Just outside the playroom at Broadview Shelter and Transitional Housing, a once-empty beige wall is now alive with a colorful scene of cartoon animals gathered under a broad tree, a warm sunset at their backs.

If you look closer, you’ll find words hidden in the leaves of the tree and the pink clouds in the sky: Joy, Together, Safety, Fun, Imagine, Create. 

“The words are all things that came from the kids when they were asked about what Broadview means to them,” says Amy H., Children’s Program Supervisor at Broadview. “Even the tree was their idea. To them, it represents the Broadview community.” 

The group of kids who inspired the mural are all part of families that came to Broadview seeking refuge from the dual traumas of domestic violence and homelessness. But the mural itself was designed and created by a different group of young people: teenage “apprentices” at Urban ArtWorks, a Seattle nonprofit that engages young people in the creation of public art across King County.  

The Broadview kids came up with the ideas, themes, and styles, which the apprentices interpreted and incorporated into a mural designed to make kids feel welcome at Broadview. 

“It’s really a conversation between the apprentices and the kids,” Laku Nagami, a teaching artist at Urban Artworks who helped guide the apprentices’ work on the mural alongside colleague Trenise Williams. “At the end of the day, we want them to feel connected to the project, and have that emotional bond, because that elevates art onto another level.” 

Murals created by Urban ArtWorks apprentices over the last three decades can be found across King County and beyond, on the sides of buildings, on public staircases, and under freeway overpasses. But this mural is different. Located inside the Broadview building – at a confidential location, for the safety of its residents – it can only be seen by staff and the families who live there. 

A place for children to heal and grow 

Every year, about 100 families come to Broadview in search of safety and opportunities for healing and growth as they prepare for the next stage in their lives. This includes around 200 children and youth – infants to 18-year-olds – who often struggle with social-emotional challenges common to traumatic childhood experiences. 

“We’re finding that even our youngest kids can improve their negotiating skills, their executive function, and their ability to communicate their needs and express their most difficult thoughts when they’re experiencing conflict. 

~Amy H., Broadview Children’s Program Supervisor

During their stay at Broadview – which can last six weeks up to a year – Broadview staff engage children in programs and activities designed to help them rebuild their social, emotional, and academic strengths as they work to develop emotional literacy, cultivate healthy relationships, and repair trust. 

A lot of that work happens through Broadview Buddies, a revolving five-week program that teaches children and teenagers how to foster healthy relationships through a curriculum developed by One Love. The group meets every week for an hour to an hour and a half for a lesson followed by an activity designed to reinforce the lesson. These might cover techniques for de-escalation, building connections with others, or dealing with big feelings and effectively communicating them. 

“We’re finding that even our youngest kids can improve their negotiating skills, their executive function, and their ability to communicate their needs and express their most difficult thoughts when they’re experiencing conflict,” Amy says. “One thing the middle schoolers have gotten really good at is when someone pops off in a really aggressive way, somebody else will say, “That’s not love!” which is a key phrase from an animation we watch. It’s prompting the kids to redo and try the interaction again.” 

Young people collaborating on a vision 

Last fall, one of the Broadview Buddies activities started with a conversation about what Broadview means for the kids. They then met with Urban ArtWorks apprentices over Zoom to talk about how they could convey those ideas visually, including the images, artistic styles, and even words that would be incorporated. 

“That symbolism came first,” Laku says. “It was about what would convey that community element, especially for kids who maybe aren’t so sure about their future. The apprentices wanted to create a sense of having grounding, of having a foundation, so when we did our brainstorming, that was at the forefront.” 

“The apprentices did a wonderful job of listening and then turning it into a thing that the kids could relate to,” Amy says. “So there’s all kinds of little things in here, things that the kids are interested in. That’s a soccer ball, a basketball, an instrument. They’re all in here.” 

Laku said it was also important to the apprentices that the animal characters they designed could represent the group of kids who inspired the mural as well as those who will stay at Broadview in the years to come. 

“The kids can be any of those animals – there’s no skin color, no genders. It’s just very free and flowing,” Laku says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, I could be that banjo-playing bird,’ or ‘I could be the jumping rabbit.’ I think they did a really good job of making it timeless and not really tied to one group of kids.” 

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• Image at top: Urban ArtWorks apprentices and teaching artists in front of the finished mural before it was hung at Broadview. All images courtesy of Urban ArtWorks except as noted.

• To learn more about youth development at Broadview, check out our blog post, How we’re using fun and play to make lifelong investments in our youth.