$30,000 Macon Violence Prevention grant helping SOAR Academy students learn art, life skills

Macon Violence Prevention awarded the grant to the Communities in Schools of Central Georgia (CIS) program. For the past five Fridays, Soar Academy CIS students have designed, planned, and now painted a mural for the purpose of uplifting and describing the mission of the program.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — A $30,000 grant is helping students in Bibb County learn more about art and life skills.

Macon Violence Prevention awarded the grant to the Communities in Schools of Central Georgia (CIS) program. For the past five Fridays, Soar Academy CIS students have designed, planned and now painted a mural for the purpose of uplifting and describing the mission of the program.

“We’re all over here at alternative school for a reason,” said Kylie Braswell, a seventh grade SOAR Academy student. “So, I feel like we should all learn from and come back from our mistakes.”

Braswell and other SOAR Academy students say they refuse to let their circumstance define them. After planning the mural, they pitched the design to Erin Hawkins, a local artist and owner of Mama Hawk Draws.

“This has been one of the best projects that I’ve worked on in a while,” Hawkins said. “They’ve all brought their own personality to the project.”

Hawkins has been impressed with the artistic growth of the students over the past five week. She says by working with clients and one another, each student has grown in maturity throughout the project. Hawkins believes they’ll walk away from it all with invaluable life skills.

“They’ve had conversations with adults to be able to convey their ideas to them,” Hawkins said. “And they’ve shown that art can solve problems in their classroom and in their community.”

Once completed, the mural will read, “You can literally come back from anything, it’s all about your mindset,”—a quote chosen by the students from rapper Rod Wave. Vashun Tobler, CIS SOAR Academy Empowerment Coach, says resources like those gathered for the mural, and other CIS projects, are made possible through grants like the Macon Violence Prevention allocation. He says the students have been exposed to a host of new tasks like art, which could change their lives for the better.

“This allows our kids to be able to get another resource,” Tobler said. “A resource that can help them remain successful, not just in school, but even after their school life. After they graduate, these are skills put in place to help them continue to grow and walk in a direction they may feel wasn’t there at first and now is there.”

CIS has also used grant funding to work with U Create Macon to teach students bike maintenance skills and how to use a bike safely.