Veterans "Healing Through Expression"

The Veterans Healing Through Expression Art program plans to conduct several monthly Art Workshops leading up to our annual Art Show jointly with the Orlando VA Healthcare System. The mission of the project is to increase the awareness in the local Veteran and civilian community of the healing powers of creative art. In addition, the project will provide an opportunity for Veterans to improve overall health and wellbeing through the art they produce. The art they produce may also promote physical stamina, increased sense of general well being, improved self-esteem and increased focus and concentration. Our Marketing plan is currently on going with monthly advertisement through Veterans group flyer/newsletters, the Army ECHO News letters; VA monthly newsletters and community outreach newspapers and groups. At all events, we plan to record the event with photos, news articles and after action reports.

Success will be measured by our ability to reach out to 700-1000 Veterans to participate in the program. Of those numbers, we're anticipating a desired positive response from those Veterans to feel health and wellbeing improvements through the art they produced. The desired outcome is for the Veterans to use art keys to wellness will help them to reintegrate into his or her community, and returning home to a potentially fuller and more productive life.

The steps our organization plans to implement to ensure grant funds are well spent are the following: First, we plan to have oversight of our project by the MOAA Central Florida MOAA Board of Directors. The Board of Directors will be briefed monthly on our plans and proposed project actions. In short, they will provide oversight of our spending obligations and ensure that we follow-up to coordinate our after-action review to the American Legion Grant Foundation.

This is a long-term project committed to helping Veterans return to their communities as productive citizens. Our project started in December 2021 as MOAA Central Florida Chapter Philanthropy Fund, Inc., and was incorporated as a Florida 501 (c) 3 nonprofit public charity. At this time, in collaboration with the Orlando VA Healthcare System, the Healing Through Expression Project was established out of need to offer Veterans with alternate treatment plans. Our long-term goals are for the project to expand throughout Florida and with follow-on success grow to support similar projects nationwide.