A free space filled with imagination, immersion, and creative expression for sick children
Creativity, play, immersion and imagination are valuable and developing for all children (and adults). But for children and families who have illness and diagnoses close to home, it can often be more difficult to find time, space and framework for the creative games and activities.
Every year approx. 60,000 children aged 1-14 years in the Danish hospitals, and approx. 145,000 1-14-year-olds are annually admitted to the hospitals on an outpatient basis. The creative heroes work, through their mobile workshop, to create a free space filled with imagination, immersion, and creative expression for these children and their families.
Website: www.brneulykkesfonden.dk/kreaheltene/
Activities
A creative free space for the children and their parents
The creative heroes is a free space in the hospital, where illness enters the background for a while. Here there is room for imagination, for creating something and for expressing oneself, for community and new friendships. In Kreaheltene’s mobile workshop, children and their families can come and play with different inspiring materials and be part of a community that is not about illness or diagnoses. For children and families, where illness is a big part of everyday life, the opportunity to experience one such free space plays an invaluable role.
The child’s choice and motivation at the center
When children live life with chronic diagnoses and repeated treatments and hospitalizations as a companion, everyday life can be characterized by instructions and limitations. At Kreaheltene, we offer a space where the child’s own choices and motivations are at the center. There is a high ceiling and room for experiments and ideas – but there is also room to “just” be present. The creative heroes have an eye for the individual child and are ready to support and play with, but always on the child’s terms.
The Creative Heroes (Kreaheltene) is located at 6 children’s hospitals in Denmark; HC Andersen Børne- og Ungehospital in Odense, Aalborg Universitetshospital, Regionshospital Nordjylland in Hjørring, Sygehus Sønderjylland in Aabenraa, Herlev Hospital, Strandbakkehuset, Kolding Sygehus, Sydvestjysk Sygehus in Esbjerg and Sjællands Universitetshospital in Roskilde.
Participants
Sick children, their informal caregivers, and “the creative heroes” from the “child’s accidents foundation”.