DEADLINE TO APPLY: October 13th, 2025

Any artist working in community settings will encounter young people who have been affected by trauma. While teaching artists rarely have detailed access to a participant’s personal history, there are tools they can use to identify a young person who is potentially trauma-impacted and strategies that they can employ to accommodate and engage that young person.    

Note: This program is being offered live and in-person to teaching artists in the Philadelphia region. If you are outside of Philadelphia and interested in opportunities for this training, you can sign up for updates here or email us  to find out about bringing the training to your community.

Structure of the Training: Over the course of five, 4-hour sessions, a cohort of up to 12 teaching artists will deeply engage in rigorous presentations by leaders in trauma-informed practice and its application in a range of artistic  disciplines. Participants will be required to complete outside reading and reflection questions and, when possible, test the strategies they are learning in real time in their classrooms.

Teaching Artists must commit to attend all five, 4-hour training sessions to be held at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia on Saturdays from 10:30 - 2:30pm from November 8th to December 13th. (There will be no class held on Saturday, November 29th. Breakfast will be provided at the start of each session, and there will be a break for a catered lunch approximately halfway through class. Bartol recognizes that as teaching artists, we are all moving through multiple sites and populations throughout the week. As such, the training will be a COVID-cautious space which prioritizes the wellness of artists and their communities.

What you will learn:

Upon completion of the training, teaching artists recognize:

• The neurological, psychological, and physiological nature of trauma;
• How stress, fear, and trauma affect the brain, behavior, and ability to forge relationships;
• How trauma can affect self-image, and lead to shame and fear;
• Behavior in students that indicates potential trauma, fear, shame or stress;
• What a potentially trauma-impacted student does (and doesn’t) need to successfully participate and learn in a workshop setting;
• How arts can help with skill-building, processing, and healing; 
• And the signs of secondary or vicarious trauma in themselves or in teaching partners.

Upon completion of the training, teaching artists will be able to:

• Provide clear structure, consistency, and ritual in their workshops;
• Build a community culture of welcoming and support with their participants;
• Explore new ways to offer choice and agency during learning, art-making, and sharing;
• Understand how culture and identity shape a person’s beliefs and needs, and how that influences both their teaching practice and their participants as learners;
• Understand how systemic oppression and white patriarchal culture are embedded in communities and educational systems, and how reframing skills and expectations in workshops and programs can be a step toward decolonizing education;
• When a heightened moment of stress, fear, or trauma response arises, provide students with options that can help them release and regulate;
• Build trauma-informed models for student sharing and critique, centering a culture of affirmation;
• Provide opportunities for processing and reflection about art-making and skill building, to aid participants in forging meaning and connection from their experiences;
• Adapt lesson plans and curricula into a trauma-informed model;
• And develop a self-care and community care plan to help prevent educator burnout and secondary trauma.

Who is Eligible?

• Are from the Greater Philadelphia area;
• Teach any arts discipline;
• Have two years of teaching experience in school or community settings;
• Have committed to teaching young people as a significant part of their teaching artist practice;
• And desire to be part of an ongoing learning community of teaching artists.

Your Commitment to the Training

• Attend all five, 4-hour training sessions Saturdays from 10:30 - 2:30pm from November 8th to December 13th. (There will be no class held on Saturday, November 29th). Classes will be held at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
• Prepare pre-work and be ready to contribute to each session to make workshop time efficient.
• Engage in each session with focus, curiosity and an open mind.
• Follow the COVID protection policies outlined below, for your health and the health of the community.

Bartol Foundation Commitment to You

• Convene practitioners in the field as presenters and participants who will bring knowledge and commitment to the training.
• Create an organized, supportive virtual environment for learning including learning materials, screen breaks and follow-up as needed.
• Listen fully to suggestions to improve the training both in real time and for future cohorts.
• Support the ongoing continuation of a learning community at the conclusion of the training, if desired by the participants.
• Provide a COVID-cautious space which prioritizes the wellness of artists and their communities. As such, Bartol will provide rapid COVID testing at the beginning of every training session, and invites participants to wear masks and/or social distance during class as an added precaution.
• Bartol will provide breakfast and lunch during each training session, and participants will be given access to isolated areas to unmask and enjoy their meals outside of the primary training classroom.

Stipend:  Upon successful completion by teaching artists of all five sessions and a final project,  the Bartol Foundation will provide a stipend of $200 to each teaching  artist in recognition of their participation.

 Timeline

• Application Opens: Monday, September 15th
• Application Closes: Monday, October 13th
• Notification: by Friday, October 17th.
• Acceptance of Slot: Monday, October 27th.

Co-Facilitator: Candy Alexandra González (they/them) is a Little Havana-born and raised, NYC and Philadelphia-based, multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, activist and trauma-informed art educator.  Candy received their MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2017. Since graduating, they have been a 40th Street Artist-in-Residence in West Philadelphia, a West Bay View Fellow at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, NY, Leeway Art and Change Grant Recipient and the 2021 Linda Lee Alter Fellow for the DaVinci Art Alliance. Candy is currently an Art + Art Education doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University.  Candy is a graduate of the Bartol Foundation’s training in Trauma-Informed Practice for Teaching Artists and Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Practices and Identity. They also completed training with Lakeside Global Institute including Group Facilitation, Enhancing Trauma Awareness, Deepening Trauma Awareness and Applying Trauma Principles.

Co-Facilitator: Betsaleel "Bets" Charmelus (he/him) is a dedicated facilitator, creator, and connector. Through community advocacy, Bets has supported survivors of sexual trauma through the JJPI’s B.O.S.S Program, helped lead the anti-violence initiative Beyond the Bars, and championed local Philadelphia grassroots efforts for Black men's mental health. Now, as the CEO of ArtistYear, Bets works to expand arts access in Title 1 funded schools across America. As an artist, he has traveled coast to coast, collaborating with a myriad of musicians. Bets is deeply passionate about finding & claiming new spaces, building strong, inter-dependent communities & exploring the difference between questioning oneself and asking oneself questions. Bets is a graduate of the Bartol Foundation’s training in Trauma-Informed Practice for Teaching Artists and Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Practices and Identity.