We were lucky to catch up with Grace Harvey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Grace, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have had the honor and privilege to work with early childhood children. I am currently a Pre-K OSR Teacher. I noticed in the classroom that a lot of our challenges come from children being able to manage their own behavior and their own feelings. I feel that today this is a struggle across the board from Pre-K all the way to high school. Our children struggle with peer pressure, anger, and just navigating through their own feelings and how to handle what they appropriately. My goal as an Educator, Humanitarian, and Entrepreneur is to help children identify their strengths and weaknesses and how to channel through their feelings.This is why I created Totally ‘Rockin’ Art Kids. The mission is to provide art projects while

building character. Art can be used for children to express their thoughts and their feelings. It can also be a fun thing to do to relieve stress and yes our children can be under stress. In the meanwhile they are learning about different character traits and learning about themselves. Now in the schools there is an all-time high of physical violence, verbal abuse, and mental abuse among children and students. You can see it on social media platforms or children recording violent acts.
My belief is you have to start somewhere.I do believe there is still hope for youth being able to tackle the challenges of controlling and managing their own behavior and their actions appropriately. Providing art projects is a way that I feel is very beneficial by allowing children to express themselves and supporting them by building character and confidence.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Grace Harvey is an OSR Pre-K Teacher for the Office of School Readiness and Alabama Department of Education. Recently, Mayor Steven Reed and The City of Montgomery, granted Ms. Harvey the opportunity to offer an Art Youth Club with a purpose for youth through the Builders and Backers Accelerated program provided by Heartland Forward. Totally ‘Rockin’ Art is able to connect with youth enrichment programs to offer creative arts and character development activities. This art program will introduce age-appropriate themed art projects while building and supporting participants in building character traits and confidence within themselves. Ms. Harvey has worked in the field of Early Childhood Education for 21 years with Montgomery Community Action Agency Head Start. Currently, she is the Parent Leader for the Alabama Partnership For Children’s Montgomery Cohort Parent Network, where she plans and implements parenting workshops for the city of Montgomery. Ms. Harvey launched a non-profit organization for girls in 2011, Pink and Pearls For Girls Incorporated. She has also launched other non-profit programs: The Community and Non-Profits Smorgasbord and All Things By Grace. Ms. Harvey is so delighted to add Totally ‘Rockin’ Art Kids. She saw a need for students to be able to solve conflicts without resorting to physical violence. Ms. Harvey supports students in learning and progressing in self-regulation, managing behavior, and continuously working on self-improvement through character development and affirmations.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One of the most important things that I stress to all business owners and entrepreneurs is self-care to practice self-care during covid I had the advantage of working from home. During that time I started noticing a lot of things about my body that I didn’t notice before that led up to three major surgeries. To top it off I did not realize that I had diabetes even though I was diagnosed with it 2 years prior I just never paid attention to my doctor or the reports closely like I should have. So after the surgery I was laying in my bed and I feel extremely depressed and I asked myself how did I get to this point and as I did a self-examination on myself I realize that I did not allow my self to have time for me. As entrepreneurs and business owners it is so easy to work in extreme amount of hours sometimes you can go 24 hours and you don’t even know it I think we have to know we must set boundaries and we must stick to those boundaries and when we have challenges like I did we have to know that we have to bounce back and have resilience. So I made a commitment to myself at a certain time of the day I put everything down and I actually call it a day and I focus on me I focus on my self-care things that I like to do and I prepare for the next day and I’m mentally had to put this in my brain that I can put this down and it will be okay for me to pick it back up tomorrow. Today I feel so much better knowing that I have this freedom to create and set boundaries for myself to take care of myself and to know that I can put it down and it will be okay until the next day. I actually feel like that I am existing and that I am living in my truth and I’m absolutely loving and enjoying every bit of what I do.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an entrepreneur humanitarian and an educator is when a child comes to you or a parent and they expressed how your organization so your businesses have helped them and support them. It was a child that I worked with in my Youth organization about 20 years ago. Just so happened I ran into that child and a local grocery store. They still remembered me and they share that testimonial story of how my business helped them to not want to do harm to themselves anymore and how they used my workshops and the tools that I gave them to navigate through those tough times and challenges that they had. Not only did I received testimonies from children but I also received testimonies from parents particularly single mothers because I am a single mother myself and I do share my stories as a single mother. I never thought that my business is would be a huge impact to children and not only children but to parents as well where I would be able to witness in here how my organizations have helped them through their life and their well-being. This was totally unexpected but at the same time one of the biggest gifts I could ever receive.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: pink_and_pearls_for_girls
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinknpearls4girls?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Image Credits
Grace Harvey