Creative Heartwork, Inc. is a non-profit agency formed in 2001 to provide healing arts programs for children of abuse and neglect. It has grown by leaps and bounds in the past six years to also serve children with serious illness such as pediatric cancer and those with physical and developmental disabilities. It was founded by Karen D. Carbonello, the former director of a child advocacy center.

“I wanted to develop an agency that would meet children in their world of play, arts, and peers to overcome stigmatizing experiences and gain new tools for wellness and independence,” notes Carbonello. “I wanted to help them find their place in an often difficult world that forces them to cope with things we as adults still cannot master! Most of all, I wanted them to reclaim their joy.”

As a result, Creative Heartwork was founded. Its mission was and still is to improve the lives of children ages 4-17 that have experienced trauma, loss, illness or disabilities by utilizing the power of the arts to heal and or increase their capacities. Creative Heartwork is unique in that it offers not only visual arts therapy such as drawing, painting and sculpture, but also provides the opportunity for children to experience dance, drama, music, yoga and even the culinary arts. Currently about 200 children are served each year in three counties with a primary focus on children from Newark and Morris County. In addition to programs held in the agency’s 4,500 sq. ft. studio, services are also provided offsite to children and adolescents in shelter care, juvenile detention, behavioral health centers, an HIV clinic, special schools for children with disabilities, an after-school program for urban children, and a domestic violence shelter.

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