The Red Pencil (Europe)

The Red Pencil (Europe) or RPE based in Brussels is a foundation of public utility that focuses on European projects with disadvantaged audiences, namely children and youth. RPE is an independent entity of The Red Pencil Humanitarian Mission (TRP), an international humanitarian organisation, specialised in creative arts therapy as an approach for improving mental health and promote social inclusion. Our mission is to instill hope and empowerment through creative arts therapy to vulnerable children, adults, families, and communities facing overwhelming life circumstances towards change: to improve mental health and resilience in creating a better and happier future for oneself and for others. Our vision is that every individual should have the chance to use the creative process of the arts to care for one’s mental, physical and emotional well-being towards healing and self-empowerment. Since the starting of its operations in Belgium in 2018, RPE has been working around 3 main axes: • Social inclusion: art therapy programmes aimed at restoring the resilience for asylum seekers and refugees. • Education: art-based training programmes for teachers of students at risk of social exclusion. The training aims to build the capacity of teachers to use art media and the creative process as a tool for education, youth development and self- care. • Health care: art therapy programmes for cancer patients and adolescents in psychiatric unit. In 2021, we expanded our focus to implement programmes specifically intended to address psychosocial issues in children and youth, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. RPE objectives are: • To provide psychosocial support to the most vulnerable people by bringing to them the benefits of the art therapy approach. • To raise awareness among the public in Europe about the therapeutic power of art therapy on physical and mental health. • To advance the art therapy field through continuous improvement of our practices and by contributing to academic research on the impact of creative arts therapy through our projects. Since its creation, RPE has conducted projects in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Spain and Romania. Since 2023 RPE is coordinating an Erasmus+ Youth project bringing together partners from Belgium, France, Italy and Cyprus. Our approach is collaborative in nature. We work in close cooperation with local organisations operating with vulnerable publics in fragile settings to complement and strengthen their interventions. Over the years, we could collaborate with many partner organisations, including schools, hospitals, youth care organisations and large humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross in Belgium and in Spain. The Red Pencil is fully committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through its work that leads to the building of a more just and inclusive society (SDG 16). Our contributions include advocacy of good health and well-being practices (SDG3), fostering quality education (SDG4), upholding gender equality and supporting the fight against sexual violence, abuse and human trafficking (SDG5).