3rd Place
Magnificent Marvelous Me!
Art with Heart
Non-Profit Social Responsibility
Project goal:
Art with Heart is a nonprofit organization that grew out of the Seattle Chapter of the AIGA in 1996. Their mission is to empower youth in crisis through creative expression and they do so through their therapeutic books and programs. The primary objectives behind Art with Heart’s newest book project, entitled “Magnificent Marvelous Me!” were to:
- reduce depression and anxiety;
- support positive sibling relationships;
- increase communication within the family structure; and
- promote emotional development and coping strategies.
This project allows siblings to become more successful in dealing with their intense emotions by providing a significant step towards resolution of their unique challenges.
Project result:
Ten year old Maria was given a “Magnificent Marvelous Me!” shortly after the death of her sister Gloria, who passed away after an almost five year battle with cancer.
Her parents told Art with Heart, “The very nature of taking care of a child that is ill means that you have to put aside other things, and so the siblings really do get lost in the shuffle, in the chaos of a disease that invades their space. Art with Heart’s beautiful book was a great opportunity to be able to bring Maria to a safe place where she could experience and express her own feelings and feel special and wanted. That’s really what she needed, especially at such a tragic and scary time in her life.
“Maria was Gloria’s best friend. They would spend hours playing together. She lost her playmate, and her roommate. The book came at just the right time after Gloria passed away. By getting this book, it basically said that she was just as important as her sister who was sick. To put focus on the siblings along with the ill child is vital for the health of the entire family.”
Maria followed up by saying, “It’s great to just have something that was meant for me… like it says “Magnificent Marvelous ME!”
Over 600 children have benefited from the project so far and the book has generated overwhelmingly positive responses among healthcare workers in hospital settings, who use it as an outreach to the siblings who must wait in the hospital as their siblings receive treatment. Other audiences are discovering the benefits to the children they serve as well, such as mental health counselors and therapists who see value in the therapies the book is based in.
Art with Heart has developed a curriculum that will be piloted this coming fall with a special school in Seattle that caters to siblings of children with cancer. We are also developing trainings for mental health professionals whose outreach to this under-served population will be enhanced through the use of this intervention tool.
