In addition to its clinical programming, Creative Forces® is committed to improving the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations who have been exposed to trauma, including their families and caregivers, through community arts engagement programming.
Since 2017, Creative Forces has invested in community arts engagement activities in order to advance our understanding of their benefits and impacts for targeted military-connected populations exposed to trauma.
Explore the sections below for more information about the new Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program and to learn more about the history and impact of Creative Forces community engagement activities, including key findings and insights.
Actors Eddie R. Brown III, Anne Son, Christopher Michael Rivera, and Sofia Jean Gomez perform Shakespeare: Call and Response at Veterans Village San Diego, California; photo by Rich Soublet III, courtesy of Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, CA
Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant Program
The Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program is part of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Forces initiative and managed in partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance. This grant program aims to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for targeted military-connected individuals through support of non-clinical arts engagement projects.
The Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program aims to engage targeted military-connected populations through experiences of art or art-making to promote creative expression, social connectedness, resilience, independence, and a successful transition to civilian life. The grant program expands the work of Creative Forces into more communities nationwide, with projects aimed to address the distinct experiences, challenges, and strengths of military-connected populations through the arts. These grants serve a broad population, including active duty service members, guardsmen, reservists, veterans, as well as their families and caregivers.
The grant program also seeks to advance the capacity of the grantees and their partners to design, implement, and evaluate programs and lead to an increased understanding of the value and relevance of the arts for non-arts and arts partners. More information on the outcomes for Creative Forces community engagement participants and grantees can be found in the Community Engagement Logic Models.
Insights on How to Serve Military and Veteran Populations and their Families
In 2018, the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University was commissioned by Creative Forces to conduct a literature review and needs assessment to understand how arts programming can effectively address the needs of various military-connected individuals. The study was conducted in three concurrent phases, which included a comprehensive literature review, interviews with subject matter experts, and analysis and translation for application by community arts providers and creative arts therapists. Key insights for arts providers on how to effectively serve various military-connected populations examined in the study include:
Acknowledge and appreciate the diversity of experiences, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, and needs among targeted military-connected populations.
There is no single approach in service the military-connected population.
Strive to be informed and educated about military culture and life.
Focus on needs and challenges at the individual, family and community levels.
Collaborate with and connect to local programs and resources and other community-based organizations.
Family Day at Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia, part of a Community Connections project.
Photo courtesy of Workhouse Arts Center.
In 2017-2018, Creative Forces launched its community arts engagement efforts with nine summits to bring together military and arts communities in areas near Creative Forces clinical sites. These summits provided opportunities for networking, identified the needs of the local military community, and generated ideas for community arts engagement to address those needs. State arts agencies worked with local partners in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Washington state, and the National Capital Region (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) to host these events.
In response to the lessons learned, relationships forged, and needs identified at the summits, Creative Forces funded ten Community Connections projects taking place from 2018 through 2020 near existing clinical Creative Forces sites. These projects sought to improve health, well-being, and quality of life for military-connected individuals including service members, veterans, families and caregivers. These community programs involved a range of arts engagement activities--including visual and performing arts and creative writing workshops--available through single events, drop-in programs, or ongoing programs led by artists in residence, teaching artists, or creative arts therapists. Several of the organizations involved in the CCPs continued under contract in 2021 participating in MEL consultations, which included monitoring, evaluation, and learning work.
To examine the impacts of these activities, Creative Forces conducted program evaluation efforts. The impacts and lessons learned informed the development of the Creative Forces Community Engagement program.
During the implementation of the Community Connections projects, an external program evaluation team conducted a study of the projects to inform future Creative Forces programming and the larger field of community-based arts programming for targeted military-connected populations.
While there were commonalities across projects, each project was unique presenting a rich opportunity for Creative Forces to study community arts engagement programs for military-connected populations.
The Creative Forces Community Connections Projects Study used a case study design, a cross-case analysis, and mixed-methods. Research questions guided the study and provided structure for the report. Data collection used a mixed-methods approach, incorporating qualitative and quantitative program-level and site-level data.
In addition to describing project implementation, participant benefits and organizational outcomes, the report offered lessons learned when considering how to enhance community arts engagement programs and to help guide future federal investments to support military-connected populations through community-based arts engagement programs.
Community arts providers who offered programming and the targeted military-connected individuals who participated reported a range of benefits for participants:
• Improved mental health and/or quality of life
• Increased sense of community
• Improved artistic skills
• Increased empowerment
• Increased capacity and commitment to serve military-connected communities
• Improved communication with clinical providers
• Improved collaboration among arts organizations
• Increased community awareness of the benefits of the arts
Lessons learned that emerged from the Community Connections Projects Study centered around the following:
• Partnerships
• The value of ongoing programming engagement
• The need to provide leadership opportunities for participants
• The importance of planning for program sustainability
• The need to develop understanding of military culture
• The challenge of balancing person-centered programming with evaluation needs
• Understanding that many factors influence individuals' participation
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated new ways of thinking about how to effectively deliver community arts engagement to targeted military-connected populations through virtual programming. Creative Forces funded virtual arts engagement activities to learn how these approaches might continue to be carried out in the future, particularly in ways that could increase access for rural or remote populations.
Creative Forces virtual arts engagement programs took place between September 2020 and March 2021 for targeted military-connected populations through live, synchronous, and/or asynchronous teaching models through a variety of online platforms. In addition to providing programming for participants within the geographic areas of the projects, the virtual engagement programming provided opportunities for military-connected participants who would not have had the ability to attend in person, including those stationed overseas, living out of state or in rural areas. Virtual arts engagement programs also provided a safe space for participants to try a creative activity and determine if they wanted to participate in-person. Online delivery of programs allowed for recorded and listen-only options that supported accessibility.
Image Caption: Glen McCarthy at the Veterans of the Arts Initiative at George Mason University teaches an online ukelele class. Image courtesy of Dr. Niyati Dhokai.
Community Engagement Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Impacts from Community Engagement programs happen locally with participants and community partners, and nationally across partners and the fields of military arts and health. Learn about the intended national and grantee level outcomes of Creative Forces’ Community Engagement programs and how these will be measured through the Community Engagement Logic Models.
