Page 40 January 2017 Christ Lutheran School Preschool - Grade 8 • www.clsphx.org LC-MS Worship Sunday 8:00am & 10:45am – Traditional* | Sunday 8:30am & 10:30am – Contemporary* Sunday School/Bible Classes – 9:40am* | Sunday 12:30pm – Spanish Sunday 6pm – Youth Led Worship! Wednesday 7:00pm – Traditional | Saturday 5:00pm – Contemporary *Nursery Care is available at all Sunday AM services 3901 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix | www.cclphoenix.org | (602) 955-4830 Love GroW Serve & SPORTS COLLECTOR CAR CENTER Servicing Your Car Is Not Our Job, It’s Our Passion • F actory Trained Technicians Using St ate of the Art Equipment • F amil y Owned & Serving The East V alley Since 1973 • Shuttle Service, Pick Up & Delivery A v ailable at no extra cost 480.968.5000 | www.sccarcenter.com • Jaguar & Range Rover Experts • Honor Most Extended W arranties • All Service Guaranteed/ Parts & Labor * All required factory maintenance Services S E R V I C E By Nick Smith aren Shell was flipping through a photo album on her desk, looking for one particular picture. Once she landed on it, she quickly turned the book around and pushed it to the other side of the table. “Do you see the scowl on his face,” she said. “He would never lose that.” The boy in the picture seemed to be only around 10 or 11 years old, but there wasn’t a hint of a youthful smile on his face. Staring directly into the camera, his expression was cold, a mix of anger and unhappiness. “He knew that this picture was going to be on display in the book and at the exhibit,” said Shell. “There’s just so much pain there.” Then Shell flipped to the next picture. The same boy stood facing the camera, but with a clear change of heart. He has a huge smile on his face, as he proudly displays photographs hanging on a wall. He looks profoundly happy. This night and day difference in one boy, according to Shell, is representative of the change that can take place in children who take part in Kids in Focus. It’s a seemingly simple idea. A group of junior high kids, ages 10-14, take a series of photography classes with professionals for several weeks. They learn a new skill, and at the end of the program they have their work featured at an exhibit. The catch, however, is who these kids are. Every child that participates in Kids in Focus comes from backgrounds of poverty, homelessness, neglect and/or abuse. Karen Shell has been helping with at-risk children for over twenty years, while working full-time as a freelance commercial photographer. Her work with the kids brought her into contact with Children First Leadership Academy (CFLA, formerly Pappas), a charter school in Phoenix, where 100 percent of the students and their families are at or below the poverty line. A majority of them are, in fact, homeless. Shell says her passion to inspire youth to see beyond their circumstances is fueled by her own life experience. She has worked with the school through a variety of projects, eventually mentoring a grade of students for five years as they progressed through schools. It was with this group that Shell conceived of the idea for Kids in Focus, bringing together her passion for at-risk kids with her professional skills. Five years later, Kids in Focus is still running. Assisting Shell with the program are mentors, a group of professional photographers who help the kids each step of the way. The CFLA students who take part will meet once a week for a couple of months. The sessions begin with a basic presentation on photo concepts and examples of good work from the previous week. “I’ll show examples from the kids and they love that,” said Shell. “They’ll get all excited and say ‘look there’s my photo!’ when it pops up.” Everyone then gets on a bus, which takes the kids on a weekly field trip to different parts of Phoenix. There is a mentor assigned to every two kids, and the threesome goes off on their own to explore the area and take pictures together. The kids are learning skills, like how to recognize what would make a good photo and how to frame a shot. But the photography is only part of what Kids in Focus hopes to give to the students. Shell and her mentors are also trying to help the children connect with the world around them. “They have been through trauma, and when you go through trauma, you disconnect,” said Shell. “You disconnect from the people around you and eventually, from yourself. These kids won’t take their eyes off the ground, they don’t look around, they won’t look you in the eye. They’ve kind of closed in.” This is how many of the students who take part in the program start out. But as the sessions begin, and the weeks stack up, Shell and the mentors begin to see the light switches turn on. “There’s something really safe about a camera,” said Shell. “Without a camera or mentor, you can guarantee that the kids won’t even look around. But give them that camera, and it’s like a safety net. They start looking around.” “Photography is one of the coolest tools for PHOTO BY STUDENT PAHOLA Local program is helping at-risk kids change their perspective PHOTO BY JILL RICHARDS PHOTO BY JASON GRUBB Photographer Patrick Breen mentors students.

Page 41 January 2017 Our Riverview location is just 15 minutes from Arcadia Don’t lose their skills - swim once a week all fall and winter! Heated indoor pool & small class sizes FREE BABY SPLASH ages 8 wks - 5 mos LITTLE SNAPPERS ages 6 - 35 mos GROUP LESSONS ages 3 - 12 yrs HUBBARDSWIM.COM · 602.971.4044 SPLASH, PLAY & LEARN! Redefining Swim Lessons since 1998 young people to have to express themselves,” said mentor and commercial photographer Jill Richards. “We can all get tongue tied with words and to be able to visually tell our stories is powerful.” As the sessions progress, the kids begin to step outside of their comfort zone. Students who were too shy to speak moments before will lay on the ground for a good angle on a shot and talk to strangers on the street. They can also produce some good photos. As Richards notes, the kids aren’t bound by rules and experience like professionals. They come into it raw and it can help them see what would make a great shot in a unique way. “Sometimes I’ll just laugh at how good the photos are,” said Richards. “I’ll be like, I’m a professional and I didn’t even see that.” “A lot of these kids don’t have an opportunity to have a sense of accomplishment,” said Shell. “A lot of them may have anger issues, or be troublemakers, so the only feedback they’re getting is negative. This might be the first positive feedback they are getting.” The response from the kids has been overwhelming, with the school noting that they’ve seen complete behavior changes from certain students. One girl was unapologetic to school counselors after getting into an argument with her bus driver. When she was reminded she could be removed from Kids in Focus however, her attitude completely shifted, and she went to the bus driver herself to apologize. Another student who had issues with anger, became a leader at school after Kids in Focus. “He would say that before, he would punch walls,” said Shell. “Now, he says he picks up his camera. They’re learning how to express themselves in a healthy way. With positive feedback and a sense of accomplishment, they can turn from a troublemaker to a leader.” The road toward making Kids in Focus a thriving program hasn’t always been an easy one. The costs of the field trips, feeding the kids during the sessions, not to mention the end of the year event, add up. All of it is paid for by individual and corporate donations. Then there are the cameras. Each student gets a brand-new camera at the beginning of the program and it belongs to them while they are a part of Kids in Focus. As of now, the cameras have all been bought with donations, although Shell is trying to find a sponsor for them. Perhaps not surprisingly, this wasn’t a well-received idea at first. “I was told that you can’t give anything of value to these kids to take home,” said Shell. “It’s honestly not really because of the kids but because of the people around them.” The first year, Shell gave the kids disposable cameras, but she notes that the results from them were almost unusable. The second year, a Valleywide camera drive was set up, which wasn’t successful either. “Too many problems,” remembered Shell. “One camera would have a battery that didn’t hold a charge, another would be missing parts. Some of them weren’t even useable.” Eventually, Shell decided to buy new cameras and see what would happen. But instead of cameras going missing, the exact opposite happened. Shell noted that of the 250 or so kids who have participated in the program, only one didn’t return the camera. Even that was an honest mistake, with the offending student distraught over what had happened. Shell understood, and let him stay in the program. “The kids take great pride over being in the program,” said Shell. “They so badly want to participate that they’re willing to take responsibility for this equipment.” The entire program is leading toward the opening night gala, where the kids get their work publicly displayed at a reception. The event usually takes place in late March, with friends, family and the public all invited. Over 500 people have attended each of the last two galas, all to admire the work of the Kids in Focus students. The reception is what sold Richards on the program. After attending one, she knew she wanted to be a part of it. “Kids have their whole families come out,” said Richards. “Some live in group homes and they’ll all come. The pictures are all mounted and everyone stands around and looks at them. You can just see how proud these kids are.” “At the opening, I felt like a superstar,” said Mario, a student in the program. “I loved seeing my family there, telling me how proud they are of me.” The event usually takes place at Burton Barr library, although the location of this year’s event hasn’t yet been revealed. The kids get their work displayed, and it is also put up at several local coffee shops. They also get a book of their work, which gets signed like a yearbook by mentors and students at the end of the year party. McKenna Professional Imaging Lab in Iowa donates all prints to the exhibit for free and print the end of the year books for cost. Shell isn’t content to keep Kids in Focus to one set of students. This year will mark the first time she works with two partner organizations, with the Boys and Girls Club now coming alongside CFLA. This means two separate locations, two separate days, and a whole new set of mentors. “It’s all about giving these kids a new perspective,” said Shell. “It helps show them how to see and how to connect. They start looking around again.” The kids from the program agree. What started as an opportunity to learn photography has transformed the way the students see and interact with the world around them. “Before, every time I would walk, I would look at the ground,” said Aram, a student. “Now when I walk, I look side to side and up and down. For more: kidsinfocus.org. PHOTO BY STUDENT ANNALISA PHOTO BY KEITH PITTS PHOTO BY STUDENT JAZMINE Photographer Karen Shell mentors students. Before, every time I would walk, I would look at the ground. Now when I walk, I look side to side and up and down.