LEWISTON — The University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, Sandcastle Clinical and Educational Services and other community partners are working together to nurture resiliency, build relationships, educate college students and highlight the diversity among local families with young children.

The “Building Castles Together Project” integrates collective art projects, cultural training, family stories and conversations. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the $25,500 grant integrates supported family art activities coordinated by Christina Bechstein, a community artist, and has provides cultural training for early childhood education workers through the services of Ismail Ahmed’s STTAR consulting.

A family celebration and launching event was held at the Multi-Purpose Center on Sept. 25. Approximately 120 people of all ages attended the event. People attended who hailed originally from one of at least seven countries: Brazil, Ethiopia, Great Britain, Mexico, Somalia, the United States and Zimbabwe.

Activities consisted of family art projects, food from a variety of cultures, face painting and music and dancing provided by Zimbabwe singer and dancer Godfrey Banda.

The project will now turn toward collecting stories, aspirations and cultural information (such as recipes and artistic works) from individual families who have young children at Sandcastle. The family experience piece will function as a unifying element to assist service providers and families in communicating and building relationships.

The family work, along with the collective artwork, will be integrated into a final community celebration to occur in early April. For further information about the Building Castles Together project, contact Robert Baskett, director of mental health and community engagement at Sandcastle, at 782-2150 or Michelle Vazquez Jacobus, assistant professor at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College, at 753-6534.