Engagement in art-making has many benefits for all people, but is even more important for
children experiencing economic hardships, food insecurity, and homelessness. These situations
create conditions for the experience of toxic stress and trauma. In recognition of the importance of art to health outcomes, The National Center for Mind Body Medicine includes art-based healing as part of its program to address individual and population-wide trauma and chronic stress.
Programs that incorporate drawing as an early intervention have been shown to decrease PTSD by more than 80%. A study by Schwan and colleagues (2018) found that youth experiencing homelessness used art-making as a way to cope with stress and homelessness, explore and express themselves, enhance their self-esteem and hopefulness about their future, and to recover from trauma and promote mental health.
With the above information in mind, the Education Sector of OASH is piloting a program to provide art supply bags to children experiencing toxic stress related to instability of housing and food insecurity. The goal of this pilot program is to foster resilience by providing opportunities for self-expression and stress reduction through art-making. This program will be jointly administered by OASH (compiling Art Bags
and instruction cards), the Director of TOPPS, and TSD school counselors (identifying appropriate
children to be given Art Bags, participating in brief evaluation), with approval of school
administrators.
Download the activity guides (PDF).
For more information about this program, contact OASH.