A new center opening at Liberty Station on Veterans Day aims to give San Diego-area veterans a free, low-pressure way to work through the stress of military life after service. Help Heal Veterans is holding the grand opening of its Creative Engagement Center on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 201, in the Arts District at Liberty Station, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, remarks from leadership and community partners, a craft workshop and tours of the space.
The celebration marks the nonprofit's return to the community where it was founded 55 years earlier, according to Times of San Diego, which reported that Help Heal Veterans was founded in 1971. The organization describes itself as a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides free therapeutic arts and crafts to veterans and active-duty service members, a status confirmed on its own FAQ page. Per the group's website, it has supplied therapeutic craft kits to veterans and active-duty military personnel since 1971.
A Kit That Helped One Veteran Refocus
Lee Ambrose Park, an Oceanside Army veteran, was honorably discharged in June and moved across the country on short notice to be closer to home after leaving active duty, according to the Times of San Diego report. Park said the transition from active duty was rocky for him, and he told the outlet that a craft kit helped shift his focus away from job interviews and worries about the future and onto creative projects instead, which he said grounded him.
Park was searching for employment after leaving active duty when he picked up a kit, the Times of San Diego reported. He made a wallet and a coin pouch and was working on a bowl cozy as a birthday gift for a family member, per the same account.
What the Center Offers
Help Heal Veterans CEO Capt. Joe McClain, USN (Ret.), said creativity supports the healing process and can help people discover their own creative abilities, according to the Times of San Diego. McClain said the center offers an open space for conversation or for picking up a kit, and that it may encourage veterans to take the next step in their healing. He also said service members recover from war trauma at different paces, and that some issues may not emerge until years later.
Mona Daniel serves as the Creative Engagement Center's creative engagement specialist, the Times of San Diego reported. The nonprofit says it offers therapeutic programming at the Liberty Station location and provides eligible veterans and their families opportunities for creative activities intended to promote connection, purpose and well-being.
Kits Reach Hundreds of Craft Categories
Help Heal Veterans says its therapeutic kits are meant to support people recovering from traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and other wounds of war, and that the kits can become an integral part of a treatment plan, per the organization's about page. The Times of San Diego reported that the group has distributed more than 31 million kits from hundreds of craft categories. Help Heal Veterans' own site states that figure differently, saying it has distributed more than 33 million kits, while a National Philanthropic Trust article put the total at 31 million kits distributed as of that page's publication — a discrepancy the available materials do not reconcile. The nonprofit also says it produces and ships nearly half a million kits annually from its workshop in Winchester, California.
Help Heal Veterans frames arts and crafts as a time-tested tool for addressing PTSD, depression and anxiety, though that characterization comes from the organization itself rather than independent clinical evidence. The National Philanthropic Trust article cited the group's 2022 donor impact report, which found that 75% of recipients with traumatic brain injuries said the kits helped and 89% of veterans reported a drop in their pain levels. A scoping review indexed on PubMed examined studies of art use with active-duty military members and veterans with PTSD that used varied arts-based approaches and assessment methods, including crafts among six categories of art activities. Elsewhere, VA Boston health care describes its own recreation and creative-arts therapy programs, led by certified therapeutic recreation specialists, as evidence-based interventions meant to promote veteran independence and physical, mental and emotional well-being.
The grand opening is listed on Liberty Station's own events calendar as the Help Heal Veterans Creative Engagement Center Grand Opening, confirming the Wednesday date for the public event. For veterans in the San Diego area, the new Dewey Road location offers a walk-in option to pick up a free kit or simply talk, following the model McClain described to the Times of San Diego.
