Digital Storytelling Initiative

WRAP is a multi-week summer program where teens use art to process trauma and explore social issues. Funded by the Urban Health Initiative and run in partnership with the Center for Community Health and Vitality, WRAP is led by professional teaching artists and social work specialists.

• Hands-on workshops in dance, drumming, poetry, writing, visual art, and film

• All content delivered through a trauma-informed lens

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The summer intensive multimedia arts WRAP program actually started as a one week spring break CPS program. “[We wanted to address the question:] How can they develop some resilience and to see that there is still joy in their lives?” Dr. Miller explains. “To know that there’s another way that they can be within community, and also [acknowledge] the fact that the arts can be very healing.”

The arts they engaged participants in started out with spoken word and poetry, later adding visual arts. Through continued funding of the program, they were able to expand and include African dance and drumming. Dr. Miller breaks it down the structure of the day.

“It’s a five hour program. They come in, they do a little bit of a gathering in the morning, and just a one word check in: “How are you feeling?” They go to support time with the social work interns, just to process how they’re doing. Then they go to an arts section, they have lunch, they go to another arts section. They go to social work support later for another half hour.“

WRAP included paid internship experiences for four UChicago School of Social Service Administration (SSA) social work students, a non-paid internship for students from the Pritzker School of Medicine’s Health Disparities Course, and a volunteer SSA faculty member/PhD student that served as a site supervisor.

Through these art mediums, teens learned skills such as active listening, the use of non-judgemental language, personal responsibility, conflict resolution techniques, and important communication and team-building skills. Most importantly, they gained the tools to begin healing from their personal traumas, and to use these tools in responding to future challenges.

The WRAP program is significant because it is empowering for the youth. I feel that it opens a space that cultivates a sense of belonging and has allowed [the young people] to explore their own feelings and ways of self-expression, as well as empathize with others. The small number of participants allows time and space for mentorship and gives opportunity for [young people] to feel heard and appreciated by adults.” –Zahra Baker

A five-day film intensive held at the Logan Center, Think It! Make It! Screen It! (TIMISI) is a free program for youth ages 12 to 17 who have some experience with digital filmmaking. The course strengthens students’ knowledge of the basics of videography, lighting, sound recording and editing, with a focus on more advanced techniques to develop their own personal filmmaking style. The course also emphasizes filmmaking as a cooperative medium through collaborative coursework.

StoryArts is a four-week arts and digital storytelling summer program for South Side middle school students. In partnership with the Logan Media Center and the Digital Storytelling Initiative, students work closely with teaching artists to learn about different elements of digital storytelling such as filmmaking, music production, spoken word poetry, and podcasting. Through hands-on activities and field trips, students explore their personal and community narratives through different artistic media, culminating in a final multimedia presentation.

The #MadeAtLogan docuseries is a media entrepreneurship apprentice program aimed at providing opportunities for emerging media makers to enhance their production skills. This docuseries was first piloted in 2018 in partnership with Nerdy Media. Six emerging media artists have participated by creating short films documenting Logan Center Community Arts programming. In 2019, with the launch of the Production Institute, the #MadeAtLogan DocuSeries expanded to include professional documentation opportunities for Institute graduates and alumni from other DSI media education programs.