Youth Community Centre: Emotions Have a Colour
A programme on core emotions at the Centro di Aggregazione Minori e Famiglie in San Donato Milanese, for Cooperativa Sociale La Strada. I work with a group of 8-year-old children from complex and dysfunctional family situations. Through colour and materials, we learn together to recognise, name and give shape to what we feel inside.
Cooperativa La Strada
Cooperativa Sociale La Strada has been operating since 1993 in the areas of Milan and San Donato Milanese, focusing on education and the prevention of youth distress. It runs community centres, educational services and inclusion programmes for children, adolescents and families in difficulty.
The Centro di Aggregazione Minori e Famiglie in San Donato Milanese is one of its local services: a place of welcome, listening and growth for children from complex family backgrounds.
The Programme on Emotions
In 2025 I launched a clinical art therapy programme with a group of 8-year-old children, centred on core emotions: joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise.
These are children from complex and dysfunctional family situations. Emotions are often experienced in a confused, overwhelming way or, on the contrary, are inhibited. The programme was born from the need to provide concrete tools to:
- Recognise emotions: putting a name to what one feels
- Name emotions: finding the words to describe them
- Give shape to emotions: translating them into colours, marks and images
How We Work
Each session is dedicated to a specific emotion. The structure is simple and reassuring:
- Opening circle: we sit together and talk about the emotion of the day — when we feel it, where we feel it in the body, what colour it is
- Creative activity: each child works with the materials to give shape to their own emotion — there is no right or wrong way
- Sharing: we look at the artworks together and listen to the stories they tell
The Materials
With children of this age I use simple, immediate materials: tempera, oil pastels, coloured paper, glue and scissors. The aim is not technique but expression. The materials must be accessible, not intimidating.
Emotions have a colour: the red of anger, the blue of sadness, the yellow of joy. When a child learns to paint what they feel, they also learn to contain it.
The Importance of the Setting
Working in a community centre means working with children who often have few opportunities to be truly heard. The art therapy workshop becomes a privileged space — one hour a week in which all the attention is on them, in which they can express themselves without judgement and feel seen.