Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network works to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers. Read more about us.

Grantee Project Logic Model Summary

Creative Forces® uses two logic models to guide its Community Engagement program. The first model focuses on the overall national grant program and how it can support military-connected individuals dealing with trauma. The second model, outlined below, helps guide individual projects by making sure their goals and strategies are clear.

(External link) View our National Logic Model Summary (External link) Visit our resource “What is a Logic Model?” to learn more about what logic models are and why it’s a helpful tool

National grant program goal

The primary aim of the National Creative Forces® Community Engagement grant program is to enhance the health, well-being, and quality of life for military-connected individuals who have experienced trauma. The program achieves this by funding arts initiatives that encourage creativity, build social connections, improve resilience, and help smooth the transition to civilian life.

Grantee project goals

Grant recipients strive to achieve similar goals by:

  • encouraging creative expression,
  • enhancing social connections
  • increasing resilience, and
  • supporting independence and successful adaptation to civilian life.
(External link) Learn more about the impact of grantee projects

Project inputs, activities, and outputs

The inputs, activities, and outputs vary depending on the grantee organization’s capabilities, resources, and implementation strategies.

Inputs

Project inputs are the raw materials or ingredients a grant recipient uses to make an arts project happen. Inputs may include:

  • funding
  • project plans
  • existing resources (e.g., teaching artists, workshop facilities, and partnerships)
  • established arts programs for military-connected populations
  • understanding of military culture

Activities

Project activities are those that engage military-connected individuals in art or art-making experiences. Activities might involve:

  • military/veteran, family, and caregiver support
  • apprenticeship/internship/residency
  • arts instruction
  • creation of a work of art
  • concert/performance or exhibition
  • recording/filming/taping
  • in-person or virtual classes
  • “drop-in” style programs
  • participant performance or exhibition
  • community or network building
  • single events

Outputs

Project outputs are the direct results of grant-supported activities, such as the art workshops an organization produces or the partnerships an organization creates. Outputs can include:

  • arts engagement activities
  • participant reach
  • partnership development
  • grantee capacity-building
  • community awareness
  • data collection and reporting

Project outcomes

Project outcomes are the changes that result from the Creative Forces Community Engagement grant project. This logic model includes both participant outcomes and organizational outcomes.

Participant outcomes include:

  • Enhanced creative expression: Participants gain self-awareness through arts engagement.
  • Increased social connectedness: Participants form supportive relationships and feel part of a community.
  • Improved resilience: Participants are better equipped to recover from stress and challenges.
  • Independence and successful adaption to civilian life: Participants have a sense of purpose and positive self-worth that helps them adapt and adjust to civilian life.

*Grantees and partners design their programs around the specific needs of their communities. As a result, they might only focus on two or three of these outcomes.

Organizational outcomes include:

  • Becoming a networked organization: Grant recipients partner with other organizations—such as veteran or military-serving organizations, military clinics, arts organizations, or social service organizations—to strengthen their programs.
  • Strengthening capacity: Grant recipients can increase their organizational capacity to deliver and evaluate their programs. This includes increasing the military cultural competency of the organization and its staff.
  • Increasing the value of the arts: Grant projects can elevate understanding for themselves, partners, networks and local communities of how arts engagement can benefit military-connected populations.

These organizational outcomes support participant outcomes by building the infrastructure, knowledge, and skills needed for long-term success.

Rationale

  • There is a need for projects that improve the health and well-being of military-connected populations. Community arts projects can play a vital role in addressing these needs by offering opportunities for creative expression, social connection, successful transitioning to civilian life, and resilience.
  • Local projects are best suited to meet the specific needs of their communities.
  • Partnerships among stakeholders, project participants, arts organizations, and military-connected providers enhance the quality of art-making experiences. Partnerships also make it easier to develop culturally aware programming.

Assumptions and external factors

This logic model relies on these assumptions and external factors:

  • Community arts programs can be therapeutic, but are not meant to serve or be understood as clinical treatment or therapy.
  • Participants join community arts activities for various reasons. These include a desire to socialize, build community, express themselves, and improve their artistic skills.
  • Participants bring their own assets and strengths to these projects.
  • A strengths-based approach benefits all participants.
  • Consistent participation leads to more significant benefits than attending single events.
  • External factors such as geographic accessibility, economic conditions, and technological barriers can influence the design, implementation, and outcomes of community arts projects for military populations.