Community Art of Awareness: The Listening Canvas

A community-centered creative experience designed to deepen awareness, reflection, and support victims and survivors of crime. This event is being held in recognition of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, and this experience creates space for participants to consider how communities respond with care, empathy, and accountability. This is not just an art activity. It is a guided experience that invites participants to slow down, reflect, and express what it means to truly listen. Participants will —

• reflect on what it means for a community to truly listen to victims and survivors,
• translate that reflection into a visual expression on canvas,
• engage in a shared creative process that reinforces empathy and awareness, and
• each participant will leave with a completed canvas that serves as a personal reminder that listening is often the first step toward support and healing.

Hosted by the Riverside Hand-in-Hand Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program and the Newport News Police Department's Homicide Support Group, and professionally facilitated by Ms. Chanda Epps, this experience is intentionally designed to —

• create a grounded and welcoming environment,
• guide reflection in a way that feels accessible and respectful,
• hold space for a range of perspectives without pressure to share, and
• connect individual expression to broader community awareness.

This is a free event and open to the community — all are welcome!