Our Mission

The mission of Passion for Purpose Arts Ministry is to provide underprivileged single mothers with employment through the use of arts: visual, performance (Art Live), dance and music. Artwork created by single mothers is then donated to the less fortunate individuals within the community (nursing home residents, hospitals, hospices, etc.).

Passion for Purpose Arts Ministry addresses the issue of unemployment for disadvantaged single mothers. Of all single-parent families in the U.S., single mothers make up the majority. Families headed by single mothers are among the poorest households, more than a third lived in poverty, and as such, are extremely vulnerable to homelessness. Among all homeless families nationwide, about (60%) were headed by single women with children representing 21% of the total homeless population; nearly 49% were African Americans. [1]

Of all single-parent families in the U.S., single mothers make up the majority. Today a total of about 17.2 million children are being raised without a father.[2] Unemployment among single mothers remains at highest rate in over 25 years.[3] The goal for Project Passion for Purpose Arts Ministry is to halt this ongoing cycle of unemployment, poverty and injustice for the single mother.

Background

Passion for Purpose Arts Ministry was started by mother and daughter who realize the challenges that single mothers face, one most prominent such as working a full-time job and raising a child full time without a partner. Whenever the child would get sick, or need to go to the doctor's office, be dropped off and picked up at school, that mother would have to take off work. This makes it very difficult to keep a job that understands the struggle of a single mom. The founders of the organization are both professional and educated artists who thought to use their passion for the arts to teach others the craft all the while offering them employment in the process of creating for others.

Our Programs

Healing Cards Creation

The Healing Cards Creation program consist of traveling to homeless women's shelters within the Philadelphia Metro Area (PA, NJ, DE) and teaching the women how to make homemade greeting cards that are then mailed to various persons within nursing homes and within the community. The cards feature customized personalized messages written by the women themselves. Through creating the cards, the women are given a way to release negative emotions they may be experiencing themselves because of their circumstances. The Healing Cards Creation program provides a way for the women to give to someone else who may be hurting or who may have been forgotten. Someone who may also be in dreadful circumstances, such as themselves. All of the women who create the cards are single mothers and are homeless.

A handmade greeting card is often more meaningful to the receiver because the cards are exclusive, irreplaceable, special, not mass produced and impersonal. Passion goes into making the cards. In a sense the cards are created by the broken and then given to the broken. Every handmade card is a creation.

Spoken Word

Passion for Purpose Arts Ministry aims to offer healing through the use of words with the Spoken Word Program. Did you know that the healing effect of words has long been documented? As far back as 4000 BCE, early Egyptians wrote words on papyrus, liquified the words and gave them to those who were sick as a form of medication. In more recent history, reading and expressive writing worked as additional treatments for those suffering from mental or emotional distress.

It is the process of writing your feeling and emotions on paper that offers healing as opposed to actually getting in front of an audience and speaking it. As part of therapy, some people may wish to explore feelings and memories buried in the subconscious and recognize how they may relate to current life circumstances. Poetry is believed to be advantageous to this process. This program will benefit single mothers, their children, the elderly or anyone else who wants to let off some steam in a safe, therapeutic way.

Speed Performance Painting

Our Speed Performance Painting Program is meant to conjure up emotions while the painting is being created. It is more like abstract expressionism whereas the abstract art is aimed at subjective emotional expression with precise emphasis on the creative spur-of-the-moment act. It is art that portrays expressions of the self, born out of reflective emotion and universal themes.

The viewer is engaged by means of how the act of painting a particular subject makes them feel as opposed to how the painting actually looks. Painting is another part of art therapy that we offer our volunteers and members. The subject matter always displays a forgotten crisis, such as a single mother holding her baby, hungry children, someone approaching death, etc. We also create live paintings of religious subjects, such as Jesus Christ. We paint any subject matter for any occasion with the aim to stir up emotion, connection and feelings for the viewer.

Dance the Pain Away

Dance is another form in which we use to promote healing for the performer and the viewer. This program uses both forms of mime and praise dancing. Dance can be used to improve your mental wellbeing. There are many benefits of dance reinforced by research. Dance improves your heart health, general muscle strength, equilibrium, coordination, and reduces depression.

Dance can be defined as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to bring about the emotional, cognitive, physical and social integration of the individual. When you dance, you release feel-good endorphins into the bloodstream. One more benefit is that it helps reduce levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. When you dance you make a bond with the people who watch you and the overall community.

You will enact praise through praise dancing and learn the art of acting through mime dancing.