When disasters strike, communities reach first for two things: safety and meaning. Traditional health education often focuses on physical preparedness—first aid, sheltering, communication plans—but creative practices are equally vital to recovery.
Music, storytelling, movement, journaling, and visual art offer culturally grounded strategies that help people process fear, reconnect with one another, and make sense of disruption. Drawing on my training as a Certified Health Education Specialist, this session will explore how arts‐based activities function as evidence‐informed tools that support psychological recovery and reduce the long‐term impacts of trauma. Using examples from public health, community arts, and disaster response, I will illustrate how integrating creative practices into preparedness education can help communities preserve cultural identity, articulate collective memory, and build adaptive coping mechanisms before a crisis occurs.
Participants will engage in hands‐on exercises demonstrating how arts activities can be embedded into emergency planning workshops, shelter environments, and community outreach. Attendees will leave with practical, transferable strategies for using creative expression to enhance public health outcomes, foster resilience, and sustain cultural expression in times of crisis.
Target audience: • Health educators, public health practitioners, emergency managers • Arts and culture leaders (museums, archives, libraries, arts councils) • Educators, community organizers, extension and library staff
Accessibility and Inclusion • Activities follow trauma informed facilitation (opt in, content warnings, no forced disclosure). • Multiple modes (listen, write, draw, speak) and low literacy options.
