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SPREAD THE SIMPLE GOOD

Together, we are building more peaceful, just, and connected communities. Please consider donating to expand our impact. We can’t do our critical work without your support!

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Resilience Through The Arts

The inspiration for The Simple Good was born from our Founder, Priya Shah’s, personal experience with art, travel and overcoming adversity.

Born without a left hand, a woman, and a person of color, Priya realized that although she never saw her characteristics as barriers, many people had set limitations on her possibilities based on them. She learned that perceptions can both create and eliminate obstacles and that each one of us has the ability to reframe our perception through understanding the simple good that lives within us. For her, it was the simple good of her being an artist – and the power it has to connect and heal one another no matter where you are in the world.

Similar to our founder’s travel experience, we aim to connect youth to a world beyond their own so that they can be inspired by examples of hope and resilience. We are dedicated to creating environments that encourage positive self-esteem, self-worth, and empathy towards others. We work to foster individual purpose and accountability to one another, and through this we decrease the global risks of violence and create peaceful environments for everyone. Read more about our founder’s story here.

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Youth Mental Health

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 1 billion children between the ages of 2-17 years old have experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence, or neglect within the past year. Youth victimization and segregation negatively impact our youth on a global scale, and the rise of economic depression, political conflict and societal pressures worsen the conditions children face every day. The terrible conditions created by these issues have caused ⅔ of youth to be exposed to trauma in various forms, and as many as 75% of those in need of help have few or no options for intervention.

Continuous unaddressed trauma in a young person’s life can lead to a lack of hope, and perpetuate the inequality and violence found in communities around the world. Experts agree that trauma can deeply impact healthy growth and development and negatively influence the behavior of young people.

In the U.S. alone, 50% of adolescents meet the criteria for mental health disorders and 50% of students 14 years or older with mental illness drop out of school. Our global Mental Health crisis is only getting more intense, and continues to create new issues in our education systems. Studies have shown that early intervention is essential to address trauma in our world’s youth, and can empower them with tools to overcome future obstacles.

The Simple Good

We Can Be The Change

We are a 501(c)3 non-profit that delivers Visual Arts-based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs which support the mental health of youth by teaching students to find the ‘good’ first within themselves.

For over a decade we have served over 7,000 students across 16+ communities in Chicago and globally. Our trauma-informed curriculum has also proven to be successful cross-culturally in Rwanda, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Croatia. Here’s how we are making a difference:

IDeation

Exploration of Positivity Around the World

Through our global photo blog, people from across the globe are sharing their ideas of the 'simple good’ in order to inspire our students via photography and storytelling. This helps students  discover a world beyond their own but also challenges them to think about their own meaning of the 'simple good’ to empower themselves and impact their communities.

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Creation

Creation Through the Arts

Create, create, create! We analyze what we learned about the 'simple good' around the world and have our students create art that demonstrates their representation of the 'simple good'. We use various artistic mediums to achieve this such as paint, mixed media and photography.

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Experience

Public Showcase in Creative Institutions

There are some things we don’t learn by hearing – we learn through experience. Our program ends with our students presenting their art during a public showcase. The showcase is important for our students because it exposes them to art and creative career paths and broadens their perspectives about what is possible. It also allows our partners meaningful opportunities to connect with our students and support their development.

Host a Showcase

Be a Part of the Change

Together, we are building more peaceful, just, and connected communities. Please consider donating to expand our impact. We can’t do our critical work without your support!

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The Simple Good

Student Stories

Anabelle V
6th Grade

Gwendolyn Brooks, CHICAGO USA

My 'simple good' is to see the good in the world because there are a lot of bad things happening nationwide, and I want people to pay attention to all the good and stop the bad. My 'simple good' was inspired by the way people help each other and how beautiful nature is and how we take care of it. I showed my 'simple good' in my work by seeing how beautiful nature can be and the flower was on school grounds so that's how good we are with nature because the flower wasn't destroyed.

I plan on using my meaning of the 'Simple Good' to improve my community and change the world by making people stop doing bad things and see the good in the world and help people who are hurt instead of hurting them and take care of nature because nature provides us oxygen and we provide them with carbon dioxide. This is important to me because this happens every day. Every day something bad happens. To nature and people and I want to stop that. I want the bad to end because people hurt others for no reason. So I want the bad to stop and the good to stay. A simple good question I would ask others is how would your simple good make a change?

Aziz E.
11th Grade

Gwendolyn Brooks, CHICAGO USA

My 'simple good' is to see the good in the world because there is a lot of bad things happening nationwide, and I want people to pay attention to all the good and stop the bad. My 'simple good' was inspired by the way people help each other and how beautiful nature is and how we take care of it. I showed my 'simple good' in my work by seeing how beautiful nature can be and the flower was on school grounds so that's how good we are with nature because the flower wasn't destroyed.

I plan on using my meaning of the 'simple good' to improve my community and change the world by making people stop doing bad things and see the good in the world and help people who are hurt instead of hurting them and take care of nature because nature provides us oxygen and we provide them with carbon dioxide. This is important to me because this happens every day. Every day something bad happens. To nature and people,and I want to stop that. I want the bad to end because people hurt others for no reason. So I want the bad to stop and the good to stay. A simple good question I would ask others is how would your simple good make a change?

Rosa Elena M.
12th Grade

Southeast Side, CHICAGO USA

I depicted my 'simple good' in my artwork by representing my family and other Mexican things that represent Mexico with the Mexican flag. I plan on using my meaning of the 'simple good' to improve my community and change the world by helping others to keep an open-mind and understand where other people come from. This is important to me because it represents me and a part of me that l'm extremely proud of.

Apiyo B
P7 Gulu Primary School

Gulu, Uganda

My Simple Good is peace because if people are together it makes me happy. My simple good came from connections to promoting peace in the community.

I depicted my Simple Good in my work my helping people, greeting people, and uniting people. I plan on using my meaning of The Simple Good to improve my community by promoting security and peaceful living. This is important to me because I want more unity, peaceful living and happiness in the community

We empower youth around the world by helping children connect their meaning of "good" through art.

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