We are so excited to share this guest blog from Megan Eaton, who is Manager of Enrichment Services over at Pivotal - an amazing nonprofit that helps those in the foster youth community by providing education and employment support so they can graduate high school and college and achieve their dreams for success. With over 400,000 kids in foster care, and with those kids not always getting the support they need to succeed, this organization is absolutely pivotal and deserves the highest of praises.

We hope you enjoy this blog from Megan about how she facilitated the Shadow’s Edge game to help her students at Pivotal open up, tackle their individual challenges, and own their personal narratives. It’s success stories like these that inspire us to continue to work hard to make the game the best tool it can be for young people.

When the mobile application Shadow's Edge crossed my desk, I didn't know what to expect. I was tasked with exploring the game and finding a way to share it with our high school scholars. I tried out Shadow’s Edge for myself. And after entering the grey world and seeing the color being added back with each of my art pieces, I realized that sharing this with our Pivotal scholars would be much easier than expected.

I was excited to incorporate Shadows Edge into our STEAM Program curriculum at Pivotal. By presenting the grey world to our youth and having them release their creativity (with no judgement, just acceptance) our scholars let down their guard. They shared openly with the STEAM instructors and each other about their reflections in the journal pages they’d encountered throughout the game. Through the art they created in the game, our young people were able to relax, open up, and share positive and negative memories and emotions. More importantly, everyone accessed these memories in a safe place where they were supported, heard, and encouraged.

Shadow’s Edge was such a hit that scholars asked to create even more art pieces than the game required. The final project was to create a piece of art that reflected their real life. They were given complete artistic freedom to create what they wanted. Feeding off the open path of options and emotions they experienced while playing the game, they translated their game artwork into incredible real-life artwork. In result, scholars released some of the negative and felt more at peace.

The growth that I saw in our Pivotal scholars from day one to the end of the STEAM course was inspiring. Through the experience our scholars were challenged, grew closer to each other, and realized just how much color they bring into the world. Everyone has an inner strength to overcome life's obstacles, and Shadow’s Edge helped our young people discover their own inner strength.