AH-HAH moments are alive and well! At Arts Holding Hands And Hearts, Inc., supporters take a trauma-sensitive approach to education, socially rooted adjustments and emotional healing regarding adverse childhood experiences. The organization's founder/executive director and West Chester resident, Jan Michener, says for the mind to heal, the body must be engaged fully in the process.
"Trauma isn't something foreign that only touches another person; it's something that each and every one of us, and each and every one of our students, have come in contact with in some form throughout their lives, no matter the setting we teach in," Jan explains about their initiatives based from West Chester.
"It's important to have a foundation of trauma-sensitive facilitation techniques so we may hold the space for our students to come into contact with their own highest capacities for healing and being in a safe, or 'safe enough' and supportive space," she adds.
AHHAH's current programs include:
- P.U.L.L. (PULL), which stands for "Pop-Up Lending Library," manifested as lending spots from which children can borrow books to improve their reading levels.
- Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program is available to all children, from birth to age 5, living in Chester County. Children enrolled in this initiative receive a free book in the mail once a month. Those interested can choose from among five tiers of sponsorship opportunities, ranging from $30 to $2,500, for individuals and organizations to help support the Chester County Imagination Library. Jan says to date, 5,600 children are enrolled and benefiting from this outreach. "In one of our locations, we now have formed a monthly book club for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds," she exclaims.
- Tips For Tots provides ideas regarding how to physically interact with books, or to develop story-inspired art activities, sound effects and imagination-driven crafts.
- Restorative Justice, through which AHHAH partners with a number of area organizations to provide programs that use trauma-sensitive frameworks to offer creative arts and mindfulness workshops to Chester County area incarcerated youth.
- Community programs, such as Jan teaching a Yoga QiGong class in West Goshen Park for the Maternal and Child Health Consortium Center staff. She also hosts a Yoga QiGong class every Wednesday from 10-11 a.m. at the Kennett Library and Resource Center. Additionally, as part of their ongoing programming with Chester County Youth Center, they've developed an agricultural workshop that focuses on connecting youth to their cultural roots through food and various spice blends. They're currently compiling the spice blends that youth develop, along with the poetry they've written to publish their third book, Cultivating Change: Voices of Restorative Justice.
Jan is a professional actress (SAG/AFTRA) and teaching artist who has worked with all ages in various types of theatre education for many years. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts from The State University of New York in 1978. She received her master's of education from Widener University in 2000, and was awarded the Outstanding Student Teacher of the year award. She also was selected by the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance to participate in the Roundabout Theatre 2011 Summer Teaching Artist Initiative in New York City.
The Chester County Youth Center which houses a shelter for homeless and abused girls and the detention center for both boys and girls was where Jan first started her outreach efforts in 2013.
"We now take our programs to other organizations focusing on marginalized children and families in West Chester, Coatesville and Kennett. I like to say, 'We don't make the crayons, we're the additive that makes the crayons brighter,'" she says.
She says they've found it's extremely helpful for families to engage through literacy, mindfulness and express arts. "Some of our students are coming from living in poverty, illiteracy, community challenges, discrimination or low expectations. They just seek someone to accept them unconditionally and help them find the right tools to achieve their highest capacity."
AHHAH teachers and volunteers go by the approach of 5 Cs = T, or Compassion plus Creativity plus Connection plus Courage plus Commitment = Transformation.
Team members hold titles such as program director, director of cultivating change, cultivating change facilitator, art therapist and teaching artists. One of the staff's interns, Emily Capolupo, is a student at West Chester University, majoring in communication sciences and disorders to become a speech-language pathologist. The other intern, Kayla Harris, is a senior at West Chester University majoring in criminal justice.
AHHAH's board of directors consists of nine professionals who have careers within finance, entertainment arts, social work, banking, instructions/curriculum development, religion, real estate, networking and volunteerism. Likewise, its community advisory board reflects people with experience in pediatrics, children's multimedia work, telecommunications, health care, agriculture, missionary efforts, books and financial services.
A quick way to assist AHHAH's book-based efforts is to donate what Jan calls "gently loved" books. She says donation stations are located throughout the county, with more than 200,000 books collected, 100 PULL stations installed, and 100-plus volunteers engaged with maintaining all the PULL stations. A detailed list of donation stations can be found on the group's website.
AHHAH is a 501(c)(3) organization. Jan says the group accepts individual monetary donations, planned giving and corporate sponsorships.
484.883.2367
AHHAH.org