Who Am I Anyway? is a arts integrated specialized, social/emotional program for students in grades 5-8.
This 14 to 16 week program is designed to assist students and big theme issues such as bullying, peer pressure, anxiety, and depression using a holistic, multi-modality approach, with an arts integrated template. By using performance and visual arts, along with talk back sessions, narratives and literary work, students are given the opportunity to explore current peer issues- while also becoming peer mentors. Who Am I Anyway? has a built-in arch, emphasizing self-awareness through the creative process, the importance of self-expression and becoming a more well-rounded young person.
Who Am I Anyway just concluded its first year and produced impressive results. The cohort formed bonds with one another, and trusting relationships with the adults in their school. Students have continued to use skills they practiced in the program to support one another, as well as other peers who were not in the program, but are dealing with their own feelings of anxiety. The program has filled a need for social/emotional learning at the middle school level.
Our Who Am I Anyway program was created to give our middle school students the tools to face the social/emotional issues present during the middle years, such as bullying, drug/alcohol abuse, identity, and fitting in. The program is a collaboration between CORE and the Tiverton School Department. CORE artists work with school psychologists and the guidance department in sessions designed to explore feelings, healthy solutions to problems,
and form bonds based on trust. This sixteen week program, with financial support by the Tiverton Prevention Coalition, consists of discussions incorporating visual art, yoga, writing, and theatre to explore the anxieties middle school children face. The program concluded with a powerful student-authored theatrical production which incorporated the themes of “Who am I?” and “How do I fit in?”, and was open to the public.