We Care Arts on Continuity of Community

I have with me today Katie Neubert from We Care Arts as well as Rick Willits and Kelli Campbell.
So my first question is how long have you been involved with Daybreak and how did you get connected with us?

Thank you so much for talking with us.

We love Daybreak and we are so proud of our partnership with the team over there and all the amazing work that they have been doing.

We Care Arts is a 40-year-old organization. Our mission is focused on empowering healing through art and community.

And since about 2019, because it was pre-COVID.

We know that we were working through the Montgomery County ADAMS board to provide services to Daybreak.

Since COVID, we have been going out on a monthly basis and working with art and utilizing art to process what people are going through, to help them to self-identify, and to help others identify them as artists.

Not their diagnosis or their living situation, but for who they truly are. And I think that is where Daybreak’s mission and We Care Arts mission really aligns because we are striving to serve that whole person, to set them up for long term success.

Definitely. Art in therapy and processing is hugely important. How have you seen Daybreak change since you got involved with us?

When you first came to us, the first thing I thought was, I wanted to talk to our art instructors who are out at Daybreak all the time. And overwhelmingly they were so excited about that partnership.

That is something they look forward to, is to go to Daybreak to support them and to really find ways to help empower them and find things that are meaningful to the students.

And they said, from their experience on the ground at Daybreak, they really haven’t like seen structural changes.

But what has always impressed them is how many services Daybreak is able to provide, those wrap around services.

It’s not just housing, it’s not just food, it’s all of those things that really encompass looking at the whole person where they are at the time to set them up for success in a way that is meaningful to them that will have long lasting impact.

And so, that diverse range of activities and outings are all designed to help foster a sense of community and provide enriching experiences, that is the thing that has really stood out to our art instructors.

Awesome. That’s what we’re trying to do, like you do with art, making sure that people have their identity as an artist and the whole person, not just any one aspect.

I was just going to add, too, I loved [our instructor] Anthony’s quote because he said that from a like a bang, bang bang standpoint, he said that he has specifically been able to observe like the individuals gain confidence, develop their skills and I love the use of the word “meaningful.”

He said they have taken meaningful steps towards independence.

And Anthony has this really awesome perspective and he really encourages people in a nice way, he doesn’t accept that somebody doesn’t know how to do art.

He thinks that talent is talent, but he thinks it’s also learned. It can be learned through repetition and practice and study.

So just for him to say that he’s seen people develop their skills, is really a tremendous compliment to the independence that people at Daybreak are showing in the supportive environment that Katie mentioned.

For him to see those three things I thought spoke volumes about what you’re doing.

Definitely that’s something that Daybreak tries to do is build that independence, which is a buildable skill.
And being able to do something that you weren’t able to do before, every bit it’s progressive, it builds on itself.

It is. And I think that’s one of the magic things about art is, yes, we enjoy the beauty of art and the creativity of art, but art also subtly supports all of those life goals that are out there, right?

Whether it is being able to write directions, follow directions, collaborate within a classroom to be able to do time management, project management, all of those types of things that we use every day as adults, right?

And then we have to start practicing those as youth.

I think Daybreak has a lot of programs that help integrate those types of skills into the learning and the environment that the youth that they serve are experiencing in an educational, meaningful way.

Then we come in and through our art classes that Anthony is teaching are able to support that. They can actually have tangible hands-on experience.

They might not realize that it’s a time management skill, which is important, but they’re still getting that experience and that practice.

Yeah, definitely. That is an amazing thing. And I think that really is very much the magic of art. It’s a sneaky, helpful, useful thing for humans of all sorts.
So, what surprised you the most in your time since you started your partnership with Daybreak?

I think that the thing I have been maybe not the most surprised by is how much they accomplish as an organization that goes unrecognized in our community.

They are there each and every day making sure that there is a safe environment that is not only a room, not only food, but it is an environment that is helping these young people to thrive while the rest of us are just going on with our daily lives.

They are making sure that the next generation is really being taken care of and not falling through the cracks.

I think that I have to echo what Anthony was sharing and his response to that was directly quoted.

What really surprised him is how much is being offered to the young adults. Helping people with the necessities like housing, employment and clothing, but then the diverse range of activities, all of those things.

Again, you think of Daybreak as a shelter, but it’s not just a shelter. It is a community.
It is a thriving environment that is helping these young people through a very difficult time in their life, but not making their entire life about that difficult moment.

Yeah. A big part of that, too, is the work that your organization does with us. It gives the young people, the youth, a chance to inhabit that creative part of themselves instead of dealing with the reality of, “OK, I need to fill out this paperwork, I need to do this and that and the other.”

Not an escape, but an inhabiting of a different part of themselves maybe.

From a community engagement standpoint, I would say the thing that surprised like me personally the most is just the need for this in the Dayton area.

We wrote hopefully to get money from the OneOhio grant. We did not.

But in that process we learned there are a lot of opportunities for us to provide a small portion of that recovery support. As Katie mentioned or will mention, our mission is to empower through art and community.

Before you can get to the community, before you can get to the art, the things like housing, employment and clothing and food and shelter, all those things have to be taken care of.

For somebody to even begin to think about self-actualization and how art is really improving the quality of their relationships and opens up their mind to think creatively and think about their future.

So, the need that exists in Dayton is really, really surprising and I think Daybreak for us has served as such a stable model to show us how we can be better at serving those people. Not just in the Dayton community, but throughout the Greater Miami Valley.

It really helped us with a portion of an outreach grant we’re doing with ADAMHS above and beyond Daybreak. It’s helping us with a grant that we’re writing in with Piqua for the Piqua Community Foundation and really been like future partnerships with places like Emerge in Greene County.

We feel that the Daybreak partnership and relationship is invaluable as we’ve gotten to learn about how we fit in and can really help in one small piece of recovery support.

Yeah, I think that one of the things that I like to talk about is that famous quote about it takes a village to raise a child. I think that it takes a group of organizations, businesses, concerned individuals to come together as a community to raise our community up.

It’s all of these organizations that come together to do their part. There is no magic bullet. There is not one answer. And so, one of the things that I think is great about our partnership is that Daybreak specifically works with youth.

As those individuals age out, they have now this transition of, “Oh my goodness, what happens now?” Which can be very scary in the best of circumstances as you go off to get your first job or go on in your schooling or whatever.

But you add all of these other situations and uncertainties that the young adults at Daybreak are experiencing, then what we like to do is be a soft handoff right into that adult experience.

We can be that warm handshake that yes, they know Anthony, they know the We Care Arts logo.

They are familiar with our art projects and what we’re doing. And we come to them at Daybreak as youth.

Our programming is actually more focused, probably 80% on adults.

Now they can transition from the Daybreak environment into the supportive environment of We Care Arts, and they’re going to come to maybe 1-2 different classes in a week, and they’ll have that continuity of care, that touch point of familiarity that will allow the community to continue to support their growth.

Meanwhile, they’re going off to school regularly or they’re going into their jobs or whatever that next phase is. It’s not just a cold break. I think that’s how organizations like Daybreak and We Care Arts really shine in how we are working collaboratively together.

Yeah, definitely. I think that is a wonderful thing to have to have that continuity of community because it can be abrupt. And also, with the art and everything, I would imagine that also is a window or a doorway into the art community at large, which is pretty big in the Dayton area. It gives them more points of support or contact, I would imagine.

Absolutely.

What do you most enjoy about Daybreak and the work that we do?

I love, from an executive director’s point of view, working with the staff, the people that are at Daybreak doing all of the not very glamorous infrastructure paperwork, making sure that the lights stay on and things because their passion and their compassion shine through.

They are there 365 days a year for these youth and for our community. To be that safety net and what they are doing and what they have done for 50 years is absolutely amazing.

I don’t think there’s anyone that wouldn’t say, “Gosh, I wish, I wish we didn’t need a Daybreak.”

But I’ll echo that with thank goodness we do have a Daybreak and we have the people there that are so committed and so mission focused to have brought us to this point.

I look forward to continuing to collaborate with Daybreak so that we can see—this is what we’ve accomplished so far together. I can’t wait to see what we’re able to do over the next 50 years.

Definitely all of us here. too. Thank you so much for your time.

Want more interviews, make sure you’re all caught up with the latest 50 Faces 50 Voices features. Also, below are the answers for these questions from Anthony, a We Care Arts instructor.