An expressive arts workshop on hope for single mothers

Abstract

This project aims to offer a synthesis of literature combined with my own experiences as a single mother and personal research of hope, expressive arts, and single mothers into an informal workshop. As a single mother, my experiences give me a direct understanding of the many hardships that single mothers go through. Throughout my journey, I began to wonder what hope really is and what impact it has on single mothers. Can hope be learned in a collective environment and can the process of the expressive arts help to facilitate this learning? My informal workshop, presented in these pages, is a direct result of my lived experiences and a detailed literature review of the nature on hope, single mothers, and the expressive arts. The workshop combines metaphorical self-portraits with aspects from the postsecondary education and professional development opportunities I have engaged in. More significantly, my experiences inspired me to search for something that would help me through the challenges of single parenting. It is this search, this journey, which I share in this project. This project, in its essence, is my journey of hope.