About Creative Works Studio
About Creative Works Studio
Creative Works Studio was founded in 1998 and pioneered by an occupational therapist and practicing artist who could envision the benefit of combining both occupational therapy practice and the arts. The Studio is operated by Good Shepherd Non-Profit Homes. Creative Works Studio is a community based rehabilitative therapeutic program offering healing and recovery through the creative arts for people living with severe and persistent mental illness.
Open throughout the week, the Studio receives clients from mental health agencies across the city and helps them make a comfortable return to an active and meaningful life in the larger community. The Studio provides a non-judgmental environment where each person is treated as an artist first, rather than a patient, and is encouraged to reach their highest skill level and potential through purposeful and inspiring creative art initiatives. As a result, their general life skills and ability to cope in the larger community also improve.
The Studio is actively involved in mental health research and in community and educational outreach as a means of disseminating information and reducing the stigma of mental illness.
Studio Members
- Our members are between the ages of 18 and up, who come from diverse educational and socio-economic backgrounds.
- Members make almost 2,000 client visits a year.
- Many of the members who joined the Studio in 2009 have since returned to full or part-time work, returned to school, or have decreased their hospital time.
- 95% of the Studio members have improved their life skills and sense of well-being, through increased productivity, participation, and socialization, while sharing in the studio environment.
- Many members have entered art shows and have sold their work.
See the Creative Works Studio Brochure
