Using arts to coproduce knowledge with service users and to enhance salutogenic coping of marginalized Bedouin youth in Israel

This chapter explores using art to enhance salutogenic coping in marginalized Bedouin youth. The indigenous Bedouin youth in Israel are an example of marginalized, impoverished youth that live in unrecognized villages in the Negev desert in tin huts with a lack of basic electricity, and health care and schools that are understaffed and far away from villages. The first aim of the intervention is to coproduce knowledge about how marginalized Bedouin youth phenomenologically self-define the stressors and salutogenic coping in their lives, in the context of their rapid cultural transition, and marginalization. The central themes of stress and coping were then visually shown back to the youth and to additional groups to further elucidate and define, and thus enhance, the stressors and coping through discussing the images and solutions of meaning, manageability, and comprehensibility. The second aim is an empowerment and enrichment intervention meant to enhance their salutogenic coping through drawing and talking about it together in a shared-reality group.