The Integrity Creative Arts Initiative (CAI) is proud to release Migrations: the Artistic and Literary Journal of Integrity House, Volume 2.
This year’s journal documents CAI’s expansion in several areas:
- The opening pages contain original prose and poetry completed by participants during a series of creative writing workshops hosted by various professional authors.
- This is followed by a section dedicated to client photography and cyanotype printing. Through a collaboration with Project for Empty Space, clients had the opportunity to attend cyanotype printing workshops with local cyanotype artists Lisa Conrad and Delia Hernandez.
- The portion of the journal dedicated to visual art (i.e., painting and illustration) details a new emphasis on art education, beginning with client artwork inspired by Keith Haring, Aaron Douglas, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and concluding with descriptions of neurographing, landscape, perspective art, and wood-painting workshops.
- The final section of the journal, titled “Made in Brick City,” proudly highlights several CAI participants who were born and raised in Newark and whose artwork is influenced by their hometown.
Piloted in 2023 as a small book club in one of Integrity House’s Newark-based residential substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs, CAI formally launched with the support of the Healthcare Foundation of NJ in 2024. CAI draws on the arts and bibliotherapy to
complement and enhance clinical services and support clients on their recovery journey. To date:
- 93% of clients reported stability or improvement in feelings of companionship.
- 74% of clients reported stability or reduction in feelings of loneliness.
- 77% of clients reported stability or reduction in feelings of depression.
- 73% of clients reported stability or improvement in cognitive and affective mindfulness.