Community outreach

We work with participants of all ages, abilities, identities, cultures and walks of life. When we connect, we’ll take the time to learn about your intended audience and the context in which our program will be delivered. It is our priority to craft engaging, relevant and culturally responsive experiences that speak meaningfully to participants no matter where they are in their journey.

We offer full flexibility and freedom when it comes to customising the delivery of our outreach programs. Programs can be delivered as a single or multi-day event with opportunities to connect in-person or online. For in-person delivery, we can travel to any location in Victoria to provide our outreach service.

Programs can include:

• Workshops

• Talks

• Interactive presentations

• Short courses

• Mental health awareness campaigns

• Art therapy groups

• And other unique creative arts experiences.

Our programs can be designed to have an educational or therapeutic focus.

Educational focus:
Our programs are informed by our professional training in creative arts therapy, but are not delivered as an art therapy program. Educational programs include mental health awareness campaigns or wellbeing workshops that create opportunities for participants to learn and connect in creative, more-than-verbal ways.

Therapeutic focus:
Our programs can also be designed to provide personal art therapy, as in the case of facilitating individual or group art therapy sessions at your school, university, hospital, local business or other meeting place within the community. Art therapy outreach sessions are delivered on a fixed-term basis to allow programs to be easily integrated into existing services and supports. We collaborate with mental health and wellbeing teams, event coordinators, counsellors, and other allied health practitioners at organisations to ensure comprehensive and coordinated participant care.

Under a therapeutic focus, we will also work with you to incorporate a formal participant intake and consent process to establish a safe and ethical framework for service delivery. Participant confidentiality, rights and wellbeing are paramount to our practice at all times, and constitute the professional duty of care of our Creative Arts Therapist delivering the program.

Our programs are suitable for a range of contexts and purposes, including but not limited to:

• Mental health awareness days – e.g., R U OK? Day

• Social support groups – e.g., carer support groups, disability groups, neighbourhood houses, men’s and women’s sheds, community learning centre

• Annual celebrations observed by communities – e.g., International Women’s Day, Neurodiversity Celebration Week, NAIDOC Week, Harmony Day

• School-run programs to support students – e.g., manage and navigate exam stress, academic pressures, year level transitions, and post-school transition experiences

• University-run events to promote student and staff engagement with health and awareness campaigns

• Art therapy groups in hospitals to support in-patients with their recovery

• Community workshops run by local businesses to support mental health and wellbeing.

Our outreach programs are not art classes or perhaps even your regular art event. We’re proud to stand out from the crowd and here’s our point of difference:

• Art classes tend to focus on technical skills, producing specific artworks, and achieving predetermined outcomes from the creative process. Our programs take the pressure off by shifting away from outcomes (what are you making?), focusing instead on the directly felt experience of the creative process (how are you in the making?) to land participants in a place of deeper connection, curiosity and meaning.

• Art classes are facilitated by artists, art instructors or art educators, but our programs are facilitated by a licensed, Masters-qualified Creative Arts Therapist trained in creating safe and supportive experiences at the intersection of art, health and wellbeing.

• Art classes typically encourage mastery of a singular technique or specific material. However, we believe that the boundless beauty of human creativity cannot be fully captured let alone expressed by one medium alone. Our programs work with a range of creative modalities to offer a flexible and inclusive form of support that goes beyond the limits of verbal language, while recognising freedom of self-expression as a fundamental human right.

Pricing will vary depending on your requirements, and we can also discuss and work with specific budgets if you have one in mind. Any information that you can provide us about what you’re looking for in an outreach program will help us put together a personalised quote, tailored to your specific context and needs. Let’s connect!