From all that dwells below the skies,
 Let faith and hope with joy arise;
  Let beauty, truth, and good be sung
    Through every land, by every tongue.
~ Unitarian Prayer

Donations to The Institute for Poetic Medicine
are Tax-Deductible.
 
Acknowledgement of Your Contribution
for the IRS Will Be Provided.

Your Donation Will Provide Poetry As Healer To:

Cancer & wellness support  

      centers

Underserved communities

Third world youth traumatized

      by war

Hospice patients, staff &

      volunteers

Veterans

Incarcerated & recently

      released youth

Medical students, nurses & physicians

Homeless shelters

Pastoral care counselors

School children, community college students & educators

Drug & alcohol recovery

Raising environmental awareness

Arts-in-medicine programs

Merna Ann Hecht, Bottom Left Box

Understanding and compassion for each other's stories was a central element of each year, as was helping the students find their voices, and increasing their visibility in the community. Each year we have created an anthology of the students' work, presented public readings in auditoriums and through the media.

This coming year we plan to invite family members to write with us.  We want to provide them with an opportunity to voice what the immense changes in their way of life means to them, and to help them understand the dreams and goals of their young people.  We hope to increase family support and understanding from elder to younger and younger to elder.

Merna Ann Hecht  is a poet, storyteller, and teaching artist.  She received a National Storytelling Network 2008 Brimstone Award for Applied Storytelling for a project using storytelling, poetry, and art in working with children at BRIDGES: A Center for Grieving Children, in Tacoma, WA .  Merna has worked as an artist in residence at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center School , detention centers, and facilities for homeless youth.  She teaches arts and poetry classes for Portland State University and the University of Washington and also presents a course for educators on Teaching for Global Compassion. She is currently the project director for the Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices project, a community partnership project with IPM and other organizations.

                      Foster High School Students, Voices Project, Tukwila, WA
 

We'd like to develop a template for a peer training manual utilizing poetry to enhance information and skills for wellness and recovery. Themes that will be covered include: listening, compassion and empathy, gratitude, risk-taking, communication, forgiveness, transformation and joy.  Each session is dedicated to exploring a theme through the use of quotes, poems, a set of questions, writing activity, and sharing and discussion.

This manual will support the Clubhouse philosophy that treats each day as a work-ordered day by encouraging members to learn new skills and teach and mentor to others. It will offer members the opportunity to participate in the creation of the manual and empower them to find new meaning in and healthier approaches to handling psychiatric and emotional crises. It will focus the work on the poem as a tool for recovery, not on the person as patient.

Lisa DeVuono is a poet and workshop facilitator living in the Lehigh Valley, PA.  She was the co-founder of IT AIN'T PRETTY, a women's writing collective that has performed in a variety of places including bookstores, cafes, and radio.  She has facilitated writing workshops and creative events in a variety of places including conferences, festivals, prison, retreats, hospitals, and business settings.  She has also been a group facilitator and creativity coach for the Artist Conference Network, a nationwide coaching community for artists of all kinds.  Her poetry has been published in several literary reviews.  Her chapbook, published by Pudding House Press, is entitled Poems from the Playground of Risk.

To Learn More About the Clubhouse Project:

(CLICK HERE) 

______________________
 

Who knows what we might do about living quiet?

Ours is in the eye of the beholder.

We do work with a new freedom.

Your spirit is open

Your life is at peace

We become spiritual beings.

~ Robin, Clubhouse Member

I founded The Word Project to provide a platform for all persons to share their truth constructively and creatively. This has allowed me to work with hospice, the Brenner Children's Hospital, the Greensboro Public Library, the Poetry Behind Bars Project and other fine organizations. It is with great enthusiasm that I am requesting funding to work with The Guilford County Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Greensboro.

The Center works with children and youths, ages 8-17, in a maximum security facility, who have been charged with crimes from truancy to murder. My vision is, as a pilot project, to work with eight males, ages 13-17, for eight consecutive weeks, believing that these are the ones in most need of this program at the moment. My long-term goal is to involve the community through collaboration with other artists and organizations.  IPM funding will make possible preparation, supervision, facilitation time, mileage and materials.

Jacinta V. White is the founder and director of The Word Project, an organization committed to engaging and assisting persons on their journey of self-discovery, expression, and healing though poetry writing.  Jacinta, a published writer and poet who received the 2008 First Place in the Press 53 Open Poetry Contest, works with organizations such as the Greensboro Public Library (where she is the co-director for "LifeVerse"); Brenner's Children Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC; the Women's Resource Center in Greensboro, NC; the Carolina Center for Hospice and End of Life Care; and the Adult Center for Enrichment.  She holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a MPA from Georgia State University in Atlanta.  Jacinta is currently working on her certification in the field of poetry therapy through the National Association of Poetry Therapy.

                                  ~ Poetry & Medicine Day, April 29, 2010

Our goal with AIMHI is to develop a monthly poetry and expressive arts group to provide an environment where medical and dental students can express themselves creatively, be heard, and become renewed. We believe the creative arts helps physicians stay connected to their humanity and the capacity to listen with their heart.  This five month, two-hour group will be facilitated by a poetry therapist paired with creative artists in non-verbal fields.  Activities will include information and experiential workshops on how to apply creative arts to healthcare for child and adult patients, as well as for the students' self-care. Students will be encouraged to keep a journal for their own use and for feedback and assessment at the end of the project.  Other likely supporters:  Board of Trustees UMDNJ; Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Diane Kaufman, M.D. is a child psychiatrist and the senior psychiatrist at University Behavioral Healthcare - University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark), and Director of Creative Arts in Healthcare at UMDNJ, a program developed in collaboration with the nursing department of University Hospital.  She is an expressive arts educational facilitator, poet, and poetry therapy trainee.  Dr. Kaufman is the recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award and the UBHC's Master Clinician award.  She has presented on poetry and arts in medicine internationally, most recently in London at the National Symposium for the Arts in End of Life Care.  Dr. Kaufman is the author of Cracking Up and Back Again:  Transformation Through Poetry, a poetry workbook inspired by her poetry group facilitation at a residential substance abuse treatment program in Newark, New Jersey.