7/22/2023 0 Comments Kids voice ringtones“Think about being in a position where nobody ever really cared what you feel,” Ball said. The week begins with the teens writing song lyrics and ends with them performing their song in a concert. “So, we want to break that cycle, we don’t want to be transactional. “They’ve lived transactional lives, largely,” Ball said. They create a nonjudgmental space where kids from all walks of life can freely articulate and work through difficult feelings. “Expressing yourself is so powerful, and indispensable, really.”Ī key element of the Lost Voices program is the trauma-informed care approach, which Ball and his team are specifically trained to implement. He says he’s always known the power and freedom that comes from sharing your story. He made a career out of his passion and became a columnist and author. Sometimes they’re heartbreakingly real.”īall has been writing and playing music since he was a child. But beneath the silliness, they’re really revealing. “I’m often surprised by the songs they write,” Ball said. The organization offers weeklong programs where musicians go into juvenile detention centers and residential treatment facilities to work with children in small groups, helping them write songs and find their voice. He got other local folk and blues musicians on board, and Lost Voices was born in 2007. “I saw these kids coming in, and I thought, ‘My god, they’re just like other children, they’re just in a different situation,’” he said.Īs a writer and music lover, Ball knew songwriting could be a positive, creative outlet for these young people. Let’s bring their voices out.”īall first learned about this population of youth in 2005 after he was invited to speak about his writing career at a juvenile detention center near his home in Michigan. They have no idea what the kids are like, where they’ve been, what’s happened to them,” said Mike Ball, whose nonprofit, Lost Voices, works with teens like these. Many of these young people have experienced serious trauma in their lives. There are hundreds of thousands of children across the United States who are living in juvenile detention centers or residential treatment facilities.
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