Kit Lofroos

Building Bridges:
Restoring the Individual to Community.

This project is geared toward a creating a self-esteem workshop and applying it to formerly homeless clients. In the future, it could also be used within the criminal justice system. The workshop consists of six-week, 2-hour classes that are designed to help examine one's autobiography and its impact upon one's sense of place, self-esteem, and personal sense of value. It utilizes written and verbal skills, journaling, listening to others, empowering one's self and one's peers, and enhancing cognitive-behavioral skills toward goal-setting and achieving one's goals.

Topics include such areas as: Mapping one's childhood home; influential childhood events, people, and social formations; death and its influences; envisioning one's vital project and achieving one's goals therein. Ultimately, it is my goal to allow one to discover, through self-examination and peer-group interaction, the influences that have helped to shape one's sense of self and of place. In turn, by empowering individuals to take responsibility for themselves and others in their communities, strong communities can emerge, with individuals who can resolve problems, reflect courage, be positive leaders, create and grow as individuals, and effectively communicate. This will then be reflected as strong and vibrant communities.

2001