Creative Resilience
This podcast is meant to create a space for conversation, education, and connection around creative approaches to promoting mental health and well-being among youth, families, communities, and society. Specifically, we will hold space to honor the real-life stories of those impacted by trauma, stress, and adversity and discuss what goes into the creative process of developing and implementing interventions that promote healing and resilience. The podcast will highlight lived experience, research, lessons learned, and inspirations from academics, artists, and community leaders leading efforts to improve mental health and well-being within their communities through creative approaches that center partnership and community strengths to lead to sustainable change. Through sharing real-life stories, recent research evidence, concrete resources, and tangible examples of specific efforts, we hope to inspire and support creative action in more communities and serve as a space that promotes mental health and well-being through sharing, connecting, and getting creative.
About THRIVE Research Lab:
The THRIVE Research Lab is dedicated to community-centered, participatory research and action that promotes healing and resilience among youth, families, and communities experiencing trauma and chronic stress. We aim to promote healing and resilience through an innovative research program designed to partner with communities to develop and implement strength-based solutions grounded in cultural humility.
Creative Resilience
Blending Art and Science to Promote Resilience
In this episode of Creative Resilience, Dr. Briana interviews Dr. Danielle Littman, an assistant professor at the University of Utah College of Social Work, whose research combines arts-based, participatory methods to promote healing, belonging, and community among marginalized youth. Dr. Littman discusses her journey from theater artist to scholar, her focus on “third places” like parks and libraries as vital spaces for youth resilience, and her evaluations of prison arts programs that foster hope, identity, and empathy even in carceral settings. She also explores innovative methods, such as game-based inquiry, which engage youth in reimagining supportive spaces through creativity, fun, and agency. This approach emphasizes that arts-based, participatory research can be both trauma-informed and transformative for individuals and communities.
