Cape Fear kids create community quilt to learn about empathy

Several non-profits in the Cape Fear Area are teaming up to teach kids about social-emotional skills through art.

April 25, 2022

Sydney Bouchelle,

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Several non-profits in the Cape Fear Area are teaming up to teach kids about social-emotional skills through art.

The JUST US Program created by UNCW’s Department of Diversity and Inclusion along with the Harrelson Center has partnered with schools, after-school programs, and other non-profits to get middle schoolers supplies to create “tissue quilts” to help them understand empathy.

Christy Aley, the Harrelson Center’s Community Outreach Coordinator, says the program started during the pandemic to help teach kids about resilience.

“With that, we carried it over to 2022 in helping them understand empathy. Understanding feeling and emotion and how you can share those feelings and emotions with each other and build those relationships,” Aley said. “With that, we’ll be able to connect these types of understandings with the community quilts they are making on their own.”

When all the community quilts are complete, artist Maya Freelon will combine all the quilts, a similar concept to the AIDS quilt.

“The curriculum includes activities to develop empathy and uses the AIDS quilt as a touchstone for understanding other people’s feelings and as a creative reference for connecting with others,” UNCW shared in a press release.

On Sunday, Freelon will present the combined quilts at the UNCW Watson College of Education at 3:30 pm. The quilt will remain on display in the atrium of the building.

Schools, after-school programs, and non-profits involved in the community quilt: