Art Healing for the Youth You Serve
Art healing workshops for the youth you serve.
JB Empire Arts partners with youth-serving organizations to deliver trauma-informed expressive arts workshops built on the SELM™ method. Your young people learn to name what they feel, find tools that work for them, and see who they are underneath what they’ve been through.
"Healing wounded souls, one paint stroke at a time."
Organizations We've Partnered With
Who We Serve and Who We Partner With
The youth you're already serving deserve a safe place to feel.
We serve young people ages 13 to 25, including foster and system-impacted youth, who need a safe, creative way to work through what they carry. We partner with the organizations that already show up for them every day.
Foster care and child welfare agencies
Youth mentoring programs
Residential and transitional housing programs
Schools and after-school programs
Workforce and transition-age youth programs
Community nonprofits serving youth facing adversity
Why Organizations Bring Us In
No new program to build. Just better outcomes for the youth already in yours.
It fits what you already run.
Workshops plug directly into your existing mentoring, life skills, or wellness programming. No infrastructure to build on your end.
It's consistent and reliable.
Three core workshops, delivered the same way every time, so your staff and youth know what to expect, and outcomes are repeatable.
It gives you something to report.
Roots and Canopy partners receive outcome snapshots built to share with funders, boards, and program evaluators.
Everything is included.
Workbooks and all art supplies come with every workshop. Your team just brings the youth.
It's led by someone who understands.
Jay navigated the foster care system as a teenager. Every workshop she builds is designed for the young person she once was.
It's built to be measured.
The SELM™ framework produces observable, documentable shifts in how youth identify and communicate their emotions, outcomes funders can see.
Our Three Core Workshops
Three workshops. Delivered on repeat. Measurable every time.
01
SELM™ Method
Mapping What I Feel
Youth use symbols and art to name emotions they may not have words for yet. Built on Symbolic Emotional Literacy Mapping, this workshop gives young people a new language for what’s inside them.
02
Art Pharmacopeia™
The Vibration Menu™
Youth create their own personal menu of art-based tools they can reach for when feelings get big, and practice using them. A practical, carry-with-you toolkit for emotional regulation.
03
Identity & Reflection
A Closer Look Within
Using the image of wiping fog off a mirror, youth explore who they are underneath what they’ve been through. A reflection workshop built around identity, resilience, and self-recognition.
Partnership Options
A partnership built around your program, your youth, and your goals.
JB Empire Arts offers annual partnership agreements for organizations of every size, from quarterly workshops to full-year engagements that include staff wellness, outcome reporting, and a year-end youth art showcase. Every partnership includes workbooks and all art supplies. Your team just brings the youth.
Start where you are.
Quarterly partnerships for organizations beginning their art healing journey or working within a tighter budget. Low commitment, real results.
Build something consistent.
Monthly workshops across the full year, with outcome snapshots designed to share with your funders and board. Built for programs that want measurable, repeatable impact.
Go all in.
A full partnership that supports your youth and your staff, with trainings, a complete outcomes report, and a year-end youth art showcase that shows your community what healing looks like.
Not ready to commit? Single workshops are available. Start with one session.
How a Partnership Works
From first conversation to workshops in your program.
1
Discovery Call
A 15-minute conversation about your youth, your program, and your goals.
2
Program Fit Proposal
A one-page plan showing where the workshops fit inside your existing program.
3
Partnership Agreement
Choose your tier and set your workshop calendar for the year.
4
Workshops Begin
Jay arrives with everything needed. Your team just brings the youth.
5
Review and Renew
We look at outcomes together and plan the next year.
How We've Helped Youth Thrive
Real results in real programs.
Short stories, quotes, and photos from youth, staff, and partner organizations showing what changes when art healing is part of the program.
"
Jay provided a Compassion Fatigue training for our Case Managers Network this year. The self-care activity was a wonderful experience for our group, and participants shared that they found it both enjoyable and healing. I can see this activity being a valuable self-care resource for families and youth as well. Thank you, Jay, for providing such a meaningful experience!
MM
MaryLynn McCorkle
Collaboration Manager, Alliance for Regional Solutions
"
Students were engaged by the vulnerability Jay brought to the workshop. Jay was great and highly creative. Jay made the topics feel real, and her vulnerability made it easy to engage. I believe students could benefit from it.
MG
Marlene Gracia, Ed.D.
Student Services Technician, NextUp & FAST Scholars Program, San Diego Mesa College
"
My experience with Jay’s art healing class was truly life-changing and transformative. I attended an art healing group with Jay and learned a lot about myself. This was an amazing group because the way Art we used to help me understand my emotions. I’m so glad I attended this group. As a facilitator Jay was fantastic and through the creative process of art I was able to express myself, resolve conflicts and improve my emotional well-being. I highly recommend her to anyone considering an art healing group.
OC
Olan Cazad
Art Student
"
Jay created a welcoming and comfortable environment through music, art, and open conversation. By the end of the session, many participants described it as one of the best meetings of the day and expressed that Ms. Boyer should be considered as one of the conference’s main speakers.
JW
Justin Walker
San Diego Workforce Partnership
"
JB Empire Arts brings a creative and thoughtful approach to youth engagement. The Art Pharmacopeia workbook is both engaging and meaningful, providing young people with an opportunity to explore self-expression, reflection, and personal growth through art. JB Empire Arts was a wonderful partner in hosting a workshop for the youth we serve.
MC
Matthew Clark
Volunteer Manager, Promises2Kids
About Jay Boyer
Built from experience. Delivered with intention.
Jay Boyer is the founder of JB Empire Arts and the creator of Art Pharmacopeia™ and the SELM™ method. She is a Scholistico-accredited Art Therapy Practitioner and Holistic Health Practitioner, a Certified Peer Support Specialist, and trained in safeTALK, suicideTALK, ethics and boundaries, and cultural competency.
She navigated the foster care system as a teenager. Every workshop she builds is designed for the young person she once was.
Art Therapy Practitioner
Holistic Health Practitioner
Peer Support Specialist
safeTALK Certified
Sotheby's: Golden Scissors Award
SD Mesa College Honors
Ready to Partner
Your organization could be next.
Schedule a 15-minute discovery call and we’ll show you exactly where our workshops fit inside your existing program.