Mentorship 2.0 | Spring 2026

Meet our mentees: Mya, Saffron, Melina, Haley, and Ethan! Each with their own style, story, and way of seeing the world through their own lens. Our mentorship is rooted in creativity, growth, community, and providing a space for the mentees to learn, feel supported, and collaborate with other creatives. We started the first session of mentorship with introductions and shared the types of photography they do and showed their work, which included portraits, events, product, family, and sports. The room filled with conversations about technique, inspiration, challenges, and the types of photos they want to create.

After, we spent the rest of the day taking group shots and individual headshots by our Executive Director for The Firehouse Dream, Jasmine Lopez, who is also a photographer! We are excited about the upcoming sessions and the new things the mentees will be learning.

Art Therapy: Affirmation Mirror

To welcome the new year with intention, we hosted a Creative Affirmation Mirrors workshop led by our facilitator, Yekseny Guerrero. We created a space for community members to set positive affirmations and reflect on the energy they want to carry into the year ahead.

Throughout the session, participants shared, connected, and created through thoughtful, reflective conversations. Using colors, designs, beads, and meaningful words, everyone crafted their own affirmation mirror. After, we circled up and invited everyone to share the meaning behind their mirrors. Every mirror held a story, and intention for what was put on their own mirror. 

Youth Dreaming Session at Maywood Public Library

We invited our youth to share their thoughts and ideas, as we are working towards co-creating a new design for the teen space at The Maywood Public Library.

Both our Community Engagement Coordinator, Jess, and our Program Assistant, Itzel, opened the session with a community circle. Everyone wrote down their names, then shared them along with a word that started with the same first letter of their name to describe how they want others to feel when they walk into a shared space. We followed with a name-memory game that helped break the ice as well. Then, we shifted to discussing the teen space. The youth split into three small groups to brainstorm ideas and share with one another what they wanted. Each group explored questions like:

• What makes a space feel welcoming?

• What colors and furniture would you like to see?

• What other things would make the space feel more comfortable?

After sharing, everyone came back together, and each team presented their ideas. Some shared about wanting bean bags, games, and others said snacks and fuzzy carpets. It was great to see the youth excited about participating and sharing their vision. Thank you to the Maywood Public Library for providing a space to connect with our youth.

Winter/Spring Youth Programming Showcase

Thank you to the Village of Maywood for putting together the Youth Programming Showcase. We had such a fun time connecting with our neighbors as we shared our programs and initiatives. We shared resources that are available, from our one-on-one talk therapy program, our financial counseling, art therapy at the firehouse and more. We also shared about volunteer opportunities coming up for our Mental Health Kit giveaway at our local schools.

It was so great to meet new neighbors and see familiar faces, and to get the chance to connect and learn more about the different types of resources Maywood has to offer for our community!

Cookie Decorating at TFD

For our last workshop of the semester, we closed things out with a winter-themed cookie decorating workshop led by pastry chef Bianca Huerta, who runs her own business making custom cakes and desserts.

Each participant got a box with four plain sugar cookies, icing tubes, and sprinkles. Bianca walked us through the basics of using the icing, sharing the tips and tricks along the way, while everyone followed along and added their own creativity. Near the end of the workshop, there were all different versions of cookies to see - snowflakes, trees, and different designs.

Huge thanks to Bianca for guiding us through such a fun, festive workshop, and to everyone who was a part of it!