Joycore, a creative mindfulness and arts-based wellness organization, devoted to serving Fresno and those most marginalized by historic oppression, trauma, and community violence. Joycore believes that at the center of healing is each individual's right to Joy, sovereignty, creation and self-expression.
Expressive arts therapy is a therapeutic practice that is meant for children and adults, individuals and groups. It aims to nurture personal growth, processing of major life events, cultivating identity, and healing traumas. Expressive arts therapy may include playing music, listening to music, writing lyrics, poetry, theater or improvisation, drawing, painting, sculpting, dancing, or any other number of artistic expressions.
Joycore aims to establish the Central Valley as a leader in larger movements towards health equity and research that indicates the arts may hold the key to transforming community mental health outcomes.
We stand to gain long term social and economic benefits by investing in arts and wellness integrated programs that target social connection, belonging, and overall mental wellness.
The Healthy Fresno County Community Dashboard describes our region as maintaining a ratio of 442 mental health clinicians to every 100,000 people. The Mental Health Almanac lists the San Joaquin Valley region as having the most severe mental health needs with several categories listed above the state average. Our region also maintains the highest ratios of qualified mental health practitioners to individuals in need. Young adults 18-24, Black mothers, and low income households were most impacted by the health inequities. Public payers were projected to pay for 63% of related mental health expenditures for the state of California in 2022. This data shows an immediate need to make wellness spaces and practices more accessible to young people and their families.
The World Health Organization created a literature review synthesizing global data supporting arts engagement as a meaningful tool for both preventive and rehabilitative measures for mental health outcomes (Fancourt, 2019). This data is supported by a more recent study on arts engagement as a health behavior in addressing health inequities at every level. (Rodriguez, 2023).
Teams like ones led by Dr. Jill Sonke of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine is leading research that illuminates the transformative impacts of the arts on community health, with a special focus on post-covid health improvements. Their work is reflective of national movements towards arts and health integration and policy work; like those of Americans for the Arts and the National Arts & Health Initiative led by One Nation, One Project.
Arts participation can reduce loneliness, prevent depression, enhance cognitive and mental function, increase longevity, reduce stress, support academic success, and even boost voter participation (Bone,2022;Bone 2023; Bygren, 2023; Galassi, 2022; Cathrall 2012).
Research from The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory Report on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community (2023) also names several factors shaping social connection such as accessible space, transportation, safety, public policy, disability, and life stage– all which mirror the findings of Fresno’s Cultural Arts Plan. Social well-being informs the manner in which individuals behavioral, psychological, and biological health manifest - directly influencing their overall health outcomes.
Works Cited
Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community). (2023). https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
Bone, J. K., Bu, F., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2022). Engagement in leisure activities and depression in older adults in the United States: Longitudinal evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 294, 114703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114703
Bone, J. K., Fancourt, D., Sonke, J. K., & Bu, F. (2023). Participatory and receptive arts engagement in older adults: Associations with cognition over a seven-year period. Creativity Research Journal, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2023.2247241
Bygren, L. O., Jansåker, F., Sundquist, K., & Johansson, S.-E. (2023). Association between attending cultural events and all-cause mortality: A longitudinal study with three measurements (1982–2017). BMJ Open, 13(2), e065714. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065714
California Department of Public Health Office of Suicide Prevention. (2023, September). California Suicide and Self-Harm Trends in 2021. cdph.ca.gov.
California Health Care Foundation, 2022 California Health Almanac. https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/MentalHealthAlmanac2022.pdf
Catterall, J. S. (2012). The arts and achievement in at-risk youth: Findings from four longitudinal studies. Research report #55. National Endowment for the Arts. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED530822
Fancourt, Daisy & Finn, Saoirse. (2019). What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/329834. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
Galassi, F., Merizzi, A., D’Amen, B., & Santini, S. (2022). Creativity and art therapies to promote healthy aging: A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 906191. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906191
Rodriguez AK, Akram S, Colverson AJ, Hack G, Golden TL, Sonke J. Arts Engagement as a Health Behavior: An Opportunity to Address Mental Health Inequities. Community Health Equity Research & Policy. 2023;0(0). doi:10.1177/2752535X231175072
