I read somewhere recently that nearly 75% of blogs start with the phrase "I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long". Huh, ours is no different. You'll notice that the blog has been quiet, we haven't tweeted in a couple of weeks (but maybe that's because when the kids find out we have Twitter they look at us and roll their eyes, "Re-ally??"). We've been focusing on getting our week to week stuff up and running these past couple of weeks. Last week we resumed "Soul Food", our weekly dinner and discussion group. We had 6 youth out, which was good for our first week, and it ensured them a good feed of tacos (which have quickly become a Soul Food favorite).
This year, we're really excited about our discussion material. Maybe a bit more so than usual, because this particular stuff seems to stick. We have begun using the Habitudes material to guide our discussions. In a nutshell, it uses images to talk about self-leadership characteristics. We've used bits and pieces of this material in our Project Serve training, and it is one of the few things that the youth remember and talk about. Last week we looked at the image of an iceberg, and talked about the fact that 90% of an iceberg sits below the water. Where we can't see it. Then we bridged into a discussion about our outer characteristics and our inner characteristics. Which are more important? Which do we spend more time and resources on? And so, in the coming weeks, we will be sharing the story of the golden Buddha, examining whether we just reflect the culture around us (like a thermometer) or whether we influence it (like a thermostat), and ten other images. It's also exciting because it is faith-based material that also has a value-based companion, so there is potential to use some of this material in our partnerships with the schools too. The youth are engaged when we talk about these images, and the images seem to stick.
So that's a bit of what we've been up to. Hopefully I don't start my next post with, "I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long..." At least you know I have a good excuse!
This was done by one of our young men who has been with us for a few years now. He'd never done anything like this, and really put a lot of thought into what he wanted it to say. 
Just a demo piece I did to show some technique.
This guy was really shocked that he was at The Door and was allowed to spray paint. He said to one of our guys while they were painting, "I never thought I'd be doing this here with you". We're trying to encourage our youth that graffiti is a viable form of art, that doesn't need to be vandalism.
The young woman who did this is hard of hearing. She paintedthe sign language for love on the right hand side. She has just started college this year to become an interpreter.
A demo piece done by Aaron.
The young guy who did this piece also did the very last one. He loves BMX and skate culture, so this is a natural art expression for him.
This was a collaborative piece, that Aaron worked on with a couple of our guys.
Again, done by the guy who did the "Hello My Name Is" piece. At first, I thought he was a little out there in using the can so close, but I have to admit that the dripping paint is my favorite part.
