Catch the Fire

Art is for everyone - bring learning to life and ignite any group with creativity-based facilitation

Catch the Fire gives us hope for a future where young people and all of us are better able to access our humanity and creatively respond to the challenges we face. I encourage anyone who seeks to bring generations together to build a more compassionate and empowered world to read this book. - Bishop Desmond Tutu, South African social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop

The arts are the languages of the soul that express and define the best and worst of what we are and could be. They are also powerful tools for change. Catch the Fire is full of living examples of how the arts enable us to connect deeply with our own humanity across generations and cultures, while providing us practical tools that can transform us, our communities, and the world around us. (PYE power!) - Peter Gabriel, musician

Catch the Fire is a complete guide to using arts and empowerment techniques to bring greater vitality and depth to working with groups of youth or adults. Based on the premise that you don't have to be a professional artist to use the arts in your work, this unique book invites group leaders into the realm of creativity-based facilitation, regardless of previous experience.

Including over 100 stimulating activities incorporating storytelling, theater, writing, visual arts, music, and movement, this detailed guide uses the Creative Community Model to:

• Bridge gaps and unite people across generations and cultures
• Build vibrant, creative learning communities with youth and/or adults
• Fully engage participants and volunteers
• Develop social and emotional intelligence
• Take a deeper, more meaningful approach to learning.

Drawing on nearly two decades of experience providing transformative programs to empower youth and adults across North America and around the world, Catch the Fire is both a powerful and valuable resource and a much-needed reminder that art is for everyone!

Catch the Fire is contagious, hot, transformative. If you want to ignite creativity, cooperation and collaboration, if you are engineering world change, this is your guidebook. - Marika Partridge, Radio Producer, former Director of NPR's All Things Considered

Peggy Taylor and Charlie Murphy are co-founders of PYE Global: Partners for Youth Empowerment and developers of the Creative Community Model, a process for building creative, heart-centered learning communities with youth and adults from diverse cultures and socio-economic backgrounds.