Drama Therapy Workshops

ONGOING WEEKLY PROGRAMS designed to meet the needs of specific populations. STOP-GAP works with groups such as elders in senior adult day health centers, battered women and their children in shelters, people in recovery, abused and neglected children, juvenile offenders, children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, and homeless street youth. STOP-GAP's drama therapy workshops focus on illuminating complex and emotional issues, allowing participants to approach real life problems through the safe distance of fictionalized characters and situations.

CHILDREN AND YOUTH


Orangewood Children's Home: (since 1980), serving abused and neglected children and youth ages 10-18; Children's Hospital of Orange County: (since 1983), serving children and youth ages 7-18 with chronic and life threatening illness; Renaissance Career Academy, Pregnant Minor Program; Fountain Valley Regional Hospital

SENIORS AND FRAIL ELDERLY


Acacia Adult Day Services: (since 1979), serving elderly; Irvine Adult Day Health Services: (since 1998), serving elderly

• support groups for families and friends of people facing cancer, alzheimiers, stroke and other life-changing illnesses
• senior support programs such as: nutrition sites and bereavement groups
• students at highest-risk for gang and drug involvement, and dropping out of school

STOP-GAP maintains a waiting list of program site requests, for both long- and short-term programs.

Commissioned Presentations

CUSTOMIZED PUBLIC AWARENESS or training presentations that most often respond to an urgent, or emergency, community need. The topics that STOP-GAP has been commissioned to address have included:

• living with AIDS
• training teachers to recognize and respond to children living in violent homes
• helping a school and community cope with the suicide of a 15-year-old student

IN OUR TWENTY-SIX YEAR HISTORY, STOP-GAP has responded to requests for commissioned presentations from a wide variety of organizations whose philosophies and goals are consistent with our own. The topics have ranged from living with AIDS to training teachers to recognize and respond to children living in violent homes to helping a school and community cope with the suicide of a 15 year old student. Most often, the need for the presentation is urgent-sometimes it is an emergency

Commissioned presentations are often further developed for inclusion in STOP-GAP's on-going, direct services, ensuring that we are responsive to critical and emerging issues in our communities.

STOP-GAP's Emergency Response Programs have been created to answer requests for STOP-GAP programs from schools and communities which have experienced traumatic events. STOP-GAP's past Emergency Response Programs have included: After the Fires in Laguna Beach and Healing School Communities After the Death of Students and Teachers. An Emergency Response Fund was initiated in 1996 with support from The Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade Fundraiser.