Focus & Future
Our Current Focus
Over the years, our organization has expanded beyond adolescent recovery to include adults and seniors, with a strong emphasis on supporting mental, emotional, and behavioral health. We particularly focus on historically marginalized and underserved populations, as well as individuals who have faced mental health challenges.
Utilizing art and creative expression in group settings, we act as a conduit to help alleviate stress and promote healthy coping skills and behaviors. We actively engage individuals in shared spaces, guiding them through journeys of growth, self-exploration, stress management, and coping with uncomfortable emotions, ultimately fostering resilience.
Our work is trauma-informed and guided by Social & Emotional Learning principles and best practices. We do not provide formal 1:1 art therapy, and our groups are not art lessons. Instead, our model is designed to leverage creative expression in a way that flattens power dynamics, aligning with peer-to-peer, community-based models and harnessing the well-documented healing powers of art-making.
Our Future
As we look ahead, Art Impact Project remains committed to making mental health support through art-making accessible to all. We are expanding to areas of identified need within Lake County through strategic partnerships and careful financial planning. We recognize the devastating impact of intergenerational trauma, community violence, and chronic complex trauma, and how these shape one's health.
Research continues to demonstrate how we can use art to heal our minds and bodies. Studies have shown that:
- making art can significantly reduce stress hormone cortisol in 45 minutes
- one or more art experiences per month can extend your life by ten years
- museum visits are being prescribed by doctors to decrease loneliness and increase cognitive skills
We truly believe that art-making is one of the most powerful untapped sources of intervention available. At a time when access to mental health care is extremely limited and the need has never been higher, we can bring support right now.
