Grant Highlight: The Homewood Center's Legacy Poetry Project

Monday, November 22, 2010

(The Horizon Foundation) -- The Homewood Center opened in 2002 serving students from grades six through twelve as an alternative learning center designed to provide both academic and behavioral support systems. Homewood houses three separate programs:

The Gateway Program is an educational setting for students that have struggled with academic, behavior and attendance issues.
The Bridges Program serves students who have emotional disabilities and receive special education services.
The Passages Program provides transition opportunities and support for students returning to the public school system from facilities such as juvenile detention centers.

Students with Truth Thomas, poet

In 2009, Homewood Center educators approached The Horizon Foundation and requested funding for a poetry workshop, after finding that such workshops serve as highly effective forums for healing. Named, 'The Legacy Poetry Project', the foundation awarded $4,790 to the Homewood Center in order to offer this therapeutic tool to students. The goal is to teach at-risk students the power of positive self-expression through culturally enriching explorations of poetry.

Workshops are held on a bi-weekly basis during the school year. Students read poetry, participate in discussions, or work on writing prompts. Technology and field trips are also integrated in the program in order to enhance the students’ experience with art and nature.

"The funding we have received has allowed us to bring poet Truth Thomas, a widely published poet and former poet-in-residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literary Society to our school to work with our students," explains Anne Reis, media specialist at the school. Reis continues, "Bringing poetry into the lives of these children offers them a way to express themselves creatively and in a safe environment. Horizon's funding has also allowed us to take annual field trips to the Walter's Art Gallery in Baltimore. These trips have exposed our young poets to the beauty of art and have enriched the poetry that our young poets create. Without The Horizon Foundation's generous funding, we would not have such a rich, vibrant and powerful program at the Homewood Center."

Truth Thomas, poet

Poet Truth Thomas gives insight into the impact the program has had as well. "The Legacy Project at the Homewood Center demonstrates the transformative power of poetry through creative writing workshops. This program immediately impacts troubled teens by raising their self-esteem, and by boosting their academic confidence. It serves as an intellectual and emotional “safehouse” for students in crisis. Indeed, The Legacy Project offers these young people an alternative to the negative facts of their lives. It offers them the power of hope."

Tina Maddox, Principal of Homewood, describes how the project has affected not only the students who have participated, but also the staff of the school. "The Horizon funding allows our students to participate in a structured extra-curricular type of activity that they are generally missing while in attendance at Homewood. More importantly, it is a constructive and creative way for our students to share the multitude of trauma they have experienced in their lives. The Legacy Poetry Project provides a differentiated approach to meeting the various needs of our students and is a fantastic way to celebrate them. We are honored to have Truth Thomas lead this effort and are thankful for the funding that the Horizon Foundation has so graciously provided. The experience brings tears to our eyes and warmth to our hearts."

At the completion of the program, students will submit entries for various poetry contests and participate in the Homewood Poetry Reading featuring their own work. The school plans to publish a collection of student poems in pamphlet form.