Fellowship Health Resources North Carolina Awarded $5,000 from the N.C. Arts Council

Contributed by Stacey Smith, FHR NC

Earlier this month Fellowship Health Resources in Wake County announced the receipt of a $5,000 award from the N.C. Arts Council for The Arts in Mental Health Initiative.

The funds will be used to support an artist in residence program, allowing adults with serious and persistent mental illness to access the creative arts to support them in their healing and recovery. “State funds will allow Fellowship Health Resources to provide innovative, quality arts programming to support our consumers as they work on their recovery goals and integrating back into society. The arts can provide them a way to creatively express their experience while engaging in the arts, something that is accessible and very powerful. These funds will also help artists in Wake County; through this partnership we will be able to support local artists find work in a non-traditional field,” says Stacy A. Smith, Quality Management and Training Director of Fellowship Health Resources North Carolina. “This will be our first time partnering with the N.C. Arts Council and with Even Exchange Dance Theater; we are very excited about this opportunity and looking forward to starting our program.”

“The support of our grants program by the General Assembly during these economically challenging times demonstrates the role the arts play in our economy and our quality of life,” said Mary B. Regan, executive director of the N.C. Arts Council. “Nonprofit arts organizations employ workers, stimulate commerce, generate tax revenues, and help communities retain their vibrancy.”
More than 13.6 million people participated in N.C. Arts Council-funded projects last year in schools, senior centers, museums, concert halls, and community centers. Nearly 4.3 million of these were children and youth.

The N.C. Arts Council awards grant money each year to provide diverse arts experiences for citizens in all 100 counties of North Carolina. In fiscal year 2010-11, the Arts Council is expected to distribute $7.4 million in state and federal grant funds to arts organizations, schools and other nonprofit organizations that sponsor arts programs.

Fellowship Health Resources (www.fellowshiphr.org) is a nonprofit organization that provides mental health and substance abuse services in Wake County. Current programs include psychosocial rehabilitation programming, assertive community treatment team, behavioral health outpatient services, and intensive outpatient programming for substance use and DWI assessments. Our main office is located at 4112 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, 919-573-6520.

The N.C. Arts Council is a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities, and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina’s social, cultural and economic future. Information on Cultural Resources is available at www.ncculture.com