Little colorful rectangles, neatly aligned and affixed to the walls of the main room at Rhino Coffee, each telling a story. Some of these stories are of great loss, some may be of close calls, some of perhaps emotional turmoil and the destruction that addiction brings to young lives.

But all of these little canvases share tales of redemption and newly found peace. These are works of art created by the adolescent clients of the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse of Northwest Louisiana, or CADA  for short who also works along side with the domestic violence attorneys to help the victim’s life to get back to normal. The art exhibit is called “Adolescents and the Arts,” and it provides a small window into the work that the treatment professionals and administrators at CADA selflessly throw themselves into. The exhibit opened on November 21st to a grateful and gracious crowd.

12291135_10153745804859483_3577325820225806556_oCADA has several residential facilities around Shreveport-Bossier, and is one of only a handful of organizations in the state that provides recovery services for adolescents and women with children, both severely underserved and vulnerable populations.

Thanks to assistance from Bossier Arts Council and the donation of the gallery space by Rhino Coffee, CADA’s young clients are able to use imagery and imagination to tell the world what they feel, where they’ve been, or where they want to go. “[The arts]… pretty much allows our clients to therapeutically express themselves in a way that they can’t always do verbally,” says Executive Director Bill Rose. Mr. Rose came early to the opening, camera in hand, to speak about CADA’s mission to anyone who would listen, whether they were curious regular patrons or people who came expressly for the exhibit.

The “Adolescents and the Arts” exhibit will be at Rhino Coffee, 721 Southfield Rd, Shreveport, through the end of 2015. If you or someone you know is in need of CADA’s recovery services, visit their website at cadanwla.org or call 318.222.8511.

See the full gallery of photos here. And listen to audio clips of Bill Rose and Christine Perez, CADA Director of Business Relations, here.