Catch the Fire: An Art-Full Guide to Unleashing the Creative Power of Youth, Adults and Communities

The key to facilitating vibrant, deep, and motivating programs for youth and adults.

Community, youth, nonprofit, education, entrepreneurial, and religious organizations all have exciting ambitions, but they often lack the creative skills to impact people on a deeper level. Catch the Fire is a complete guide to using arts and empowerment techniques to bring greater vitality and depth to working with groups of youth or adults. Based on the premise that you don't have to be a professional artist to use the arts in your work, this unique book invites group leaders into the realm of creativity-based facilitation, regardless of previous experience.

Including over one hundred stimulating activities incorporating storytelling, theater, writing, visual arts, music, and movement, this detailed guide uses the Creative Community Model to:

• Bridge gaps and unite people across generations and cultures
• Build vibrant, creative learning communities with youth and/or adults
• Fully engage participants and volunteers
• Develop social and emotional intelligence
• Take a deeper, more meaningful approach to learning

Drawing on nearly two decades of experience providing transformative programs to empower youth and adults across North America and around the world, Catch the Fire is a powerful and valuable resource and a much-needed reminder that art is for everyone!

AWARDS

• GOLD | 2014 Nautilus Book Awards: Creative Process

Peggy Taylor is a writer, musician and creative development specialist, and is co-founder of Partners for Youth Empowerment (PYE), a program of Commonweal since 2022. Together with Charlie Murphy, she developed the Creative Empowerment Model (now Community Empowerment Model), a process for building creative, heart-centered learning communities with youth and adults from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Peggy is co-author of Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life that sold over 250,000 copies worldwide. She is co-founder of Power of Hope, a creativity-based youth program in the Pacific Northwest and co-founder of Hollyhock, a learning center in British Columbia.

Charlie Murphy is renowned for his group facilitation and program design work integrating the arts into youth development. He was an award-winning musician with over 30 years experience in the field of experiential learning. Charlie is co-founder of Partners for Youth Empowerment. Together with Peggy Taylor, he spent more than two decades developing the Creative Empowerment Model, a process for building creative, heart-centered learning communities with youth and adults from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Charlie is co-founder of Power of Hope, a creativity-based youth program in the Pacific Northwest, and he was the recipient of an Ashoka Fellowship, in recognition of his achievements as a social entrepreneur. Charlie lost his battle with ALS in August 2016 and is survived by the love of his life, Eric Mulholland.