FREE2LUV

Right now, our young people need to be lifted up. Youth across the globe are experiencing a mental health crisis, and we care. With the isolation of COVID, many youths have been left to cope on their own. We knew they needed our help more than ever, so we brought together a youth collective, mental health/child development specialists, and Free2Luv executive staff to design a program that would support and educate youth about mental health issues through art and journaling. We gathered artists, copywriters, and tech experts to help us create our EXPRESS IT! creative expression mental health workbook, and we designed virtual workshops to go along with it. We are ready to expand our impact and launch the EXPRESS IT! program nationally. With your support, we could exponentially expand our arts and empowerment programming, putting this mental health resource into the hearts and hands of under-resourced youth who really need it right now. The foundation has been laid – the program is developed, and the partnerships to bring it to our youth are in place. Now, all we need are the resources to elevate our reach. This funding and organizational support would be a gamechanger.

In 2011, my mother passed suddenly from pancreatic cancer. I was 46 and faced with how short life can be. I questioned whether I was fulfilling my life’s purpose, and I couldn’t stop thinking of all of the young people who were also tragically taking their last breaths; youth who felt they had nowhere to turn, whose only answer was to take their lives. I knew I needed to be a voice for the voiceless, and I felt driven to reach as many young people as possible. My family and I started Free2Luv®, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to empower, uplift, and save the lives of youth through art, conversation, and education.

Free2Luv uses Social Emotional Learning practices and art therapy techniques to address the youth mental health crisis by providing education and tools for youth to express themselves creatively. Our programs serve primarily under-resourced youth ages 10 -18 from multi-cultural backgrounds, low-income, displaced, LGBTQ+, refugee, and foster communities. Pre-COVID-19, we served 35,000+ youth annually. Our goal is to implement Free2Luv’s arts empowerment programming widely across the US. Wherever young people are struggling with their mental health, we want to be there to educate, support, and empower them.

According to a 2018 Healthy Kids Survey of 13,000+ 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in King County, WA, roughly 20% considered suicide. Almost 10% attempted suicide, and almost 50% reported that they had NO adult to turn to when feeling sad or hopeless. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reported in 2018 that 47,000 young adults across the U.S. died by suicide with 1.4 million attempts. Marginalized youth had the highest rate of attempts at 10%. This is not a new problem or a local problem—it’s global and it’s been exacerbated by the pandemic.

In the simplest terms, Free2Luv offers mental health services to under-resourced youth through arts programming using Social Emotional Learning (SEL) practices and art therapy techniques. But what happens in our workshops isn’t simple. In every program, participants open their hearts, get creative, speak freely, and are offered unfailing LUV and acceptance. As one participant said, “This project gave me the courage to speak my pronouns out loud for the first time. It felt amazing to feel so safe and free.” According to past surveys, at least 80% of participants demonstrated improved self-efficacy and relationship skills post programming and reported feeling a decreased sense of isolation.

We combine the arts, SEL skills building, under-resourced youth, a teen mentorship program, and inclusive conversation on topical issues to provide youth the tools to create healthy choices. Evidence-based research shows that artistic expression can be exceptionally healing because it gives youth the opportunity to adopt new healthy coping skills that lead to a higher sense of self-worth. Artistic outlets are particularly helpful in reducing anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and negative perceptions. An SEL education empowers youth to get in touch with their emotions; improve processing skills to better handle conflict and difficult emotions; deal with the stressors of bullying and peer pressure in more positive ways; and transform negative, internal voices into forces of strength and positive change. When we combine these two powerful forces with trained teen mentors and open and supportive conversations, under-resourced youth open up, create meaning, and take ownership of their future through pictures, symbols, words, and colors. After raising a young person's self-esteem and feelings of self-worth and valuing them for their uniqueness and magnificence, they go out into their communities and spread love, empathy, and positivity to their peers. It's a powerful ripple effect of empowerment and connection.

The CDC considers adverse youth experiences to be a public health issue and recognizes that there is a high need for programs dedicated to addressing the impact of adversity. Free2Luv helps fill the current mental health service and support gap under-resourced youth are experiencing by engaging our young people’s creativity and getting them to organize their thoughts, name their emotions, and use critical thinking skills to begin resolving their conflicting inner voices. All of our programs are hands-on and interactive, and they address the effects of loneliness, isolation, economic uncertainty, racism, and grief. Participants create art, reflect on thought-provoking questions and prompts, and spend time talking openly about their struggles. These activities give voice to participants’ innermost thoughts and feelings through images and words, and they reduce anxiety, depression, and even suicide rates while training young people to not only identify their own emotions and link them to tangible solutions but to recognize and embrace the thoughts and feelings of others, develop empathy and compassion, and to connect with their peers on a deeper level. We are not just healing individuals; through individual healing, we are healing communities.