Graffiti workshop for young people with social anxiety

Wellbeing Exeter’s Community Connectors organised a graffiti workshop for 4 young females and it was held as a one-off session on a sunny saturday morning at the 100 Club youth centre in Exeter. Funded by Wellbeing Exeter, the Connectors were able to involve a well-established Exeter-based female graffiti artist who ran the workshop.

It was designed for a group of young people who often experience social anxiety and so was deliberately limited to a small number of participants to create a calm, safe and comfortable environment for everyone involved. All of the participants had previously expressed an interest in arts-based activities during meetings with their ‘Community Connector’, which served as the initial catalyst for the idea behind the workshop. As an opportunity for the young people to take part in a safe and positive social group experience, the session was facilitated with a focus and sensitivity around each participant’s needs.

After a brief settling in period and with everyone keen to get going the session got underway. Led by the graffiti artist, and with additional support from two of the Connectors, the group quickly started engaging. After learning about the different graffiti writing styles and browsing through street art magazines for inspiration, the group did some hands-on spray painting outdoors, helping each other colour their own canvases.

Having become more familiar with the various techniques, the young women came up with their own ideas and soon started putting these into practice. Armed with colourful liquid markers the group got painting and bit by bit the young women’s canvases started taking shape. All of the participants were very relaxed and seemed deeply absorbed in this creative group process as time flew by.

After finishing their art pieces and while wrapping up the session, the group unanimously agreed that we should aim to organise further activities for the future. All of the young people expressed that they found the group size to be “just right” and both the young people and their parents were very happy with the workshop. One parent told a Connector that her daughter had been “feeling rather nervous about coming along” but that she had “really enjoyed herself”. Another young person said that “it was really fun” and that she was proud of the art she created. All of the young women recognised the session as a positive group experience and left the workshop with a sense of excitement about future sessions.