Veterans and Community Conference: Coming Home through Art and Dialogue

 

The goal of this conference is to create space and community for veterans and their supporters to engage in healing and the re-integration process together. will focus on content creation and activities for the our City, our Vets mural, and will feature writing and art-making workshops, seminars on how to build healthy relationships between veterans and allies, and discussion panels exploring local support for veterans.

 

 

 

Day 1: 

10-12:00: Workshops: Working with Veterans 101 and Veterans Writing Workshop

12-2:00: Lunch and Opening Discussion (includes intros)

2-3:20: Visual Arts Collaboration Session (vets and allies, Working with Veterans 101 attendance required for allies)

2-5:00: Arts workshops

10-12, 2-5:00: Holistic Healing sessions

6:30pm: Performance

 

Day 2:

12-1:00: Warrior Writers Organizing Meeting (big picture, regional ideas, next book, mural, etc.)

115-2:30: Writing workshop/Facilitator’s Training (vets and allies, Working with Veterans 101 attendance required for allies)

245-4:00: Seminar: Operation Recovery and other ways to support vets

12-4:00: Open Space Workshop for artistic creation/collaboration

415-5:00: Closing

12-4:00:  Holistic Healing sessions

 

Registration required, fill out your appropriate attached form or download on our website and send to: rsvp@warriorwriters.org

 

 

This workshop is centered around building beneficial veteran-civilian relationships. We will explore participant's perceptions about and relationships with veterans. We’ll utilize creative writing/art-making, dialogue, participatory learning and active listening processes, as well as, the artwork of Veteran artists to guide our discussions. Some areas of learning & investigation will include: veterans’ issues and experiences, PTSD, challenges/benefits of working with veterans, and specific information about healthy ways of engaging veterans.  This workshop will provide a foundation from which civilian allies can build healthy and sustainable relationships with veterans and move toward creative collaboration. We also require any volunteers interested in facilitation or arts collaboration through Warrior Writers to attend a training with us.  Art/reflections from this workshop will be collected as possible content for the Veterans’ Mural; however, there is no obligation to submit work for the mural.

 

Our workshops are designed to assist veterans to share stories, opinions, and ideas, using prompts to enable participants to do productive writing/reflecting/story-telling/art-making on the spot where they learn by doing. Prompts and discussions cover a variety of military issues and experiences such as joining the military, homecoming, deployment, relationships, healing, growth, anger, etc. A crucial aspect of the workshop is that the discussions and writings are guided by participation. Veterans’ support for each other is a key aspect of collaboration.  A highlight for many veterans is having a space to air pent-up thoughts with others who understand and a sense of empowerment in the ability to tell their own stories. The workshop is for any military veteran regardless of their experiences with writing, combat, art, deployment, etc. Writing from this workshop will be collected as possible content for the Veterans’ Mural; however, there is no obligation to submit work for the mural.

 

Veterans and civilians come together to explore writing done by veterans in earlier workshops. Writing will be shared with the group as a whole before dividing into smaller sections to focus on particular artistic areas.  Some groups will work to create visual representations of the writing, while others will focus on editing the work, or preparing it to be performed on stage. The visual creations and performances will be utilized for the Veterans’ Mural and related activities,however, there is no obligation to submit work for the mural.  Community members must have attended an allies training.

 

Interested in possibly running a writing workshop in your area? Maybe looking to do closer work with veterans in the future? Warrior Writers founder Lovella Calica will lead a training for veterans and allies interested in facilitating workshops. Having attended a Warrior Writers allies training is a MUST for civilians interested in attending this workshop. The format is the same as a regular WW workshop, but with added tips, conversations and a DIY guide; essentially, you see it in action. Attendance to this workshop does not authorize one to lead workshops using the WW name, but is a stepping stone in the process. Art/reflections from this workshop will be collected as possible content for the Veterans’ Mural; however, there is no obligation to submit work for the mural.

 

Members of the Operation Recovery Campaign Team will lead a discussion on Operation Recovery and ways to get involved in supporting veterans. Operation Recovery is the first ever Iraq & Afghanistan veteran-led campaign, aiming to stop the deployment of traumatized troops and win veterans and service members Right to Heal. Art/reflections from this workshop will be collected as possible content for the Veterans’ Mural; however, there is no obligation to submit work for the mural.

 

Healing practitioners in the skills of acupuncture, yoga, reiki, massage therapy, and other areas will be offering free sessions to veterans throughout both days.