EARLY CHILDHOOD COURT ART

Creating a sense of comfort in court.

As SCCMHA launches its Early Childhood Court, an effort was put forth to make the courtroom seem less intimidating to those who would be attending meetings and appointments.

To assist with this, students from Hemlock High School created pieces of art based off a series of prompts to inspire their creations.

In all, nine canvas pieces of art were created to be hung and displayed at the Saginaw Juvenile Court at 3360 Hospital Rd in Saginaw Township.

Hemlock Art Teacher RaeAnn Woodcock’s students were given a list of words such as Stability, Hope, Love, Potential, Safety, Support and several others to create these pieces.

The pieces will be displayed at the courthouse for the next year, when another group of Hemlock High School students will create a set of new pieces.

SCCMHA and Hemlock High School hope to continue this partnership going forward.

The focus of the Early Childhood Court is to provide services to families with children ages 0 – 3 years who have become involved in the child welfare system. The goal is to increase the likelihood of reunification between children and parents and reduce the potential for reentry in the child welfare system and foster care. Families will be working with an Infant Mental Health therapist through SCCMHA – an essential part of the Early Childhood Court team. The IMH therapist will assist parents and their babies in developing secure attachments and assist parents in improving their parenting abilities and overall family relationships.  Families will also be connected to other treatment providers and community resources based on the individual needs of the family and its members.