Arts, Culture, and Identity for Military-Connected Youth

For military-connected youth, identity is often shaped across multiple communities, cultures, and geographies. Frequent moves and changing environments can make it difficult for young people to maintain a consistent sense of self or belonging.

Arts and humanities play a critical role in helping military-connected youth explore identity, process experience, and express belonging. Creative expression, through visual arts, music, storytelling, performance, and cultural exploration, offers young people a way to make meaning of transition and service in their own voices.

Arts-based engagement allows military-connected youth to:

• Share their stories in ways that feel authentic

• Preserve cultural continuity across moves

• Build confidence and self-expression

• Connect with peers through shared creativity

Unlike traditional academic settings, arts and humanities spaces can transcend language, background, and location. For military-connected youth, this flexibility is especially important.

The Military Child World Expo Foundation (MCWEF) integrates arts and humanities into its programming as a core pillar, not as enrichment, but as a means of cultural stewardship and identity support. Through creative showcases, exhibitions, and community-based engagement, MCWEF ensures that military-connected youth are not only seen, but heard.

Cultural expression reinforces that military-connected youth are more than the circumstances they navigate. They are creators, storytellers, and contributors to our shared civic and cultural life.

When communities invest in arts and humanities for military-connected youth, they invest in belonging, resilience, and long-term wellbeing.