Interview: Dr. Bianca Harper Director of ASU's Arizona Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative

Interview: Dr. Bianca Harper Director of ASU's Arizona Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative

Author: Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona March 21, 2025 Duration: 36:11
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Bianca Harper, director of ASU's Arizona Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative (ACASI), whose mission is to foster the healing of intimate partner violence survivors. She walks us through the program's holistic approach to healing and the power of overcoming the stigma around these issues. Perhaps nowhere is the incredible healing power of art better personified than at the vigil ceremony hosted by ACASI and Free Arts, where families honored the memories of their loved ones through art, music, poetry, and storytelling. Free Arts’ research-based program model, Art + Mentors = Resilience, helps children build the resilience they need to maintain personal well-being by connecting them with caring adults and creative activities that develop their personal skills and sense of self. Free Arts believes that healthy connections with adults create change. Through partnerships with local child welfare agencies and shelters serving families, Free Arts is able to provide this intervention to children free of cost to program participants. To become a Free Arts Volunteer Mentor, please visit FreeArtsAZ.org/Volunteer Hosted by Matt Sandoval, CEO of Free Arts Produced by Alvaro Morello Music by Epidemic sound: Tell ‘em No by Flux Vortex, Free Throw by Timothy Infinite Contact the podcast at hello@freeartsaz.org Follow us at: Youtube.com/FreeArtsofArizona Facebook.com/freeartsaz Instagram: @freeartsaz Twitter @freeartsaz You can make your donations to Free Arts at FreeArtsAz.org/Donate

Canvas of the Heart is a quiet space where stories of healing and creativity intersect. Produced by Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona, this podcast explores the profound impact of artistic expression on young lives marked by trauma, abuse, neglect, and homelessness. From its home in Phoenix, the organization pairs trained adult mentors with children and teens, using creative work as a steady path from pain toward resilience. Each episode offers a genuine look into this process, sharing voices and experiences that might otherwise go unheard. You'll hear about the legacy of this work not as a simple success story, but as a complex, human journey. The conversations within this podcast naturally unfold to reveal how a brushstroke, a written line, or a performed moment can begin to rebuild a sense of safety and self. It’s about the tangible ways art functions as a language for emotions that are too difficult to speak aloud. Tuning in, you become part of a wider conversation on mental well-being, the necessity of human connection, and the quiet strength found in making something new. This is more than a series about a program; it’s an auditory window into the transformation that happens when a caring community provides the tools and the space for creativity to flourish. The Canvas of the Heart podcast documents these subtle, powerful shifts, emphasizing that healing is not a solitary act but a collaborative masterpiece in progress.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 26

Canvas of the Heart
Podcast Episodes
A Story of Young Adult Empowerment with Jacob [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:02
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…
Empowering Young Adults with Paula Wilson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:19
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…
The Free Arts Theory of Change [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:02
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…
What is Trauma? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:16
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…
The Free Arts Story with Alicia Sutton Campbell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:11
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…