wanted to paint the world.”

In between there was art school, the Marine Corps and civil service. When McGraw left the Marine Corps, she wanted to do work that would make her as proud of what she was doing as when she was a Marine. Part of that vision is drawing murals around the world with local kids — and helping them leave an imprint.

McGraw is now an art teacher at Practical Karate, a Pacific Beach martial arts studio that believes in all aspects of creative arts. She said she was in the “right place at the right time” to team up with C2 Education for the dream project.

C2 Education began its partnership with Father Joe’s in March 2016. Twice a week, for two hours a day, tutors work with the teens in SAT/ACT prep, single-subject tutoring, and college preparation, such as completing applications and applying for financial aid.

Since its inception, C2 noted that it has helped the Father Joe’s kids increase their GPA by an average of 1.42, make drastic improvements in cognitive abilities, and consider college as a viable option.

For more information about C2 Education and other dream projects they’ve hosted, visit c2education.com and dreambigSD.com. For more information about Father Joe’s Villages, visit my.neighbor.org.

—Freelance writer Joyell Nevins can be reached at [email protected]. You can also follow her blog “Small World, Big God” at swbgblog.wordpress.com.