About
A Philadelphia arts education nonprofit that uses trauma-informed art-making to foster resilience, self-efficacy, and hope.
Mission
Hope and healing through art-making
BuildaBridge International engages creative people and the transformative power of art-making to bring hope and healing to children in need and their communities. Through trauma-informed art-making workshops, BuildaBridge provides safe, creative spaces away from violence, poverty, drugs and trauma, fostering resilience, self-efficacy and hopeful visions for the future.
Vision
The world we work toward
BuildaBridge envisions a world where all are resilient, experience self-efficacy, and have a vision for their future.
Three goals
Resilience. Self-Efficacy. Hopefulness.
In every class and every interaction, our artist-teachers, therapists, and volunteers work toward three outcomes.
1
Resilience
Surmount adversity and not be inhibited by it.
2
Self-Efficacy
Advocate for oneself through positive agency.
3
Hopefulness
Use waypower and willpower to build the future.
Method
How we work
Person-centered, hope-infused, and trauma-informed, with the community in the work.
Person-centered
Meeting participants where they are, with teaching and healing centered on the child rather than artistic ideals.
Hope-infused
Cultivating will-power and way-power so people can imagine—and pursue—a future vision.
Trauma-informed
Sensitive to the neurological, biological, psychological, and social effects of psychological trauma.
Strength-based
Discovering and raising up participants' strengths, not deficiencies.
Arts-integrated
Using art-making to teach life skills and non-art subjects, and to restore awe, purpose, and a clearer sense of self and world.
Contextual
The arts are most effective when communities help create them.
Collaborative
Change happens in relationship—art made together bridges barriers and builds trust.
Holistic
Peace, justice, well-being, and renewed vision across spiritual, social, emotional, and physical life.
Purposeful
Every curriculum and project is outcomes-focused and thoughtfully assessed.
Safe Spaces Model
The foundation of every program
The BuildaBridge Safe Spaces Model (SSM): The BaB SSM is the foundation of all BuildaBridge programming. Its pedagogical structure contains elements of Hope Theory (Snyder), Polyvagal Theory (Porges), the Sanctuary Model (Bloom), and the Capabilities Approach (Nussbaum). The SSM treats art-making as a mechanism for nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and rebuilding agency. BuildaBridge Teaching Artists use the SSM to create a person-centered, strength-based, and hope-infused environment for participants to thrive in. Within each workshop, an arts-based metaphor provides the connective tissue to relate the art-making to 21st-century life skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, technology literacy, flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity, and social skills. The SSM's ultimate goal is to strengthen youth resilience, self-efficacy, and hopefulness.
Hope Theory
Charles R. Snyder (1991)
Polyvagal Theory
Dr. Stephen Porges (1994)
Sanctuary Model
Dr. Sandra Bloom (2007)
Capabilities Approach
Martha Nussbaum (2000)
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Technology literacy
- Flexibility
- Leadership
- Initiative
- Productivity
- Social skills
Violence Intervention and Prevention
Over the last few years, the State of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia have invested millions of dollars to reduce violence. BuildaBridge, along with many other non-profits, use this funding to implement programming in neighborhoods stricken by violence. Many, if not most, of these neighborhoods have faced significant neglect stemming from historically racist public, social, and health policies. Violence is just one of the results of being underserved for generations. BuildaBridge enacts programming to create physically and existentially safe environments for participants to experience physical and psychological relief. The Safe Spaces Model, see above, helps create rewarding moments that support health, brain healing and growth. It is our hope that with more support like the city and state's, we can stem the tide of violence and help the next generation be even more resilient, self-efficacious, and hopeful through the power of art-making.
People
Who makes this happen
Start with the founding story, then meet the people who carry the work forward.