The Bounce Back Collective harnesses the creativity, culture, and strengths of New Orleans youth to create spaces for healing and transformation, ultimately strengthening community resilience. Neurobiological studies have shown that creativity, curiosity, and play are three of seven emotional needs. The extent to which these needs are met contributes to overall mental well-being. Making art-music, dance, poetry, drama, and the visual arts-has always been a way that humans have flourished. “Art as Medicine,” the core of Bounce Back’s innovation, is the deliberate intention of helping youth make the ancestral connection between the arts and culture as key factors of resilience.
Bounce Back is a runner-up in the national Children and Youth Resilience Challenge. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the Resilience Challenge as part of President Biden’s Unity Agenda and Mental Health Strategy and an initiative of the HHS Behavioral Health Coordinating Council Subcommittee on Children and Youth. All Resilience Challenge finalists participated in an Innovation Showcase on May 2, 2024. Watch the event recording: • Children and Youth Res... . Learn more: www.challenge.gov/?challenge=....