Here’s why Chicago is training local artists to work in city mental health centers

The Rundown | Chicago News

Illinois has the capacity to meet just 24% of the mental health needs of the state, according to a 2021 analysis by The American Association of Medical Colleges.

To help close the gap in the city, a pilot program called “Healing Arts Chicago” is getting creative by training local artists to serve as community health workers.

“The premise was like, we already knew that Chicago has really a wealth of community-based artists who think about their work with community as healing,” said Meida McNeal, who runs the pilot program through her work at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. “And what would it be like thinking about public health and community health as a potential sector where the skills they already have could be applied?”

The program is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act. Local artists get trained and certified through City Colleges of Chicago, placed in city mental health centers through the Chicago Department of Public Health, and then they offer classes and workshops at no charge across a variety of disciplines.

“We've got movement, dance artists. We've got DJs, folks who work in sound therapy. We've got theater and puppetry, multimedia arts, sculpture, murals, ceramics,” McNeal said.

In this episode of the Rundown podcast, host Erin Allen visited the Greater Grand Mental Health Center to take Leyda “Lady Sol” Garcia’s “Move to Live” wellness offering. She talked with class attendees and the instructor – as well as the instructor of another Healing Arts Chicago course on poetry, Nile Lansana – about what the classes are like and what they offer the community.

Healing Arts Chicago has artist-led offerings available through the end of the year.