Creative Alternatives of New York

FISCAL YEAR 2006

February 28, 2007

Dear Friends,

Using the art of drama, Creative Alternatives of New York (CANY) helps thousands of children, adolescents and adults find hope and renewed possibility in their lives. We are proud of the CANY artists who have developed a transformative model of therapeutic theater over the past 35 years. Their dedication, paired with the financial resources we receive from our supporters each year, enables individuals, young and old, across New York and Connecticut to imagine a positive future and to find the strength within themselves and their communities to take steps toward that future.

This past year CANY’s talented staff of drama therapists and theater artists led more than 1,400 groups in community centers, residential facilities, special schools and hospitals. This represents an increase of almost 35% over 2005, an accomplishment we could not have achieved without the generous support of donors who believe in the power of the arts to heal. CANY groups enable the most underserved and fragile children and adults to heal through creative expression. Among the sites that benefited from CANY groups in 2006 were:

A safe house where women survivors of domestic violence call their CANY group the “Drama Mamas,” and where one group member explains, “I learned ways to cope with the fact that I was victimized, to build a recovery process and to continue with my life.”
A residential treatment facility for adolescents whose lives have included violence and abuse, where CANY group participants wrote and performed a play titled, From the Bottom Up, which the narrator says is “about people trying to be what they always wanted to be.”
A psychiatric hospital where a young woman said about the CANY group, “this is the only hour of the week that I didn’t feel like killing myself.”

In addition to reaching more children and adults last year, we are also pleased to report that we have taught the CANY model to hundreds of clinicians, educators, artists and child care workers, sharing our method of therapeutic theater throughout New York and beyond. CANY has developed training methods that teach other agencies how to use our model of therapeutic theater to enhance their client treatment programs, and how to facilitate a supportive professional community among staff members whose work is very challenging. We look forward to providing more training in the coming year.

We see the power of the art of drama, combined with group therapy methods, to help people reconnect with their potential and their community. We hope we can count on your support as we continue helping children and adults heal through creative expression.

Thank you,


Jonathan Hilton Executive Director		Elizabeth Goldstein Board Chairperson

The Creative Alternatives Model of therapeutic theater:

The Creative Alternatives method of therapeutic theater has been developed to respond to the diverse ways in which emotional disturbance fragments the self, severs interpersonal relationships and severely impairs the developmental process. The CANY method has developed over 35 years of clinical practice and has been informed by an array of creative and therapeutic influences over time, reflected in a staff of theater artists and drama therapists alike. Groups are not fixed or formulaic in nature but respond to the unique needs of the clients gathered in that moment to commune, create and heal. With that said group leaders follow a clear set of guiding principles, informing both the creative and therapeutic interventions made:

Metaphor as therapeutic tool
The creation of dramatic fiction is central to the therapeutic process, providing a safe container for diverse and difficult feelings, experiences and thoughts. Metaphor allows access to stories that need to be told in order for the individual to function in a healthier way; meaningful life stories that can often only be accessed through the freedom of the fictional realm.

Through the use of fictional characters, dramatic enactment, poetry, art and music, our clients begin to discover and explore their inner worlds, tapping into dormant creative energies within. Themes, evoked by the group or introduced by the leader, produce stories which in turn are brought to life as group members cast one another to enact the storyteller’s journey. In this way, the metaphorical world serves the therapeutic process. As the client engages in the creative process, they gain access to the healing potential of the imagination, experiencing a sense of mastery and new possibilities.

Group as therapeutic agent
The group process lies at the heart of the CANY model. Groups serve to bridge experiences that build connections between participating clients. The interactive process of creating stories and building dramas generates a sense of commonality, interpersonal identification and an environment in which relationships of trust can be developed and restored in the here and now of the group.

At the heart of our philosophy is a belief in the healing capacity of community. Just as our clients gather in group to connect and grow, so CANY invests in a parallel community, in which our staff engages in group and individual supervision, acknowledging the therapeutic process as an essential part of training for effective group leadership. Following this model, we run our groups in teams of two with the belief that co-leadership models for the client the therapeutic benefits of a healthy partnership: cooperation, communication and mutual support. In addition, we provide training workshops to clinical staff at a number of program sites, focusing on the group process and healing through relationship.

Creativity as health
A central objective of CANY groups is to explore and connect the individual with their creative potential. Groups do not focus on pathology but rather possibility and the capacity for health, transformation and the expression of a full range of feelings. Groups focus on the writing of new life stories and the playing of new roles, providing a safe and containing environment in which to explore and enact new possibilities. CANY groups seek to meet maturational gaps; holes in the developmental process that continues to influence life choices and therefore hold the client back from their potential. The CANY model addresses this maturational deficit through imagination, fiction and play, all within the context of the group experience.

Our Direct Service Programs with Children and Youth:

Andrus Children’s Center
Andrus Children’s Center is a private non-profit community agency offering prevention, assessment, educational, treatment and research programs that help children and families achieve healthy, stable lives throughout Westchester County and the tri-state area. Over the past two years, CANY groups have served as an integral part of this therapeutic and educational model of work, running a program at two discrete sites on the Andrus campus.

The Orchard School offers highly specialized instructional services for students with special needs and strives to create a welcoming environment where children feel safe, address affective issues, acquire academic skills, and anticipate a more hopeful future. The teachers, assistants, social workers, and administrators all play an active role in the therapeutic theater program at the Orchard School. In addition to the usual CANY methods, the program staff also incorporates insights and practices from the SANCTUARY model, whereby traumatized children learn how to create a safe and nurturing environment in which to grow and develop.

The Diagnostic Center provides shelter, safety and a fresh start for a group of youngsters whose lives have been profoundly traumatized or endangered. The children participating in the Diagnostic Center groups range between six and ten years of age. The group is small in size due to the behavioral and psychological challenges and needs of this traumatized group of children. CANY activities have sought to reintegrate play into the lives of these psychologically battered individuals, restoring imagination, safety, connection and trust into their bodies, hearts and minds of group members.

Children’s Aid Society - Hope Leadership Academy & Project Bold
Both Hope Leadership Academy and Project Bold were born out of a need to address issues of violence and victimization in the lives of at-risk youth. The Hope Leadership Academy in Harlem and the Bronx trains youth to be community educators, advocates and leaders by providing the skills and self-confidence that young adults need to make changes in their own lives, their neighborhoods and beyond. Project Bold is an alternative high school program in the Bronx, offering a safe and structured environment to youth during periods of public school suspension. Participants in both Project Bold and the two Hope Leadership Academies range between 14-18 years old. Groups are co-educational in nature and consist of teenagers from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Children’s Center of Hamden
Founded in 1833," the Children’s Center of Hamden is Connecticut’s oldest chartered private child-caring agency. While most clients are from Greater New Haven, the center welcomes children from throughout the state of Connecticut, targeting emotional and behavioral problems, physical or sexual abuse, learning disabilities, and substance abuse.
CANY seeks to offer a creative space for the children at Hamden to explore their often tumultuous life experience through metaphor, story and drama. Groups allow participants to celebrate in their creativity and imagination, so often denied children in crisis. At Hamden, CANY staff runs three one-hour groups each week, one boys group and two separate girls’ groups, responding to the needs of each group in terms of age, gender and life situation.

The Children's Village
The residential treatment center at the Dobbs Ferry campus serves deeply troubled children from within the foster care system, the majority of who come from impoverished, inner city neighborhoods, rife with crime and violence. The Children’s Village works to undo this damage by providing intensive clinical services in a safe, nurturing environment, and by working with families to prepare them to foster an environment of love and support that their children will need upon returning home. CANY works with emotionally disturbed youth at The Children’s Village, offering a separate boys and girl’s group with children aged 5 through 17.

Church Street School for Music and Art
Church Street School for Music and Art is a not-for-profit community arts center, established in 1990, dedicated to arts education in Lower Manhattan, and serves as a common meeting ground for students from diverse backgrounds. CANY groups seek to respond to the needs of a community resting at the edge of the World Trade Center site, focusing on developing connections between participants as well as creating a safe space to share stories and experiences, feelings and thoughts. Funded by the American Red Cross to assist affected residents of 9/11, CANY groups seek to find ways in which participants can express feelings and thoughts in a contained and therapeutic manner.

Graham-Windham Services to Families and Children: Langston Hughes PS 30M
Graham-Windham serves children and adolescents with a history of delinquency, incarceration, and/or emotional disturbance, offering programs at multiple sites in New York State including P.S. #30 in Harlem. Graham-Windham groups serve young people aged between ages 11-14, diverse in cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Creative Alternative’s program goals over the past year were to increase cooperation, build self-esteem, foster appropriate self-expression and practice conflict resolution skills.

Hawthorne Cedar Knolls
As part of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in Westchester County, Hawthorne Cedar Knolls serves residential and day students with behavioral, emotional, psychological and familial problems with the continuing mission of rehabilitating youth so they can rejoin their families and the community. The CANY program was greatly expanded at Hawthorne this year due to an increase in funding, enlarging to eight groups a week at Linden Hill Middle School, Cedar Knolls High School and, during second semester, a group at the newly opened Elementary School. Group members present with a diverse range of emotional psychological and behavioral needs:

Mount Sinai Medical Center: Inpatient Child and Adolescent Units
CANY staff runs groups on both the child and adolescent units at Mt Sinai. While the younger group serves children aged between five and 12, the adolescent group consists of young people aged between 13 and 17. Duration of stay can be anywhere between two weeks to two months and clients present with a diverse range of diagnoses and symptoms, including major depression, attention deficit disorder, poor impulse control and anger management, self mutilation, and trauma from sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

Wildcat Academy
Wildcat Academy is an alternative high school for youth-at-risk, targeting students with a history of poor attendance and academic achievement as well as behavioral problems or criminality, offering students an innovative approach to engage them in their educational and social development. For the past several years, CANY has run two 90 minute groups, twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, with Wildcat students. CANY groups are structured to respond to an integral part of the Wildcat curriculum, seeking to improve concentration and motivation, enhance articulation of feelings and thoughts, increase positive social exchange, as well as raise self-awareness and self-esteem. CANY groups target co-ed youth-at-risk of high school age, offering therapeutic theater as part of the school’s alternative curriculum.

Why I Like Our Group

“Leave me alone,” I say
But when I come into the group
All this goes out the window.
I’m sleeping upstairs
I get up out of bed
When I hear the announcement
It sparkles up my mood
The whole world is a stage
And I’m just crazy about it.

-- Written by an adolescent in a CANY group

Our Direct Service Programs with Adults:

Aegis House
Opened in 1981, Aegis is a Domestic Violence Crisis Shelter that provides short-term residence and support services for women and their children impacted by domestic violence. It seeks to provide a non-competitive atmosphere that fosters open communication, respect, and cooperation among advocates and women who are abused. The “Drama Mamas” group at Aegis uses theater to foster a sense of safety, trust and community amongst clients, creating an environment in which experiences of survival can be shared and transformed into new stories, possibilities and roles. “Drama Mamas” runs for an hour each week and generally consists of between three to eight participants, diverse in age, race & socio-economic background.

Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center
The Bronx VA Medical Center is the oldest facility of its type in New York City and has been providing care for veterans with physical and/or mental disabilities for over 75 years. Since 1984, CANY has provided year-round services to inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, working with three different units at the Bronx V.A.: Psychiatric Support Services, the Acute Care Unit, and the Substance Abuse Treatment Program. The clients at Bronx VA are adult men and women with a history of military service, originating from a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds

Gouverneur Hospital
Gouverneur Healthcare Services has been meeting the healthcare needs of New Yorkers for more than a century, serving as both an acute care hospital and nursing facility to residents of Manhattan’s lower east side. Multicultural and bilingual services are available with a focus on Chinese and Spanish immigrant populations, responding to the discrete needs of the local population. CANY works with elders in an outpatient day program at Gouverneur, most of who are Asian and Latino in origin and seeks to respond to the cultural intermingling that makes this program so unique, encouraging a rich sharing of stories, life experience through the metaphorical world of theater.

St. Mary’s Center
St. Mary’s is a skilled nursing facility in Harlem, operating as both a residence and day treatment center for individuals diagnosed with AIDS and HIV. CANY conducts four sessions at St. Mary’s each week, providing a safe and containing environment for clients to explore issues of existence, identity and community. The majority of clients are people of color, especially men between the ages of 30 and 50 who are attempting to adopt new healthy behaviors while obtaining continual treatment and education from a medical staff.

Mount Sinai Medical Center: Adult In-patient Units; MICA In-patient & Out-patient units
Mount Sinai has been Creative Alternatives’ primary program site and partner for over 30 years. Groups are run in a diverse array of mental health programs ranging from inpatient psychiatry, outpatient day treatment, substance abuse, and geriatrics. all within the Department of Psychiatry. In addition, Creative Alternatives runs a weekly training session at Mount Sinai in which CANY artists in training and NYU interns from the Program of therapeutic theater able to hone their therapeutic skills and develop group techniques with the guidance of Emily Nash, Director of Training.

Creative Alternatives Mission

To encourage the growth and health of the individual and the community through the use of creative expression.

Our Fiscal Year 2006 Program Statistics

During fiscal year 2006 Creative Alternatives conducted nearly 1400 therapeutic theater groups to clients from five to eighty years old. Sessions took place at 17 discrete hospitals, schools and community facilities.

Program Site	Population & Setting	Group Numbers
Aegis House / Palladia	Female survivors of domestic violence Safe shelter	40
Andrus Children’s Center	Psychiatrically disabled/At-risk youth Residential facility	79
Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center	Psychiatrically disabled & substance abuse adults Inpatient psychiatry & Day treatment program	129
Children’s Aid Society: Hope Academy/Project Bold	At-risk youth After-school program	62
Children’s Center of Hamden CT	Psychiatrically disabled children Residential facility	90
Children’s Village	Psychiatrically disabled children Residential facility	78
Church Street School of Music & Art	Affected residents of 9/11 After-school program	78
Gouverneur Hospital (NYC)	Psychiatrically disabled geriatric Day treatment program	47
Hawthorne Cedar Knolls School District	Psychiatrically disabled/At-risk children & adolescents Residential facility	251
Mount Sinai Medical Center	Psychiatrically disabled geriatric, adult, adolescent, & children/Substance abuse adults Inpatient psychiatry & Day treatment program	312
Raphael Hernandez-Langston Hughes P.S. 30M	Psychiatrically disabled adolescents After-school program	14
St Mary’s Center	Adults living HIV/AIDS Day treatment program	152
Wildcat Academy - Manhattan	At-risk youth Alternative high school	58
Totals		1390

Our Training Programs:

Creative Alternatives Staff Training Program at Mt. Sinai Hospital

Creative Alternatives provides an intensive six-month training in our methodology, an exclusive program for potential new CANY artist staff. The training is both didactic and experiential; participants are given the opportunity to train as part of ongoing CANY groups within inpatient psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital. Training additionally includes weekly staff supervision attendance as well as training groups with a range of program populations in various groups led by CANY training staff.

NYU therapeutic theater Graduate Student Internship Program

Creative Alternatives provides graduate internships to NYU therapeutic theater second year students, developing and honing clinical tools and creative techniques. Other therapeutic theater students may also apply for this internship program. Interns are supervised and evaluated by CANY Program Director, Lucy McLellan, in the following areas: Knowledge of basic theories and practice of group dynamics; ability to function in the role of group leader and to provide the necessary structure and setting of limits; ability to formulate appropriate therapeutic theater goals for group, and to implement and modify the different techniques of therapeutic theater to meet the goals; ability to identify roles and interactional patterns of group members, facilitating effective socialization with the therapeutic theater modality; ability to work with a co-leader in a group, recognizing the special problems of resistance that occur with this dynamic.

Trainings workshops for professional development

The CANY training program is rooted in the understanding that all group leaders benefit from their own groups in which they can explore professional issues and emotional needs, building a stronger and more conscious working community. CANY staff facilitates training workshops at sites in which our programs already operate as well as organizations unfamiliar with our model of therapeutic theater. We provide a hands-on opportunity for staff to experience the healing and creative aspects of a therapeutic theater group experience. Participants are offered a forum for reconnection and rejuvenation, engaging in a professional community-building process through creative self-expression, discussion and play. Workshops will offer and explore:

The art of creating safe communities through group process
Working creatively with resistance, aggression and fear
The creation of therapeutic dramas through improvisation
The use of character and role to facilitate constructive self-expression
The therapeutic use of story, poetry and myth

The Intensive Training Program: For agency staff to implement the CANY model with their clients

This intensive program is tailored to meet the discrete needs and schedules of each organization. The duration of training may last from one week to one year, for instance, and will focus on the building and maintenance of a healthy professional community with the long-term goal of training staff to engage in the CANY model of healing through creative expression. During this extended training period, participants are led through a therapeutic theater group process, tapping into dormant creative energies and finding new ways to connect and grow as a professional community. Participants are encouraged to reflect on the ways in which the creative therapeutic process may serve their clients/students/patients, noting the healing potential of a shared group experience in the parallel communities in which they serve.

Our Fiscal Year 2006 Training Workshops and Seminars:

Training Site	Description
Andrus Children’s Center Hastings-on-Hudson, NY	Perspectives Case Conference - one-off workshop Working with educators, administrators & mental health workers to explore the use of therapeutic theater within an educational/clinical school setting
Children’s Center of Hamden Hamden, CT	Staff Training Program – workshop series Working with educators & mental health workers over a period of 6 months to explore team building & the use of therapeutic theater in a educational/clinical setting
Children’s Village Dobbs Ferry, NY	Staff Training Workshop - one-off workshop Working with educators & mental health workers on the use of therapeutic theater with children in crisis
Hawthorne Cedar Knolls School District, Hawthorne, NY	Staff Training Workshop - one-off workshop Working with educators & mental health workers on the use of therapeutic theater in an educational/clinical setting
Inwood House Bronx, NY	Peer Mentor Training – Two day intensive Working with adolescents on leadership skills & group facilitation using therapeutic theater tools & techniques
Kids in Crisis – Adolescent Services Greenwich, CT	Staff Training Workshop – staff retreat workshop Building relations & clinical skills amongst mental health workers & administrative staff working with adolescents in crisis
Mount Sinai Medical Center New York, NY	Intensive Team Training – workshop series Working with medical staff and mental health workers in inpatient psychiatry on team building & using therapeutic theater in a crisis setting

The Center for Creative Alternatives: Public Workshops

The Center for Creative Alternatives (CCA) emerged from a series of dialogues in 2005 between Emily Nash, CANY Artistic Director and Dr. Robert Landy, Director of the therapeutic theater Program at NYU. These conversations gave rise to the development of a new, expansive therapeutic theater institute for training and personal growth based in principles of therapeutic theater.

Four workshops led by Ms. Nash and Dr. Landy were offered in Fiscal Year 2006:

Untold Stories: A Workshop in therapeutic theater and Group Process
Stories of Rupture and Renewal: An Experience in Healing through therapeutic theater and Group Process.
Transforming Narrative to Dramatic Enactment: Bringing the Story to Life
Shadow Stories: A Dialogue with the Other Side

The workshops attracted a broad constituency of students and professionals in the fields of mental health, drama and related arts therapies, theater, religion, medicine and business. The positive feedback and continuing discussions led to expanded offerings for Fiscal Year 2007.

Philosophy of CCA: The philosophy of the CCA is to build a healing community based in a process of group psychotherapy and therapeutic dramatization. In creating such a community Ms. Nash and Dr. Landy focus on psychological, social and spiritual dynamics—exploring means of personal, interpersonal and transpersonal expression. CCA seeks to build a community where new and innovative approaches are welcomed, and where participants are encouraged to grow and develop through a safe and containing process.

The experience in training and personal growth has its foundations in the Creative Alternatives model of therapeutic theater and group process developed by Ms. Nash and the therapeutic theater model of role and story developed by Dr. Robert Landy.

Creative Alternatives of New York: Fiscal Year 2006 Highlights

August, 2005:
Artistic Director Emily Nash presents at the annual conference of the National Association of Drama Therapists.

October, 2005:
Fall Fundraiser: CANY supporters buy tickets to The Odd Couple on Broadway, starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, raising $23,000 for our programs.

November, 2005:
The Education of the Drama Therapist: In Search of a Guide, written by Program Director Lucy McLellan with Dr. Robert J. Landy and Ms. Sara McMullian is published in the Arts and Psychotherapy Journal.

December, 2005:
Through the generous sponsorship of Board member Susan Sarandon, CANY takes 20 adolescent and adult program participants women to an inspiring performance of The Color Purple. One woman wrote afterward: "I am a different person. I saw so much of me, where I was and what I've seen in my life. I didn't know I would ever meet me again. I never thought I could see that. Thank you, thank you. I thought I would feel so sad and depressed, but I felt nothing but hope. I won't ever go there again except in my mind. I feel so much.”

January, 2006
Artistic Director Emily Nash with Board Member and former CANY staff member Peggy Pettitt conduct a training program with the nursing staff of the Mount Sinai inpatient child and adolescent unit.

February, 2006
23 participants gathered for the first Center for Creative Alternatives workshop titled Untold Stories: A Workshop in therapeutic theater and Group Process. Also this month, Time Out New York features CANY in an article on creative arts therapies (February 2nd Issue, Chill Out section).

April, 2006
Ellen Kealy, CANY Board Chair from 1993 until 2005, is named Chair Emeritus. Jonathan Grebinar, an attorney currently with Thatcher Proffitt & Wood, is elected to the Board of Directors.

May, 2006
Annual Spring Benefit: On May 11th, 125 guests join us for dinner at Sardi’s and a Broadway performance of The History Boys, raising $84,000 for CANY programs. Honorary Committee Co-Chairs: Harvey Fierstein and Dick Latessa

June, 2006
The New York premier of The Great New Wonderful, acclaimed hit of 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, is held at the Angelika Film Center as a benefit for CANY, with an after-party at Libation. Approximately 100 CANY supporters plus cast members Olympia Dukakis, Edie Falco, Dick Latessa, Judy Greer, Jim Gaffigan, Tom McCarthy, Anita Gillette, Will Arnett and Julie Dretzin attend.

Thanks to you and your team, the youth were able to speak in a new way and work together artistically, which is so very needed for them to dream and create
for the future. I was very excited to see them present what they learned.

--Michael Roberts, Director of Youth Programs, Children’s Aid Society

Audited Statement of Activities: Year Ended June 30, 2006
Contributed Income
Private Support
Individuals	$108,770
Foundations	$139,444
Corporate	$3,000
Special Events	$88,920
Government support: NY State	$8,400
Total	$348,534
Total Support:	$496,898

Earned Revenues and gains:
Service Fees	123,051
Investments	25,313
Total	$148,364
Total Support:	$496,898

Expenses
Program Services	$401,720
Supporting services:
Administration	$87,800
Fundraising/Development	$68,368
Total supporting services	$156,167
Total expenses	$557,888
Change in net assets
Unrestricted	($152,990)
Temporarily restricted	$92,000
Total change in net assets	($60,990)
Net assets, beginning of year	$556,969
Net assets, end of year	$495,979

Click here for Board Members and Staff

CONTRIBUTORS

Mrs. Shirley Abel
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Amsterdam
Ms. Barbara Andres
Mr. and Mrs. Michael R. Armellino
Mr. and Mrs. Andy Arthur
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Asch
Mr. Frederick R. Ballen
Ms. Daniela Bar-Illan
Mr. and Mrs. Keith Barnish
Mr. Marc L. Baum
Ms. Carolyn Benson
Mr. and Mrs. John F. Biddle
Mr. Rafe Blaugrund
Ms. Penny Blum
Mr. Christopher Bracken
Mr. Robert E. Bradley
Reverend and Mrs. Kenneth Brannon
Mr. and Mrs. Rick Brunkus
Mr. Roger C. Bullard
Mr. and Mrs. John Burkhart
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Buschel
Ms. Susan Wilson Bynum
Mr. Rich Card
Mr. and Mrs. Andy Carlson
Mr. John H. Carlson
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Carter
Mr. George A. Cincotta, Jr.
Ms. Ruth L. Cohen, Ph.D
Mr. and Mrs. Francis X. Coleman, Jr.
Ms. Cynthia Green Colin
Mr. and Mrs. Leon Cooperman
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce J. Crowley
Mr. and Mrs. Leslie B. Daniels
Ms. Barbara Davidson
Ms. Amy Demarest
Mr. and Mrs. Witaly Derby
Mr. Paul deRoos
Mr. and Mrs. George E. Doty
Mr. and Mrs. Hal Douglas
Ms. Marianna E. Duncan
Dr. and Mrs. Warren Fink
Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Fishman
Ms. Patricia Follert
Mr. Richard R. Freedman
Mr. Corey L. Galloway
Mr. and Mrs. Donald R. Gant
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Shugart
Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Singer
Ms. Jackie Slifka
Mr. and Mrs. E. William Smethurst
Mr. and Mrs. Bram Smith
Mr. Gordon Smith
Ms. Emily F. Soell
Mr. Gian Solomon
Mr. Michael Solomon
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sonnenfeldt
Ms. Jeanne Stafford
Mr. Donald R. Stevens
Ms. Paula Stevens
Ms. Marla Stewart
Ms. Michelle Stoneburn
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Strull

Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Goldenberg
Ms. Ada Goldstein
Ms. Elizabeth Ann Goldstein
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Goldstein
Mr. Jonathan Grebinar
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan L. Greenblatt
Ms. Annie D. Gross
Mr. and Mrs. J. Wesley Hall
Ms. Irene R. Halligan
Mr. Jeff Hamlin and Ms. Inge Heckle
Mr. Charles T. Harris, III
Mr. and Mrs. Steven D. Hayes
Mr. and Mrs. David Heckelman
Ms. Margaret F. Heimann
Mr. and Mrs. Rodger L. Hess
Mr. Jonathan Hilton
Ms. Polly Holliday
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Bridport Hood
Mr. and Mrs. Martin Horner
Ms. Pamela Hort
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Hodes
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin C. Hsing
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Israelow
Mr. and Mrs. David Jenkins
Ms. Kim Ile Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Kacew
Mr. and Mrs. Alan Kahn
Dr. Scott L. Kalish
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Karen
Mr. and Mrs. James C. Kautz
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Kealy
Mr. and Mrs. Kevin W. Kennedy
Mr. and Mrs. John and Robin Klein
Mr. Chris Kraus and Ms. Darcy Stacom
Ms. Helen Ann Lally
Mr. Gregory A. Langley, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Lanigan
Mr. Dick Latessa
Ms. Shirley Latessa
Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Levy
Mr. Denver Lindley, Jr.
Ms. Margo Lion
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lowerre
Mr. Stephen Mandel, Jr.
Mr. Robert Marchesani
Ms. Charlene T. Marshall
Ms. Mary Testa
Mr. and Mrs. David Townsend
Mr. and Mrs. Nick Tragakes
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Travers
Ms. Jennifer Gardner & Mr. Derrick Trulson
Ms. Gael Doar and Mr. Larry Walsh
Mr. and Mrs. Joel David Wald
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Weiss
Ms. Elizabeth Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. Tony Wimpfheimer
Mr. and Mrs. Rich Wiszniak
Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Wright
Mr. and Mrs. Victor R. Wright
Mr. Jesse B. Zigmund
Mr. Roy J. Zuckerberg

Ms. Claire Marx
Ms. Anne McCarthy
Mr. David McCorkle
Mr. and Mrs. John E. McDermott
Mr. Kevin McGann
Ms. Lucy McLellan
Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Herschel
Ms. Joanna Merlin
Ms. Andrea Meyer
Ms. Alexis Miller
Ms. Stephanie A. Miller
Mr. Jerry Mitchell
Mr. and Mrs. Frank T. Modica
Mr. James W. Montanari
Ms. Amanda Montgomery
Mr. and Mrs. Ed and Linda Morse
Mr. Frederick C. Mueller
Mr. Donald R. Mullen, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Phillip D. Murphy
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Nejdl
Ms. Colette Newman
Mr. Paul Newman
Ms. Phyllis W. Nicholas
Mr. Michael Novogratz
Mr. Jack O'Brien
Mr. and Mrs. Ken Ottenbreit
Ms. Libba Pickett
Ms. Jennifer Brooks Quinn
Mr. Adam Rankin
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Reath
Ms. Joyce Ellen Reilly
Mr. and Mrs. James P. Riley, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Marc Rinaldi
Ms. Joan Rosenfels
Ms. Hinda Rosenthal
Ms. Marjorie Rossiter
Ms. Polly Rubin
Ms. Beth Rudin DeWoody
Ms. Sheri Sandler
Ms. Susan Sarandon
Ms. Lynn Schlesinger
Ms. Ann Schoenfeld
Ms. Angie Schworer
Ms. Ava Seave
Ms. Joan B. Shayne
Mr. and Mrs. Eric P. Sheinberg

Institutional & Government Gifts:
American Red Cross
Bear Stearns & Co
Boehm Family Foundation
Charina Foundation
The Church of the Heavenly Rest Fund
Disabled American Veterans Trust
Frank J. Antun Foundation
Janey Levy Charitable Lead Trust
Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Warner Fund
The Kealy Family Foundation
The Netter Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation
TIAA-CREF Fund
The Tow Foundation
William T. Grant Foundation
Saul Zabell and Associates, P.C.

She’s Saying Something

I’m a woman and not a child.
The obvious things don’t make me beautiful.
It’s every little detail that makes me beautiful.
Because I don’t have to be a fashion model, just me.
Just because they can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
I can feel it in my skin.
They can’t take it, my inner mystery.
I am destined for greatness.
What makes me phenomenal?
Never giving up
Always moving forward
Inner strength
Strength out of nowhere
Being able to love
High self-esteem
Knowing who I am as a woman
That makes me phenomenal.
Once your head is focused, you’re OK.
Believe in yourself.
Phenomenal
That’s me!

--Written by group members at a safe house for domestic violence survivors

Our Vision:

We believe in the healing power of drama in combination with a clinical model of group psychotherapy, developed by Creative Alternatives over the past 35 years. We are confident that this model can have a major impact on the mental health of children and adults in New York, Connecticut and beyond. Over the next three years, CANY seeks to grow from a highly efficient and effective therapeutic theater organization serving the metropolitan New York area to a national therapeutic theater organization with the requisite resources to deliver services and trainings to a significantly larger number of organizations and individuals. We also envision the positive impact our model could have on the treatment of traumatic stress in individuals and communities from developing countries and countries coping with transitional crises.

To fulfill this goal we will develop a core staff of trainers capable of teaching our model at various sites and institutes, assisting mental health service providers in developing the CANY therapeutic theater approach at their facilities. It is our intention to remain among the nation’s most highly regarded therapeutic theater providers while offering a range of training opportunities.

In addition to expanding our reach, we will deepen our work through increased collaboration with our partner sites, including integrating the CANY model into overall treatment plans for the adults and children in our groups, increasing CANY groups and staff trainings at partner sites, as well as solidifying the measurement and evaluation of the impact of CANY programs. A stronger partnership with our sites will enable clear documentation of the impact we make on children and adults coping with traumatic stress and other psychiatric disabilities in a wide range of settings, as well as broadening recognition within the mental health community of the effectiveness of therapeutic theater and the CANY model of work.

We have a powerful therapeutic theater model which can be replicated nationally and internationally in addition to reaching more children and adults within the metropolitan New York area. The moment is right for CANY to take major steps forward as there is growing recognition within the medical community of the creative arts therapies as a valid and valuable treatment modalities.

In addition to working to realize our vision, CANY will advocate for the greater recognition of therapeutic theater within mental health care settings. The Center for Creative Alternatives will be a vehicle in achieving this goal.

This is Your Life

Your life is like a puzzle
On the day you’re born it’s finished
Then one day a little piece falls out from the middle
And leaves a hole
Then day by day
The hole gets bigger
Month by month even bigger
Year by year
Until your life is clinging
To the last piece of the puzzle

--Written by an adult group member at Mount Sinai Hospital

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND INTEREST IN CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES!

READ 2005's Annual report