NEW YORK SAYS THANK YOU FOUNDATION

Understanding what some researchers have suggested that the senses of touch and vision are specifically linked to our brain's anxiety core (Lusebrink, 2004), therapeutic art is ideally equipped to communicate with traumatic memories.

As we continue to focus on responding to tragedy during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2013 meta-study of health-related disasters found that isolation or quarantine can be traumatizing, with 25 percent of isolated or quarantined children and adults experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. Our projects are aimed to connect individuals feeling isolated or alone in several key communities (Detailed in strategies).

Our goals are simple and aligned with our mission, focus on emotional healing, use creative art as a primary means for connection, create meaningful, personal, and lasting connections, and acknowledge everyone's individual definition of hope and healing.

Everyone benefits from the creation of Stars of HOPE. If a group gathers together to make Stars of HOPE following a tragedy, survivors feel linked to each other and are comforted by art-making. The Star of HOPE method builds feelings of optimism, positivity, empowerment, and resilience. This is a positive experience for survivors and will help deter adverse disasters from happening. Schools, volunteer and faith-based organizations, and companies pursuing community service programs will also benefit from Stars of HOPE. It offers a chance to think about empathy and why everyone can make a difference through the influence of art and the message of healing. It can be a team bonding exercise, a community service day project, and a simple way for anyone to help in disaster relief and recovery.

The emotional scars of a traumatic event can take years to heal... and healing is different for every person. We reach people on an individual level and give them the means to heal themselves and others. To accomplish this mission, we do not want to impose limits on who volunteers or who can be helped by Stars of HOPE. Our volunteers include all survivors and what we refer to as "survivors by empathy"-people who did not personally survive a traumatic experience but are nonetheless profoundly impacted and moved to help.

Our core project Stars of HOPE Box of HOPE Kits make it easy to paint the sky with hope! Kits include everything you need to paint your Stars of HOPE and an instructional booklet filled with stories and inspiration. Every quarter, kits are provided free of charge to our volunteers and survivor groups. Bringing a volunteer activity to your front door. You send hope. We'll do the rest.

Connecting Children and Seniors - Through our Starshine Connection Project, seniors are allowed to share childhood memories and wisdom through an online portal where parents can sign up and share the stories with their children. In return, the child is encouraged to answer the question "What does HOPE mean?" and create a personalized Star of HOPE delivered through the online portal.

Supporting front-line workers - Video conferencing has become a key tool for creating Stars of HOPE with classrooms across the country. Our Art Therapists can connect with students and start the conversation, "Who needs hope?" The arts are used for social and emotional learning because they teach self-awareness. The artistic process can also be connected to the more emotional side of us. For example, through Stars of HOPE, instructors will help their students learn about empathy and what it means to take care of others. Students also practice techniques such as mindfulness, self-regulation, and problem-solving. Both the physical Star of HOPE is the ideal tools for mindfulness exercises. Stars of HOPE can be tailored to any age demographic, grade or skill level and is an outstanding tool as a lesson plan or unique experience that can positively affect the advancement of social and emotional learning and student well-being.

New York Says Thank You Foundation, Inc. (NYSTY) provides therapeutic healing through the program Stars of HOPE USA to communities impacted by disaster or tragedy. Our program projects use people's creativity to promote healing and connection for individual people.

As a small but mighty nonprofit with 501c(3) status, NYSTY is committed to focus on emotional healing, use creative art as a primary means for connection, create meaningful, personal, and lasting connections, and acknowledge everyone's individual definition of hope and healing.

NYSTY will achieve this through our voluntary network of healers, our organization's staff, pace and adaptability committees, supporters, and technologies. Our worldwide volunteer network consists of thousands of Stars of HOPE producers between the ages of 2 and 102 and will be engaged when a call is made to respond to the disaster within 48 hours (or when appropriate). In response to the tragedy, our leadership and board members work and adapt to the changing landscape to respond and cooperate efficiently. We are excellent at ensuring that our volunteers, staff, and board members have positive and reliable representations and knowledge of our organization. Our Board and staff integrate the background and skills needed to grow and create lifelong relationships of confidence with partners and stakeholders with experience in event planning, art therapy, local and state mental health organizations, branding and communications, marketing, business strategy, organizational development, and operations.

We have positively impacted over 180 communities in over 26 countries. In 2019-2020, volunteers and community members placed stars of hope in numerous disaster areas, including the flooding in the midwest, Hurricane Dorian, Alabama Tornadoes, California Wildfires, and shootings in Highland Park, CO; and El Paso, TX. Stars of HOPE was also part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum's opening of the Glade Memorial. We were also featured on "The Today Show" on New Years Day 2020, highlighting our Stars of HOPE Community Response Bus launch.

By 2020 we have pivoted our program projects to be completely virtual, offering virtual classrooms and community events to keep "creating hope" for others and are lead by our Art Therapist. We have also engaged many corporate offices to engage in an online volunteer opportunity to create Stars of HOPE banners for senior centers and hospitals. We also launched a pilot project called the Starshine Connection, which virtually connects isolated seniors to children during the quarantine.

We hope to continue to innovate the disaster response and therapeutic art sector as we have big plans for the upcoming years to create an app to easily connect the creator to the receiver, provide long-term healing through a partnership network, and expand our reach to continue healing and empathy.