HANA Center is a Korean American Center that services immigrant communities. We serve a diverse population, which includes LatinX, Native, African, and Asian communities. One of HANA Center's mission is to empower the youth of our communities.

Recently our youth saw the knitted cushions that I created for a community art installation, and expressed interest in learning how to make these cushions themselves. The material fee for one cushion is about $30. We have about thirty youth enrolled in our FYSH (Fighting Youth Shouting for Humanity) and After School Matters programs.

You can see the making process for these cushions in this video: https://youtu.be/sF6vj_JnWy8

With the funding I get from Awesome Foundation, I would like to hold a cushion making workshop for our youth, who are from low-income immigrant families.

I believe in the decolonizing/healing/empowering potential of craft. Making things with my hands has definitely helped me heal and empower myself. Through this workshop, I would like the youth to experience the fruitfulness and meaningfulness of their labor, and to realize the agency and power of their own hands. Not only will the process be empowering and healing for our youth, they will also be able to take home the cushions that they made themselves, which can enrich their lives. It will be something that they can take home, and have function as a reminder of the empowerment.