Children Comforting Children: 

Building Empathy and Trust Using Worry Stones 

Project Rationale: Children Comforting Children This project is grounded in the belief that positive human connections can help children experiencing trauma begin to heal. Art students in Still Life Ceramics will use their interest in learning how to work with clay to create and decorate worry stones that will be sent to children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers to demonstrate that people in the United States care about them and want to welcome them to the country. The immigration policies implemented by the Trump administration have caused lasting trauma to these children and their families at the border. This project allows Still Life Ceramics students to build their sense of empathy for those living very different lives from their own. According to Trauma Care Specialist Angela Barraza, “The need to address trauma is an important component of effective behavioral health service delivery” (Coulehan). Although this project does not deliver mental health services, it does focus on creating healing connections between children living in different circumstances. While making the worry stones, the ceramics students learn some basic facts about the challenges migrant students face. As they create their worry stones, they will be encouraged to design them in ways that will make someone else feel better. Allowing children to help other children overcome a traumatic experience will be a positive learning experience for all the children involved in the project. 

Community Outreach and Service Learning  

Our world is entirely different than it was a year ago. Many children are aware of the need for our country to heal and to become kinder. The Children Comforting Children Project activates the long-honored words of Emma Lazarus, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," through efforts to help children survive a painful and frightening experience (Lazarus 1883). Our immigrant history has made this country great. Reconnecting to that past and letting children detained by ICE know that we welcome them can help the healing process. The project also creates an opportunity for children to discover service learning, community outreach, and personal growth through artistic practice.  

Overview of Programming 

Mission: To inspire compassion for others through artistic practice. 

Objective: To make 720 worry stones that will be used to comfort the 660 children separated from their parents by ICE officials at the border. To prepare for potential future exhibition opportunities, 20 stones will be preserved for exhibition purposes. The remaining stones will be available for students who wish to keep a worry stone in recognition of their participation in the project. The overall number of stones can be adjusted based on interest in the project. 

The project includes three phases listed below: 

1. The six hundred sixty children that have been detained by ICE officials and separated from their parents will each receive a custom crafted worry stone from the Still Life Ceramics Studio.

2. One class of twenty Still Life Ceramics students will create the first batch of 200 stones that will begin the first phase outlined in the timeline listed below. That timeline will be repeated for each class that participates in the project. Three classes of 20 students can create more than 5 stones each to satisfy the count requirements or additional classes can be added and the overall number of stones be increased to 800. 

3. A digital project book will be created to honor the project and allow the artist and studio to promote efforts to build compassion and empathy through the creative practice of working with clay. 

Six developmental steps: 

1. Teach children 7 to 16 years of age how to design, execute and duplicate the worry stones using simple plaster press molds while sharing information about immigration via PowerPoint to educate the students about the lives of the children being detained. 

2. Teach students about the ideation process as they develop their design concepts. 3. Teach students about working with the materials and understanding the rule of nine. 4. Move students through the phases of production. 

5. Work with Still Life Ceramics personnel to prepare the stones for shipment to the border 6. Develop the digital magazine for the project.