Here’s a little story….

At the age of 20 I had completed my art degree at university and didn’t quite know what to do with myself after graduating. At that time, my Mum was working as a manager for a residential home based on a farm. She told me about a vacation within the company working with its service users in the education department doing art-assisted therapy. Immediately, I applied for the position and was lucky enough to get it.

This is when my love of art and working with children was established and I developed this passion within mainstream roles and residential care for a number of years before taking the plunge to work with my Mum and her best friend when they set up their own alternative provision within a therapeutic farm setting which we know now as ‘The Island Project Farming and Education Centre’ over 10 years ago.

This project was created to support children and young adults whom are at risk of being or are NEET (not in education, employment or training) and/or present with some form of additional behavioral or learning need. It’s all down to the inspiring core of the project which has made it go from strength to strength over the years; ‘believing in creating chances for a brighter future’. And that is definitely what we do.

Over the years we have developed an innovative and comprehensive programme which incorporates skilled practical learning in a wide range of animal-assisted activities, agricultural and horticultural projects and therapeutic schemes. One of these schemes, which we don’t often promote as part of the farm based educational service, is art-assisted therapy and expression crafts.

In its simplest definition, art therapy is a form of non-verbal communication and it is one way for our students to convey what may be difficult to express with words. It can be a way to ‘tell without talking’. This helps build beneficial skills when assisting them to regulate their emotions and articulate their thoughts, feelings and perceptions.

Because art-assisted therapy it is a sensory-based approach to non-verbal expression it allows students to experience being themselves visually and kinaesthetically. Recent, neurological evidence suggests that through the growth and development of the certain sensory characteristics within art making, there is a strong indication that it is effective in improving certain cognitions for example a child’s mood, sensory integration and the ability to calm the body and mind. This is especially noticeable with children who have experienced traumatic events or have a variety of additional needs.

With this in mind, I would like to plough some TLC into our art and crafts area at the farm and provide additional opportunities for our students to participate in these beneficial activities. Unfortunately, as a non-profit making organisation we do not have a pot of money at our disposal and so I’ve been trying to think of a way to put this into fruition.

I have decided to do a raffle competition in which a lucky winner will receive a bespoke ‘personalised canvas painting’ or ‘drawing’ of their choice created by myself. Here is a little snippet of some of my work:

Here is a snippet of some of the students work:

All I ask is in return is that a donation is made to buy a ticket for the prize draw that I will announce on Sunday 25th November at 7pm. Please ensure that you either leave your name and contact e-mail in the comments box on this page or private message me on: amy.martinson@islandproject.co.uk

Thank you in advance! And good luck!