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FISCAL
YEAR 2005 (July
1, 2004-June 30, 2005) |
This past fiscal year, 2004-2005,
marked the 35th Anniversary of the founding
of the work that has developed today as
the Creative
Alternatives (CANY)
therapeutic drama method.
In 1969, two actors with the inspiration
to use theater as a tool to help those
with psychiatric disabilities began a
workshop at The Mount Sinai Hospital Department
of Psychiatry. This year theater professionals
and drama therapists trained in the Creative
Alternatives methodology led over 1000
workshops in 17 different
facilities serving a wide range of children
and adults who suffer from some form of
trauma and abuse -- from children in residential
care, to veterans, to domestic violence
survivors, to psychiatric patients on
those same units at The Mount Sinai Medial Center
where the program began 35 years ago.
We also celebrated the 15
year tenure of our Board Chair Ellen
Kealy as she stepped down from her
role as Chair to continue on the Board
in a different capacity. Her leadership
as brought Creative Alternatives to the
exciting stage of development at which
we now stand.
As we look ahead to 2006,
the vision for Creative Alternatives is
expanding to recognize the interest in
our therapeutic theater methodology from members
of the theater arts community and the
mental health community. With this in
mind, we will be setting up more opportunities
to provide workshops and teaching possibilities.
We will be working more intensively with
the staff at the sites where we provide
groups, offering staff trainings. We will
be reaching out to the theater community
and the therapeutic theater community with full
day workshops in our methods. Our goal
is to establish Creative Alternatives
as a training resource in our unique method
of therapeutic theater and to provide a center
for shared learning among the community
of drama therapists. Through training
others in the work of Creative Alternatives,
our work will not be limited to the New
York area but can be replicated in treatment
facilities both nationally and internationally
and become a model for the way in which
therapeutic theater can serve as a powerful
treatment tool for traumatized children
and adults.
Due to the impact of traumatic
events occurring nationally and internationally,
an awareness of the importance of the
creative arts as therapy must receive
greater recognition. We believe that Creative
Alternatives can be central to bringing
this awareness about. We invite your continued
interest and support.
Jonathan Hilton
Executive Director
Program
Activities
This past
year Creative Alternatives saw
not only an increase in the number
of facilities served by our programs,
but particularly exciting for
us is the deepening of the relationships
developed with these program sites.
For example, in fiscal 2004
our program at Hawthorne Cedar
Knolls, a residential facility
for emotionally disturbed adolescents
at the Westchester campus of the
Jewish Board of Family and Children's
Services, consisted of
one Creative
Alternatives
group on alternate weeks. This
past year at the school's request
and through the generous support
of Paul Newman, the program was
increased to four groups a day,
twice weekly. A second example
of our deepened relationship at
program sites is Hamden
Children's Center in Connecticut,
a residential facility for emotionally
disturbed children. This
past year we were asked for a
pilot program for three months.
The program was so well received
by the children and staff that
Hamden Children's Center has requested
that this coming year we provide
a full year of programs as well
as ongoing workshops with the
staff to increase their abilities
in working with the children in
a creative way. The program at
Hamden Children's Center was made
possible through the efforts of
Board member, Elizabeth Goldstein
and this year will be funded through
a generous grant from the Tow
Family Foundation.
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New
Programs
Creative Alternatives
was the
recipient of a grant award
from the American Red Cross September
11th Recovery Fund to provide ongoing
therapeutic theater groups to affected
residents of lower Manhattan, particularly
with children. Through
this award, Creative
Alternatives
partnered with the Church Street
School of Music and Art to provide
groups to children and youth living
in lower Manhattan who were directly
affected by September 11th.
A new program with HIV/AIDS
affected adults began at St. Mary's
Center in Harlem. The drama
work with these adult groups offers
a powerful opportunity to help them
creatively cope with the psychological
challenges of living with AIDS.
Through special funding support
Creative
Alternatives
laid the groundwork for a
program to begin in fiscal 2006,
combining Creative
Alternatives
therapeutic theater with art therapy for
returning Iraq War Veterans
suffering from a wide range of emotional
and mental health issues. This program
will be developed in conjunction
with the Veterans Administration
over the coming year.
Program Summaries:
Under the supervision
of Program Director, Lucy McLellan,
a thirty page report has been compiled
describing our programs at each
site for this past year.
A copy of this report is available
upon request. |
Conference
Presentations and Training Outreach
In
addition to the ongoing supervision
and leadership in the Creative
Alternatives
methodology, Emily Nash has represented
Creative Alternatives
nationally
and internationally. In March, along
with Advisory Board member and former
CANY staff member, Craig Haen, Ms.
Nash presented at the National Conference
of the American Group Psychotherapy
Association. The presentation
was Healing Through Strength &
Group Approach to Therapeutic Enactment.
In
May 2005 she led a training workshop
in Atlanta Called “The Therapeutic
Use of Drama”. Members of
the workshop were artists, actors,
creative arts therapists and mental
health professionals from the Atlanta
area. Also in Atlanta the same weekend
she conducted a drama and storytelling
workshop for children at the Spellman
College Museum.
Over
the summer, Ms. Nash presented at
the National therapeutic theater Association
Conference in Portland, Oregon.
The presentation was on Group work
with Adolescents.
INTERNATIONAL
COLLABORATION: For the
past four years Creative
Alternatives
has been partnering with ArtReach,
an organization whose mission is
to use the creative arts therapies
to help children traumatized by
wars and natural disasters. Emily
Nash has been a leader in their
international work in Bosnia training
the teachers. In May 2005 she returned
to Bosnia to observe and supervise
the group of 12 Bosnian teachers
from the districts of Tuzla and
Brcko with whom she has worked over
the last four years. This year in
addition, she met with Directors
of Schools and the director of the
local Pedagogical Institute all
of whom view this work as part of
a much needed educational reform
within the school system in Bosnia.
She had the opportunity to demonstrate
our techniques as well as see how
they were applied in another culture.
Through her work, the teachers have
become trainers in using drama and
art as a healing process.
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Organizational
and Staff Changes
Creative Alternatives
brought onto staff a full-time Program
Director and a part-time Development
Director in 2005.
Lucy
McLellan MA, RDT joined
Creative
Alternatives
in May, 2005 as Program Director
to partner with Emily Nash, Artistic
Director, in both enriching the
therapeutic theater methods developed
by CANY and in maintaining and expanding
our programs sites. Originally from
the UK, Lucy came to the United
States in 2002 to study in the Master's
Program of therapeutic theater at New
York University. As well as serving
as Program Assistant to Director
of Studies, Dr. Robert Landy, Lucy
was also presented with an excellence
award as therapeutic theater Student of
the Year on completion of her Masters
in 2004. Lucy was invited to join
the faculty in the Program of therapeutic theater at NYU and began teaching
in fall 2005. She currently has
two papers pending publication in
the creative arts therapy journal,
The Arts in Psychotherapy. In addition,
she serves as Corresponding Secretary
for the TriState Chapter of the
National Association for therapeutic theater.
She is a Registered Drama Therapist
(RDT) and is currently applying
for licensure as a Creative Arts
Therapist within New York State.
Christina
deRoos joined Creative
Alternatives
as Development Director in October,
2004. She brings extensive event
planning experience, including creating
and promoting fundraising events
for nonprofit organizations. In
addition, Ms. deRoos is an accomplished
artist with skills in marketing,
photography and graphic design.
In joining Creative
Alternatives,
Ms. deRoos continues her history
of assisting nonprofits and public
service organizations, which includes
TeamChild, Colorado Public Defender,
and the Northwest Women's Law Center.
Ms. deRoos earned her J.D., with
honors, from the University of Washington
in 1996 and her B.A. in Political
Science from the University of Colorado
in 1993. |
New
Board Members
Creative
Alternatives
welcomed two new members to its
Board of Directors in 2005. They
are Dick Latessa,
a Tony award winning Broadway actor
and Laurence W. Hunter,
a marketing and advertising specialist. |
Special
Events
Theater
Community Gathering:
Creative
Alternatives is excited about the
growing relationships with theater
professionals who have both attended
our programs and offered their support.
In November, 2004 the Tony
winning composer and lyricist of
Hairspray, Marc Shaiman and Scott
Wittman, hosted an evening gathering
in their NYC home at which Creative
Alternatives
staff and a group member from our
program for women survivors of domestic
violence spoke about the work we
do. The event was attended by about
35 theater professionals and potential
and current donors.
Annual
Spring Benefit:
On
April 28, 2005 Creative
Alternatives
hosted its annual benefit, dinner
at Prime 54 Restaurant in the Rihga
Royal and the Broadway show, A Streetcar
Named Desire, at Studio 54 Roundabout
Theater. After the performance,
CANY hosted a reception for guests
in the Studio 54 bar attended by
cast members including Natasha Richardson
and John C. Reilly. The event raised
$105,000.
Board
Tribute and End-of-Year Celebration:
Our
final Board meeting last
year marked the conclusion of the
leadership under Ellen Kealy as
Chair of the Board of Directors,
a position she held for 15 years.
Ellen will continue as an active
Board member, chairing the Program
Committee. After the Board meeting,
a celebration and tribute
to Ellen was held at the restaurant
Pia Maria in midtown Manhattan.
Creative
Alternatives
staff, Board and friends, with the
usual creative flair of Creative
Alternatives ,
offered a program of speeches, songs
and stories giving loving tribute
to Ellen for the outstanding service
and support she has provided as
Chair over the years. |
We
close this annual report with one
example of what is shared and worked
on in our groups. A poem written
by David, a young teen, from a CANY
group at a residential facility
for children:
I am David and I am
Grey
I am a haunted house, I remember...
I am a rock on a cliff, I am trying
not to fall
I am anger, I sting with the feeling
of betrayal
I am sorrow, I lament for what I
have lost
I am hope, the past might be mended
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THANK
YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND INTEREST
IN CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES!
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