Chicago Community Trust Supports ITA

The Music Institute of Chicago’s Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA) has again received a $50,000 grant from The Chicago Community Trust to continue its long-successful clinical services in creative arts therapy for patients of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC).

For more than 15 years, ITA’s licensed and board-certified therapists have provided individual and group creative arts therapy at no cost to RIC patients. Services include inpatient individual and group music therapy, a weekly creative arts therapy group for adults with aphasia, weekly drama therapy groups, and in-service trainings on the benefits of creative arts therapy for RIC staff.

“RIC patients continue to need alternative forms of therapy to successfully recover from an injury or illness,” said ITA Executive Director Jennifer Rook. “These patients, staff, and those in the aphasia program have reported creative arts therapy, including drama and music therapies, has had a notable impact on rehabilitation and emotional well-being. Referrals for music therapy in the hospital have dramatically increased throughout the years as more research demonstrates the impact of music on the brain.”

Institute for Therapy through the Arts

Founded in 1975, the Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA) empowers and energizes individuals, families, and communities to grow and heal by engaging in creative arts therapies and is one of the few comprehensive community-based arts therapy programs in the United States to offer all four creative arts treatment modalities: Music Therapy, Drama Therapy, Art Therapy, and Dance/Movement Therapy. ITA has received national recognition and distinguished itself in the use of integrated arts approaches to help children, adults, and families to improve functioning related to psychological, developmental, physical, or cognitive factors. 

Chicago Community Trust

For 99 years, The Chicago Community Trust, our region’s community foundation, has connected the generosity of donors with community needs by making grants to organizations working to improve metropolitan Chicago. In 2013, the Trust, together with its donors, granted more than $160 million to nonprofit organizations. From strengthening schools to assisting local arts programs, from building health centers to protecting the safety net for those hardest hit by the recession, the Trust continues to enhance our region. To learn more, visit the Trust at cct.org.