Imperial County Juvenile Hall students utilize art as a form of healing

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Araceli Mangione founded the non-profit organization called Imperial Valley Public Arts to enhance art beautification in the Valley.

Araceli said her goal is to lead a project-by-project-based program that will draw out local artists by offering them opportunities to work closely with the community.

Youth at the Imperial County Juvenile Hall were able to paint about five murals.

Araceli told the youth to paint anything that resembles the Imperial Valley.

The mural project promotes creativity, reinforces the concept of teamwork, and helps bring positive changes in the student's behavior.

“It was very relaxing like not like meditation type but it would help me and being alone in the corner got me more inspired of just doing the painting,” says a student.

Many of these youth will spend most of their time in juvenile hall before transitioning back into the community. An opportunity for students to come together and work

“Like I realized that it can be very relaxing and help you like get through the time, yeah most of the time when we were painting we were cracking jokes so it was funny," says one the Students.

Imperial County through a Citizen Advisory Council, works closely with the State's Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) to ensure that the needs of justice-involved youth are addressed in a manner that emphasizes trauma-informed care and strength-based services

Jailene Aguilera will have the full story tonight.