Owl & Panther

Owl & Panther's mission is to inspire and support refugees and society in embracing change, life and hope through healing-centered engagement in expressive arts, community outreach and collaboration.

In 1995, refugee parents from Central America, being served by the Center for Prevention and Resolution of Violence (CPRV), requested a group for their children. CPRV staff - Amy Shubitz, Marianna Neil, Jorge Cabrera, and Giovanni Panza - responded to this request by creating a group for teens and an all-family summer school, which eventually became the multi-cultural and inter-generational Owl & Panther.

Today, Owl & Panther offers healing-centered engagement through expressive arts, time in nature, outreach, and service in the Tucson community, to refugees from all over the world. As evidenced by the University of Arizona's Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology's 2015 partnership assessment, Owl & Panther's specialized approach plays an important role in empowering refugee families from diverse backgrounds to tap into their own resilience and find healing in community.

Owl & Panther's programs promote cultural celebration and exploration, while increasing skills of self-expression and critical thinking. Additionally, the programs encourage increased confidence, empathy and self-love; collaboration across generations and cultures; and a sense of belonging, stability and community.

Your gift will help Owl & Panther continue this important work. Thank you!

Testimonials

"Because of them I grew": Rasoul's story

Rasoul started going to Owl & Panther in about 2012, but he didn't really want to.

"I was such a hard-headed kid, a troublemaker," he says now. His mother thought that he was "hanging out with bad people" and encouraged him to go with her to Owl & Panther. Despite his misgivings, he "kept coming back" and found a community of "other kids the same as" he was. It wasn't long before those kids and the people who work with them at Owl & Panther became "like a second family" to him. The more he went, he said, the more he got involved. He "kept going and going" and now he wants to help other kids when they first come to O&P just as he was helped.

He recalls going to the Tucson Museum of Art with Owl & Panther for the first time, where he got to work on "something fun and important." His art was part of the 2013 and 2015 Museum as Sanctuary exhibits at the Tucson Museum of Art. Now he loves to draw and to write and the museum is "like a second home." "It's such a good environment," he says, and even though he is very busy now with his schoolwork, he still makes art and draws and plays music, things he feels he never would have done had it not been for his experience at O&P. Being encouraged to tell his story at Owl & Panther "open[ed] a new chapter in [his] life;" it's where he learned most of his English as well in addition to drawing and music.

Despite being a student who didn't "work hard" at school when he first came to O&P, he's now studying at Pima Community College and knows now that he can choose any career available to him. He credits the people at Owl & Panther for not giving up on him. He says he "never would have made it through high school or gone to college" had it not been for the encouragement of the people he met there.

"Because of them," he says, "I became the person I am now" and he will never forget his experience. When he finishes college, he hopes to return to O&P to pass on the message he learned: "be smart. Help people." His younger brothers used to go there and like Rasoul, they found an inspiring environment with "good people."

"It's the best environment for anybody," he concludes and wants people to know that "Everyone is welcome. You'll find things to love."

Just as he did.

"I [felt] alive again": Uma's story

When Uma's family came to the United States, she says they "didn't know much about almost everything that exists in America. Until Andi brought them to Owl & Panther. There she and her family learned English and to draw and to "respect each and every person in life," all of which, she says, "lead [her] to be who [she is] today."

It's obvious how much Owl & Panther means to Uma. She speaks with great love for all of the people she met there, "wonderful people with beautiful souls," like Barbara Clarihew, who helped her family by taking them for groceries and other necessities when they had no other transportation and took Uma's family to O&P every Tuesday.

Uma recalls so many activities with O&P, writing poems, playing games, drawing, singing, and trying new foods every Tuesday. But two memories stand out for her and make her "feel blessed" to "get to go to Owl & Panther" because in addition to the fun she had, she says she learned some things about herself.

She discovered that she is afraid of heights on a hike to Mt. Lemon with O&P...