About The Exhibition
We are proud to present 'This is Me', an exhibition in partnership with TESSA (Therapeutic, Education and Support Services in Adoption), a project of ‘Family Routes’ in Belfast, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
‘This is Me’ captures the learning experience of a small group of adopted teens from across the country as part of a recent six-week emotional health and wellbeing programme.
Our community engagement team held workshops with the group, showing them how to work with digital cameras, develop their own photos and capture a range of mixed media images. The participants also looked at how to get the best from their smartphone cameras through editing and lighting techniques.
The majority of the sessions took place at Belfast Exposed, however, the group spent time visiting other locations across Belfast and further afield. They worked to capture night shots on Cave Hill, in addition to visiting Tullynewbank Stables in Glenavy to work with alternative backdrops and some moving targets!
The young people have created an exhibition to showcase their own photography journey. A large part of this journey was about building community and meeting other young people that share their story. Each photography session incorporated one to one discussions with a TESSA teens counsellor, offering emotional and therapeutic support. Many of the teens valued this safe space, especially when it was combined with tasty snacks each week.
TESSA is a Family Routes project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, as part of their Reaching Out Support Families initiative. The project is aimed at supporting families across Northern Ireland who have at least one child between the ages of two and eighteen years old, who has been adopted. The TEENS element of the project is supported by the Community Foundation and Department of Health.
To find out more about the work of TESSA, visit www.tessani.org or follow Family Routes on Facebook for updates on events taking place across Northern Ireland.