Group helping at-risk youth

Nonprofit uses art to teach life lessons

by Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
   A Kendall Park nonprofit organization is using art to teach at-risk youth valuable life lessons.
   Arts Resources Training Services is holding a daylong seminar of workshops from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the High Road School on Cottontail Lane in Somerset. The program is aimed at children between the age of 3 and 21 who are facing emotional, social and behavioral problems. They hope kids in schools, human service agencies, behavioral health clinics, and the juvenile justice system all around New Jersey will participate.
   The workshop will feature three professional art instructors. Brother and sister Daniel and Maureen Heffernan, and Patricia Flynn. The three will provide interdisciplinary art instruction to the participants, including visual pieces, writing and the performing arts.
   ”We have recently come to focus on at-risk kids,” ARTS founder and Director Jacque Rubel said. “We have learned that there are very few programs that aim to help youngsters better themselves through art.”
   The projects in the program are designed to address issues facing at-risk kids such as anger management, conflict resolution, bullying, prejudice and self-esteem building.
   ARTS became an official nonprofit two years ago, however Ms. Rubel says that she has been running art education programs for more than 50 years through the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education, which she also founded.
   All of the work done at the workshop will fit into the theme of “Heroes.” Possible projects include creating masks, American Indian quill work, painting, acting out of folk tales, South American dance and poetry.
   Ms. Rubel says that the type of early intervention the program provides is key to making a difference in children’s lives.
   ”My personal thinking is that we are so willing to spend the time building prisons to house these kids when they get older, why not take the time to try and stop them from going when they are young,” she said. “Art touches their inner-being. Some may not realize it, but everyone is born with an inner need to create.”
   For more information, or to register for the program, go to www.artsforkidsatrisk.org, or call 732-422-7438.