The Trip: A Creative Expression Project for Refugee and Immigrant Children

This program, designed for a multiethnic classroom setting, uses drawing and storytelling to help immigrant and refugee children build bridges between the past and the future by attaching meaning to experience. Three main themes—family, friends, and myths— run through the children's work. The family represents continuity of attachments and values, friends make up the human environment of the host country, and myths of the homeland seem to provide a framework for experiences and emotions. Expression of these themes appears to indicate not only that these factors can protect against psychological distress, but also the children's ability to adjust to existence in a bicultural world. On the other hand, the time sequence analysis of the stories suggests that an absence of solid ties to the past prevents children from imagining a future for themselves.