"Building Resilience", uses the power of expressive arts, connection, and trauma-responsive care to support families experiencing housing insecurity. While adults take part in meaningful group sessions, children engage in parallel creative arts-based experiences of their own—making space for expression, healing, and resilience for the whole family. The program is family-centered, and adaptable to various ages and literacy levels. Psycho-education materials and support resources are provided by checking in with staff case managers, if needed. Activities mirror adult themes through play (safety, feelings, hopes) to support family conversations later. Each session is a total of 120 minutes in length.

- Building Resilience -

Facilitators

Lillian H. Ribeiro, MA, RDT is an award winning, multi-disciplinary artist rooted in trauma-informed, participant-centered applied theatre and drama therapy practices. Lillian identifies as she/her/hers, tri-lingual (Portuguese, Spanish, English), Luso-American, born and made in Newark, New Jersey. These urban, immigrant roots have shaped her work in terms of culture, knowledge, language and reaching the different communities she serves. Lillian has a long artistic history of working in communities using the creative arts as a public health approach. She specializes in working with children and adult survivors of domestic violence, children in foster care, displaced families experiencing homelessness, senior adults with dementia and Alzheimer's, and youth in schools from urban areas.

Paola is a certified 200-hour yoga instructor, children’s yoga teacher, and Reiki Level II practitioner. Blending gentle movement, breath, and energy healing, she holds sacred space for others to reconnect with their inner light and a peaceful state of being. With a heart-centered and intuitive approach, Paola guides both children and adults on a path of self-discovery, healing, and spiritual connection.

Kim Rivers brings over 15 years of experience supporting families and advocating for youth as part of the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network. In her role as Training Coordinator at the New Jersey Family Engagement Hub, she has led workshops and programs that empower caregivers across the state.
At Drama with a Twist, Kim supports our mission by developing trauma-informed parent advocacy workshops. Kim’s dedication, lived expertise, and empathetic communication build bridges between clients and services, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard.

New Jersey native Kilolo Kumanyika, uses her African American and Native American heritage, along with the love of world music and politics as a source of inspiration for her work. Being exposed to art at a young age as a member of the Montclair Art Museum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, artworks by watercolorist Nat Bickerstaff, as well as working for artists such as Robert Blackburn and Philip Pearlstein fortified her interest in different media and perspectives.
She received her BA degree in Graphic Design from Montclair State University with a particular focus on art history and architecture. As an interdisciplinary artist, she has included a variety of media such as watercolor, ink, printmaking, textile design, and beading appear in her work which ranges from the abstract to sculptural in nature.
Her love of textile design comes through in the development of loose patterns on paper, where gouache is applied to increase the positive and negative space.
It is not unusual to find found objects included in her work, when creating forms such as masks, figures, and headdresses with intricate beadwork. Kilolo has also honed her skills as a jewelry designer and potter.
Kilolo has exhibited in a range of galleries such as Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Pen and Brush, and WBGO (Jazz 88.3). Her work has also been published as the book cover of The Original Buckwheat by Tony Award winner Reg e. Gaines. After being introduced to Philip Pearlstein by a fellow printmaker, she worked as a figure model and studio assistant for Pearlstein for 17 years.

Shane (he/him) is a multi-hyphenate LA/NY-based artist, composer, educator and sound healer by way of New Jersey. Shane’s passion for learning earned him BA/MPA in Public Administration from Rutgers University-Newark and more recently a certification in Vocal Artistry & Music Production. While at Rutgers Shane co-founded a non-profit organization to uplift, and empower his community through human kindness and compassion. He loves performing and producing music, adventuring, dancing, wellness and most importantly giving back to his community through his artistic works.
She received her BA degree in Graphic Design from Montclair State University with a particular focus on art history and architecture. As an interdisciplinary artist, she has included a variety of media such as watercolor, ink, printmaking, textile design, and beading appear in her work which ranges from the abstract to sculptural in nature.
Her love of textile design comes through in the development of loose patterns on paper, where gouache is applied to increase the positive and negative space.
It is not unusual to find found objects included in her work, when creating forms such as masks, figures, and headdresses with intricate beadwork. Kilolo has also honed her skills as a jewelry designer and potter.
Kilolo has exhibited in a range of galleries such as Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Pen and Brush, and WBGO (Jazz 88.3). Her work has also been published as the book cover of The Original Buckwheat by Tony Award winner Reg e. Gaines. After being introduced to Philip Pearlstein by a fellow printmaker, she worked as a figure model and studio assistant for Pearlstein for 17 years.

Interdisciplinary, Latina, queer artist Gwen Charles (b. 1975) was born in New York, and lives now Newark, explores the female experience in performance, interweaving sculpture, video and movement.
As a community-minded educator, she is focused on tactile, processed-based methods and object based-learning to provide hands-on learning experiences for diverse learning styles to kindle the creative growth of students and mentees.