In a research publication on the National Institute of Health’s website called, The Connection Between Art, Healing and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature written by Heather L Stuckey, DEd and Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH stated, "through creativity and imagination, we find our identity and our reservoir of healing. The more we understand the relationship between creative expression and healing, the more we will discover the healing power of the arts.” As a poet and lover of all forms of artistic expression, I can attest to the power of creativity to build resilience and bolster inner will, even in the most tragic and emotionally challenging situations. It has been in my darkest moments—the accidental death of my brother, one my closet friends being shot five times, the death of one my favorite aunts, the pain of the loss or watching someone I love suffer—that I have created my best artistic work.

The Be Strong Families Board of Directors met on July 20, 2020 to review FY 2020 and to chart the path for FY 2021. The board considered how we would work to advance our strategic plan, especially with regard to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion and to creating a more just world, one in which individuals’ self-actualization is linked with community and social transformation (thanks to Ahmad Abojaradeh and LifeinMyDays.com for this cognitive frame).

Amid the uncertainty of 2020, I come to you today with a powerful tool for you and your loved ones that has demonstrated the ability to reduce your stress levels and improve your sense of wellbeing. ART! In 2018, an experimental study was conducted that indicated a significant drop in stress among participants who created art for 45 minutes.

At Be Strong Families, we know we can create the world we want to live in. Through the movements and stories we choose to promote, we can begin to foster a reality of vitality, connection, healing, and justice. 

As an outgrowth of our project “A More Perfect Union”, we have introduced a social media campaign called “AMPlify” that has been striving to blast out the work of others who are taking on the social issues of today and finding creative approaches to big questions. Peace is achieved through understanding of the other.  That is why we want to create opportunities to learn about one another and add humanity to complex world issues.

I’m a feminist, which means I understand that patriarchy circumscribes all relationships in our culture, and I tend to sympathize with women because of systemic and structural sexism. That’s a given. I’m also a white woman who grew up in the 1960s and 70s in a middle-income, suburban Philadelphia household where gender roles were fairly stereotypical: dad as a provider and protector, mom as the go-to day-to-day parent. I didn’t know my father as a nurturer. He claimed that the only emotion he allowed himself to feel was anger because that was one feeling he couldn’t control, and the others would make him soft.

Be Strong Families is pleased to announce that our new Recovering Together Cafés and the accompanying conversation deck are completed and ready to be deployed to support people on their journey to recovery. Combining the expertise of NET and Greater Tilton in the content area of addiction and recovery with Be Strong Families’ expertise in developing and sustaining meaningful conversations provided the opportunity for a collaboration that aims to have a significant impact on the journey to recovery.