OAKLAND PARK - Residents at Lutheran Services Florida’s Lippman Youth Shelter in Oakland Park are learning the Carnival Arts.

Carnival Arts is an arts learning program designed for youth living in crisis shelters across the state of Florida.

Carnival Arts teaches youth in crisis the mask making, dance and drumming traditions of various Carnivals across the Caribbean, Europe and around the world. The youth also learn basic video production skills.

Last summer, Carnival Arts offered the youth at Lippman a workshop on the African roots of Carnival. This year, a second workshop featured Jamaican Carnival traditions.

The program is administered by Barry University in Miami Shores and directed by Dr. Celeste Fraser Delgado, associate professor of English. Dr. Fraser Delgado brings in local artists, musicians and dancers to lead the children in dances, songs and the making of carnival masks reflective of the particular country they are studying.

The teens make plaster molds of their faces and then decorate them in traditional fashion. The masks are used in their own Carnival, which the students videotape.

“This is such a unique learning experience for our youth,” said Joan-Shaw Davis, Southeast Regional Director. “We appreciate Dr. Fraser Delgado and Barry University for bringing this wonderful program to us.”

The Lippman Youth Shelter offers temporary housing for youth ages 10 to 17. The shelter can house up to 20 youth who stay anywhere from a few weeks to many months. The children may be there for truancy or ungovernable behavior or they may be escaping abusive situations or neglect at home. The goal of LSF’s youth shelters is to reunite families through both individual and family counseling.

Lutheran Services Florida is a statewide, nonprofit human services agency dedicated to helping all people in need regardless of religious affiliation, age or national origin. Headquartered in Tampa, the agency has more than 60 programs located throughout Florida. Since it was established in 1982, LSF has helped more than 850,000 children and families. LSF’s mission is to bring God’s healing, hope and help to people in need.