Arizona Illustrated

Jimmy Descant is a Tucson based, self-taught sculptor and assemblage artist. He is known among artists as a Severe Re-constructivist. He compounds found objects to create socio-political artwork in a style he calls: ‘Western Futurism.” Jimmy creates his work during live assemblage art performances. Using the objects of the past, Jimmy Descant’s artwork comments about the present while sending a message to the future. There are currently close to 14,000 Arizona children in foster care, but there are only about 3,000 licensed foster families. A small portion of those licensed families are known as Kinship Care families. Kinship Care is when a child who is in the Department of Child Safety (DCS) system is temporarily placed in the care of a family member or relative. The ultimate goal of kinship care is for the child to reunify with their birth family and maintaining that family tie brings more benefit to the child. These benefits include increased well-being, minimized trauma, increased permanency, improved behavioral & mental health, promoting sibling ties, and maintaining cultural and community ties. While kinship care proves to be a better option for the children, these kinship caregivers do not receive the same financial benefits afforded to typical non-relative foster parents. Seeds Community Center is a local micro non-profit seeking to provide additional resources and training to these families This is the first in a short series where we spend time with mental health professionals to learn more about them. We asked; what inspired them to enter the profession, what is perhaps unique about their approaches and the communities they serve, and what disparities do they see in their field that they feel need to be addressed? In this Segment we meet Sarai Perguero who specializes in EMDR Therapy and whose childhood led her to want to help those struggle with their identities and marginalization. Arizona Illustrated producer David Fenster is at Picacho Peak State Park to see this year’s superbloom. But he didn’t always like flowers. In this edition of his Field Notes series, he reflects on the transformation of his relationship with flora.