The permanent art workshop section gives staff a practical way to help migrant and refugee children, teens and adolescents express feelings that may be hard to put into words. Alongside creative activities, the handbook covers welcoming routines, personal space, centre rules, daily schedules, group identity, emotional regulation and a closing activity for when a young person leaves the shelter.
Resilience monitors are the central idea running through the handbook, with social assistance centre staff positioned as trusted adults who can offer emotional rescue through ordinary, consistent interactions. The material is especially suited to shelter workers, child protection practitioners, social educators and psychosocial support staff working with unaccompanied or separated migrant and refugee children and teenagers.
The contents show a structured approach to arrival and settling in, including greeting children and adolescents, introducing adults in charge, recognising personal belongings, exploring tastes and preferences, explaining rules, and creating shared and individual timetables. These sections could be used to make intake routines more child-friendly and less overwhelming.
A substantial part focuses on art-based resilience activities, including exercises called This is me, Common Code, My hand as a signature, Here stays our voice, Emotions in my body, The bubble metaphor, Collage of emotions, Dealing with rage and My life path. These activities may help workers support emotional expression, self-worth, impulse control, group belonging and recovery after difficult migration experiences.
The handbook also includes ideas for community-linked activities outside the centre, such as reading workshops, collective books, travelling backpacks, puppetry, music, story completion, radio workshops, cultural visits and exhibitions. A closing activity, The backpack for the journey, supports children and adolescents as they prepare to leave the shelter and continue their path.
The later theoretical file cards cover resilience, social intervention through art, adolescence, peer groups, vulnerability, violence, gang recruitment, rage and life skills. Prepared for UNICEF Mexico by Analía Castañer and Yamel Díaz Padua, it offers a practical framework for staff who need structured, trauma-informed activities rather than clinical therapy sessions.
