Utah Youth Corrections Center in Provo unveils collaborative mural promoting kindness and healing

PROVO — The Slate Canyon Youth Center in Utah County unveiled a mural Monday, “A Time of Kindness and Healing,” as part of an ongoing initiative to empower change and inspire healing through art.

The mural, created by youth in custody in collaboration with community partners, symbolizes the transformative power of creativity and second chances.

The six-week project was spearheaded by the nonprofit One Kind Act A Day, in partnership with the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice and Youth Services, as well as on-site staff at Slate Canyon, and local artist Beto Conejo.

“The mural draws heavily on the youth’s cultural heritage, incorporating Aztec and Maya influences,” Conejo explained. “They actually came up with a lot of the symbols themselves. On both sides, you see our Maya temples, and a lot of these books you see are representative of different levels of the temple — actually, the books the youth recommended for us.”

Utah Division of Juvenile Justice and Youth Services’ mural in Farmington. (Photo courtesy: Utah Department of Health and Human Services)

“We had a similar mural in Farmington, Utah and in that facility, we went nine months without a single incident with our youth after our engagement that we had,” Peterson said.

During the project, volunteers with One Kind Act a Day also mentored the teens participating in the mural project on principles of kindness, service, and accountability. Peterson said the impact the project has on the teens often leads to significant behavioral changes.

“Kindness is not something we might necessarily equate to a juvenile detention facility,y but what we found is if we focus on these principles of service, these principles of positive youth development and recognizing that while we always have accountability in these settings we also can tap into some of those things that are a little more from the heart and we can see significant change with young people,” Peterson said.