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Kids channel energy into music through Young Lions Roar afterschool program

The Young Lions Roar program is the first of its kind in Rock Island, helping kids with their mental health through poetry, rap and other music.

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — A new afterschool program in Rock Island is helping kids put their energy, thoughts and feelings into art.

Young Lions Roar Director Aubrey Barnes said the purpose of the program is to help children's mental health through art. 

"I taught and I worked in behavior schools for about seven years," Barnes said. "And while I was working in behavior schools and kind of like growing as an artist, I kind of combined those two worlds worlds kind of inadvertently and start teaching like workshops at different schools."

He said he used his own experience to create the Young Lions Roar program.

"At the end of the day, whether you do poetry, and end up doing it as a career, or doing it just in those times where you need to figure things out. I think at the end of the day, like when you're able to write from an honest place that allows you to look at yourself and honest like, and kind of like bring some kind of sense of transformation to yourself, that kind of like makes the people in yourself better."

The first prompt of the program gave students twenty minutes to write a musical verse on what made them stronger in their life.

" I really hope that like a lot of the participants kind of grow comfortability with themselves that like, they can share with the world around them or with the people around them: or even kind of just connect with themselves better. That's what I hope to kind of see in the next few weeks," said Barnes.

The program will take place at Two Rivers Church in Rock Island on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

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