Welcome to Charity!
“I drew a Blue Moon to represent the programme because the Blue Moon means joy and happiness”
– P4 Student from The Jockey Club Expressive Arts Programme for Children
It’s been a challenging year, but challenges represent new opportunities. The difficult circumstances have encouraged us to be more creative in our fundraising activities, while also ensuring we are able to serve our beneficiaries at a time when they are most vulnerable.
When schools and centres closed, we provided online workshops and delivered art kits to the homes of children without immediate access to technology, so they could still enjoy the therapeutic benefits of art whilst under the stress of being forced to stay indoors for extended periods of time.
After three successful years, The Jockey Club Expressive Arts Programme for Children is reaching its conclusion in January 2021. COVID-19 had a significant impact on our operations during the programme’s closing months and methods of delivery of expressive arts workshops, teacher training and evaluations had to be significantly adapted, in most cases becoming entirely digital. We will be gathering feedback from all programme participants during these final weeks to assess the effectiveness of this online approach.
Together with the University of Hong Kong, we are collating the results of the research carried out over the past three years and will be presenting some very promising quantative and qualitative findings on the impact of this programme on children with (and without) special educational needs (SEN), as well as their teachers, social workers and counsellors, in an online symposium on 30 January – stay tuned for details.
Art therapy professionals, educators, social workers and care workers from NGOs across all sectors will be invited to attend, though the event will be open to all interested parties. We hope by sharing our findings, we can promote greater understanding about the multitude of benefits that expressive arts can bring, especially for those with SEN and when applied in the school environment.
We also launched Art at Home, a brand-new section of our website featuring free, therapeutic art content for the public to enjoy. This includes a delightful series of original picture books featuring tales from ‘Stationery Island’, created by SAF Ambassador, Tanya Bennett (aka Pirate). Explore the series of e-books here with accompanying worksheets that encourage reflection on the important lessons in each story. Other highlights include a Kindness Corner, filled with more fun activities, and a Competition section featuring a newly launched colouring competition based on the book ‘Please Be You’, written by Joanne Hay and illustrated by Pirate.
So, while this year has been challenging, we have adapted and tried some new things, created wonderful characters through these books and activities, and continued to tell our story about the benefits art can bring into the lives of vulnerable children.
Despite our success in adapting, we have struggled to raise the amount of money needed in the absence of a physical fundraising gala. We hosted a series of popular small-scale events in the summer which, together with our artwork auctions, brought in funds. That was no small feat and we truly appreciate the support everyone gave us during that period. However, it is still less than what we would usually raise at our annual fundraiser so any further donations, especially as we hit the festive season, would be greatly appreciated.
Please donate to The Sovereign Art Foundation and support our workshops by clicking here. To find out more about donating and our patronage programmes, click here. Moreover, if you would like to discuss any ideas about how you or your company might support us, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at tpinkstone@SovereignGroup.com.
All support, big or small, monetary or in another form, is very much appreciated!
Here is to looking back at this year, and all the lessons we have learnt and taking all the positive experiences with us into the next year.
Warm regards,
Tiffany
Director of The Sovereign Art Foundation
