(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, see how students at one local High School are stepping out and tackling food insecurity in their community.

(Indira) I just love helping.

I just love communicating.

I just love like seeing what's happening around.

(Tom) One local artist is redefining the mainstream by painting the community as he sees it.

(George) The appeal of my work might take a little more thought.

(Tom) A space of healing and respect for people who are dealing with serious mental illnesses.

(Jeff) Folks that have an SMI designation, they're not that much different than anybody else.

They have things that they're really good at, and they have things that they're working through.

(Tom) And artist Dana Roes is finding reprieve through layers of color and texture.

(Dana) The process is more about erasure after that, and what scars are left, and what energy is left.

Hello, and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

Every week, students at Toltecalli High School step out of their classrooms and out into the community to deliver food to elderly residents.

Now these young leaders are doing more than earning service hours.

They're learning what it means to lead with heart.

(Lori) Today the students from Toltecalli High School were engaging in our food distribution.

This takes place monthly.

It's a partnership with the community food bank, and it's all about providing access to nutrition.

We know that there's a need of food insecurity, and so this is the student's involvement in making sure that the community has access to what they need.

The community education based class is a requirement for our students to graduate from our schools.

Part of that is the students working to identify needs within the community.

They engage in problem solving.

They come up with a game plan, an action plan, in terms of how they're going to meet whatever the need is.

This year it's food insecurity.

(Indira) We're helping our people in our community to get access to certain food.

Since we live in an area that's food desert, Like there's not a lot of resources to get healthy food.

I was the kind of person that I would never help, but I would be all nervous.

So it has helped me a lot to be more confident with myself.

Be like, "Oh yeah, I'll help you, I'll do this for you," you know.

(María) Es una ayuda muy grande para nosotros.

Tanto para mi esposo como para mí.

Y lo que nos dan nos ayuda mucho.

Es algo que como ahorita la escasez como está todo tan caro, lo que nos dan aquí es algo que nos ayuda bastante para salir el mes.

(Indira) Right now we're doing bread, vegetables, canned food, resources that we need.

[ BAG CRINKLING ] (Maria) Nos dan pura comida nutricional.

Pura comida sin grasa, comidas que nos nutren.

Nos dan proteína.

Es una ayuda bastante, bastante buena para nosotros allí.

(Indira) I just love helping.

I just love communicating.

I just love like seeing what's happening around.

I just love being involved.

(Lori) They're gaining the hands-on experience through this process.

It's all about building connection, building community, and being active members of the community.

Our school's mission is all about empowering and growing future leaders of our community, and this is an example of how Chicanos Por La Causa is fulfilling that mission.

♪ CHIMES FADE To see a Spanish language translation of that last story and many others from our archives, as well as Spanish language news articles from our news team, check out our new webpage, azpm.org/espanol George Strasburger is an award-winning Tucson artist who grew up in a working-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

That's where he was taught to respect people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, including the unhoused.

So we begin this story with George reading his artist statement ♪ CALM MUSIC (George) These paintings are like a diary.

They are my thoughts about my life and my surroundings.

I've been told that the characters I portray in my work are people on the fringe of society.

My observation, however, is that if one rides the bus or walks the streets of many neighborhoods or frequents the public library, the people I portray are the mainstream.

Our traits are common to us all.

Our strengths and weaknesses are shared by everyone else.

Qualities of generosity, kindness, greed, and laziness are classlessly and equally distributed.

Like a traveler, I observe and I consider what is there.

I bounce between romanticism and cynicism.

And so here I welcome the viewer to see the other and to see ourselves.

I'm George Strasburger.

I'm a Tucson artist.

I think I had a pretty good childhood, you know, looking back on it.

I started doing art when I was about four years old.

I remember discovering eyelids on a baseball card, and I actually was pretty proud to reproduce that as well as I could.

I pay a lot of attention to details.

It's a great part of my job because visually it's what makes us who we are.

♪ SOFT MUSIC Catholic up bringing.

I had to go to church every morning.

So that was my first exposure to art, was when I saw those murals in the church.

I wasn't real interested in the mass itself.

That kind of set up what an artist is, what an artist does.

And of course the subject's a lot broader than that.

And that stayed with me.

If I was an artist, this is what I would do, not particularly religious or biblical themes.

Although there's some biblical themes in my work, but just paintings that size, that realistic.

I felt like I was part of a long, you know, centuries tradition of doing that.

This painting is called "An Intrusion" and it was such an interesting painting the way that it came about, I was on a bike path early one morning, and I saw not this specific woman.

I saw a woman who I think she was exposed.

And I just zipped by on my bike because I didn't want to intrude.

There was a man behind her who I think looked over her to see me.

That got me thinking, I thought, oh wow, I wonder if I caught them in an intimate moment.

I wonder if I intruded on something.

I think that a lot of people who aren't homeless and aren't on the street and may not like homeless people in their neighborhoods feel like they're being intruded upon.

This is their path where they go.

And so it was nice to turn the tables.

So the painting was called "An Intrusion" without specifying who was intruding on whom.

I don't generally consider it as sofa art.

I've heard that I love your work, but I don't know that I would want to live with it or want it on my wall, which I respect completely.

The appeal of my work might take a little more thought, more... understanding, which not everyone is looking for when they're buying artwork.

Then that suits me fine because the people who like me and who want my work have a similar sensibility.

That's probably true of everybody who buys art.

They connect with an artist who has a similar point of view.

♪ SLOW GUITAR STRINGS The connection between the garden and my art is that they're both things that I like to do.

♪ SLOW GUITAR STRINGS I'm in here for many hours.

Sometimes my eyes glaze over and it's nice to get outside to refocus and get the light.

I do that several times during the day even in the heat.

I'll find a shady spot just to sit down for five or ten minutes and then I get back to work.

(Instructor) Relax, breathe in, breathe out.

[ SINGING AT HIGH PITCH VOICE ] (George) About a year ago, I decided to take singing lessons, and I don't know, remember exactly why.

It's like painting that I don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing until I'm doing it, and then I discover the nice things about it.

It requires some wherewithal, like some confidence that I know I can do this and I don't care what you think, which is a stretch for me.

With art I can do that, do what I want, but with singing I, maybe because I'm not that experienced.

I'm thinking, "Wow, I hope I'm not making a fool of myself.

I hope people are feeling sorry for me."

Or thinking, "Wow, George is trying hard."

And that's the biggest pleasure of singing, or the goal of singing.

To me, art is, I don't want to overstate it, but it's a reason for me to be alive.

It gives me a purpose.

I don't think I have those feelings of why am I here.

I know what I'm here.

I have a mission.

I have work to do.

So that means a lot to me.

♪ HIGH PACE MUSIC ENDS Recent cuts to Medicaid could affect 11.8 million people in the US.

Well, next we spend time with Coyote Task Force.

They've been providing employment training to people with serious mental illnesses for the last 30 years.

And they say their members' health, safety, and quality of life now hang in the balance.

♪ UPBEAT MUSIC (Jeff) Coyote Task Force has been around since 1991.

We serve folks who are seriously mentally ill, SMI, and have that designation.

And this is an entirely peer-run organization, which means everybody who works here has some sort of personal lived experience with mental illness.

And we use our own recovery stories to let folks know, "Hey, we know what you're going through.

And if you keep on working your way towards more recovery, it is going to happen for you."

Clubhouse was the first program that we started.

(Christen) We have music group at 2 o'clock today, 2 to 3 in here.

There are over 400 Clubhouses around the world, and we are the only one in Arizona.

We are employment focused.

We focus on person-centered goals.

And we meet people where they're at, whether they're having substance use, combined with mental illness and diagnoses, being unhoused.

And we collaborate as a team to try and help.

People come in not speaking because of being isolated and are now working full-time jobs.

International Standard is number one.

Clubhouse members, they run the Clubhouse, and they're making sure the place is clean and neat and ready to go.

- Would you like some help?

- Yes, please.

- OK, it's upside down.

[ LAUGHTER ] - OK. (Jeff) Setting up our breakfast bar so people can have breakfast in the morning and they will help with lunches.

So they're doing all that work and that's what kind of drives them is that they have that sense of ownership over the clubhouse.

And the thrift store on the corner is actually part of the clubhouse.

It's an opportunity for folks to volunteer in a more work setting than the clubhouse is.

(Christin) Back here is where we receive our donations.

We have some sorting standards.

Over here is where they price the clothing and then it goes into hanging and into the front of the store.

In this area, this is where our members will bring the merchandise out.

They will practice on the register.

All right.

Looking at four dollars.

All right.

Thank you.

They want to move over into the paid training.

That's where we would move them over into the cafe and then they can get engaged in also both programs.

(Laurie) Welcome to Cafe 54.

We provide work adjustment training in a restaurant environment on job skills in preparation for competitive employment.

- And the desserts are right there.

- Would you like a fresh rosemary?

- Are you both on the same ticket?

(Laurie) All of our chips are funneled into an art foundation where we buy art supplies for individuals in recovery.

And then if they want to display their art for sale, the proceeds go directly to them.

We have coaches working in the kitchen training individuals on everything from how to cut vegetables, how to run a dishwasher.

So the one on one coaching is happening here.

There's our executive chef, Kevin Powers, and our sous chef, Andrew Owens.

♪ UPBEAT VIOLIN We train on food running back here.

We try to mimic a real life work environment as closely as possible.

♪ UPBEAT VIOLIN I've worked at the cafe for 10 years now.

I started as a front of house job coach, worked my way up to front of house manager.

And I've been in the program manager position about eight years.

- Maybe later I'll think about a paying job.

- Yeah, whenever you want to come back to the cafe, like, you know, where to find us, right?

I had my first psychotic break when I was about 24.

And the initial diagnosis that they gave me was bipolar.

Then it was a schizoaffective diagnosis.

And then once we found out my birth mother had schizophrenia, that kind of solidified that diagnosis for me.

How was everything?

When I was about 28, I did a lot of core work on myself, psychiatrist visits and psychologist visits.

And at that time, co-occurring disorders was a new concept to treat substance use and mental health together.

And had about 10 years of stability.

Owned my own home, got married, worked as a restaurant manager.

I was doing so well a doctor thought I was misdiagnosed and took me off my medication.

It did really well for like three months.

Then the voices began and hallucinations and eventually I lost my job, went through a foreclosure on my home, went through a divorce, ended up homeless and in Pima County Jail where they eventually did court-ordered treatment.

It was life-saving for me and so about a year later I was released and was like, "Well, I can turn this into something positive," and got my peer support certification.

Eventually was hired at Cafe 54 and rather than, you know, live in a place of regret to turn it around to something positive and change lives with my story.

(Jeff) Folks that have an SMI designation, they're not that much different than anybody else.

They have things that they're really good at and they have things that they're working through.

Where does your case manager work?

- Coke Lakeside.

- Or just psychiatry?

- Just psychiatry.

There's so many people out there that think that if you have a serious mental illness that you can't work, that you're never going to be able to work.

A lot of the people that come through our program have been told that and we know that's just not true and if they give two to four months with us, we can prove it.

- Big dog.

- Maybe.

- Is your dog Clifford or what?

(Gem) I found out that there was a place for people with mental illness that was job-based and I was just sitting at home doing nothing.

I figured I might as well try.

I have paranoia so sometimes I think that people are following me when they're not and you know I see things and hear things that aren't there but I've learned to cope with that to know that that's not real so don't be scared of it.

As long as I stay on my medicine, I'm okay.

- If we're only going to do four, we'll do half and then we'll do each half and half.

(Gem) Coyote Task Force.

It's a safe place to come and it's my second family.

Helps me be more outgoing, willing to talk to people that are there so I don't go through this all by myself and there's no judgment.

I need to work on some more independent skills like budgeting and stuff like that.

I see money, I spend it.

- So what I want you to do is grab a lot.

I've always wanted to be a teacher's assistant for the special ed.

You have to have an associate's degree now to do that so I'd probably go back and get my associate's degree in August.

(Jeff) Our clubhouse members, think this is the place where they are somebody right and if they are at home then they feel like they are nobody nowhere and that's not something that we're okay with and we want to make sure our doors are always open for folks and every single meal we serve is a chance for us to de-stigmatize mental illness.

(Christin) All of the people that I've worked with with these diagnoses are probably the most kindest and empathetic people I've ever met.

(Gem) I'm not dangerous just because we're a little different doesn't mean that you have to fear for your life (Laurie) Here in these walls for people to have that sense of community where it's okay to talk about symptoms that can be a really important thing for people to belong.

(Jeff) For us our biggest worry is that if people aren't connected to programs like ours they're not connected to anything and that leads to crisis.

If we're talking about it just from a budget perspective crisis costs more.

(Christin) With the Medicaid changes and potential cuts that are coming many of our members could lose their supports and services.

Well that's going to look like frequent emergency room visits hospitalizations that then lead to the bigger things of homelessness and financial stressors can potentially even lead to death for some people.

But I'm optimistic that we will continue to move forward and help those populations.

(Laurie) When I was out there homeless, I was running around in my bare feet, talking to myself.

And the one thing I want to say is that those lives have value.

It's not that they're a hopeless case.

There is the ability to come back with treatment.

♪ CALMING MUSIC The painter Dana Roes is interested in visualizing energetic tranquility while contemplating hope and disappointment.

Well, much like our journey through life, her work explores these themes through layers of color and texture.

♪ PIANO MUSIC PLAYING (Dana) Painting is a double-edged sword.

I've always been aware that it's a very seductive medium and because it's such a seductive medium I think it's easy to pull people in.

All of my paintings have to do with some sort of space and my place within that space.

Usually a more ambiguous, indecipherable space is what I'm interested in creating.

This feels natural and yet they look so vastly different here.

Originally I'm from Philadelphia.

I spent most of my life there in my schools and traveled extensively through the world.

I ended up in Tucson about a year ago and what brought me here is not only the stunning landscape but also a job opportunity.

I happen to be Dean of the Arts here at Pima.

But these two elements to the left and the right are pulling your eye or I hoped it to.

(David) We've never had a visual arts individual as our Dean before, in my tenure anyway, of being here at Pima.

♪ SOFT GUITAR MUSIC (Dana) Most of the world that holds a mystery are things that can't be articulated.

They are not representational in nature.

So non-representational abstraction is a language that somehow feeds a part of me that I'm unable to articulate.

My process starts when I actually build the canvases.

To me that's an intimate process when I start thinking about their scale, when I see them blank, and the minimalist in me never wants to touch them.

Like I'm so satisfied with the constructions that it's hard to then take that next step to begin to deface them.

But these works have a lot of charcoal underpainting that are really wild in nature and it's just getting it out there, and then I begin to assemble what is there and start taking things away.

[ SHIRT RIPPING ] The process is more about erasure after that and what scars are left and what energy is left, and then I'll begin to interact either dampening it out or adding until the conversation stops, and I don't necessarily like where it stops, but there's a point where there's nothing else to say or to do.

And that's when I know a painting is complete.

[ PAINT BRUSH STROKES ] I try to just be in it and respond to mark and line and color.

Subconsciously I am moving it in a direction of things that I'm thinking about in this current body of work or this current state of our world.

And I think the longer I live with it the more I'm really dampening it down and not necessarily erasing but layering vals on top of it.

So I'm trying to find its equilibrium of this almost minimalist... space, while it's... ascending into a little bit more activity, energetic tranquility, if you will.

I'm completely unaware of an audience when I paint, and it's more about trying to understand the world.

(David) This is her first show in Arizona.

I love that it has a background of political emphasis.

(Dana) This series of work specifically was generated by climate change and many other destructive forces.

They are somewhat meditative and they offer deep space and they're also energized.

They may be referred to as maybe apocalyptic in moments.

I also feel some sort of optimism in them, trying to hold both possibilities in tension.

I've probably felt both.

♪ SOFT GUITAR MUSIC ENDS Before we go, here's a sneak peek at a story we're working on.

(Athena) We literally flipped a coin.

Are we staying or are we going?

And it flipped and said, okay, we're staying.

Okay, what do you do when you're staying somewhere?

You start building.

(guitar music) (Bill) When we formed the Canelo Project, the phrase was connecting people, culture, and nature, but it was more a place to bring people together, bring different cultures together.

I mean, we've had people here from all over the world, and that's been magical.

This is another pure pottery clay here.

(some kind of weird clay name) and we're just going to mix these.

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we'll see you again next week.