NILES — A Boardman-based art therapy nonprofit is working on expanding into Trumbull County — and the Cadence Care Network in Niles is its first step.

The Ryan Giambattista HELMS Foundation runs an art therapy program that seeks to honor the life and vision of the foundation’s namesake, the late artist Ryan Giambattista. The program provides community-based art therapy services in collaboration and partnership with groups, individuals, social service organizations, learning institutions and providers of services in mental health, developmental and physical disabilities.

Chairwoman Terri DiGennaro founded the nonprofit after her son, Giambattista, 23, died in Struthers in July 2015.

Though the exact programming the HELMS Foundation will have in partnership with Cadence Care is still being determined, both organizations hope art therapy will provide a unique opportunity for the children Cadence works with to express themselves and meet their therapy needs.

“It’s a very subconscious level of communication, and it’s very personal,” DiGennaro said about art.

She said using art to communicate speaks volumes about people, without ever having to open their mouth. She said if an art therapist gave a person a pencil, marker and pen to draw something, they can learn things about that person based on which writing instrument they pick up, as well as how and what they create.

Art therapy is an integrated mental health and human services profession that is led by a professional art therapist, who is a master-level clinician with a degree in art therapy.

Several art therapists employed by the HELMS Foundation are working on a mural at the Cadence Coffeehouse and Creperie, 31 N. Main St. in downtown Niles, meant to spread awareness of the “universal benefit of art therapy,” said Sara Stein, one of the art therapists working on the project.

The mural features hands holding the Earth, with a rainbow bounding out from the globe. The hands and the rainbow have drips coming off, into a blank space that will eventually feature community work.

“Art therapy is for everyone,” Stein of Cleveland said. “You don’t have to be an artist to give it a try. It’s all about the process, rather than the finished artwork.”

Cadence Care is a good partnership for the foundation because, as Nikunj Patel, chief operating officer of Cadence, said, many of the children that the behavioral health organization works with may not be comfortable communicating in traditional ways.

He noted art and music bring people together in a unique way, but different pieces can be uniquely personal as well. Two people can hear the same song, for example, and have two reactions to it.

“Artists tell different stories in the way they paint, and viewers see the story in different ways depending on their background,” Patel said.

NEW TO VALLEY

DiGennaro said while art therapy is popular in other areas as close as Akron, it is new in the Mahoning Valley. She said educating the public about art therapy has been the hardest part of breaking into the Valley so far.

Chelsea Bradburn of Beaver County, Pa., is an intern with the HELMS Foundation, pursuing a master’s degree in art therapy with a specification in counseling from Seton Hill University. She said while most people can agree that art has a therapeutic element, it can be hard for people to understand its value as a form of therapy in itself. But once they do, DiGennaro said the feedback has been all positive.

According to the foundation, art therapy has many benefits, including helping to improve cognitive and physical functioning, fostering self-awareness and building self-confidence. In addition, this type of therapy provides insight, rationale and validation to feelings, improves conflict-resolution abilities and promotes problem-solving skills in ways that traditional verbal therapy may not be able to.

DiGennaro’s organization is working on finding studio space in the Valley, so that it can work to expand its programming.

Currently, the HELMS Foundation is providing services and group sessions at the Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown, the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center, the ACLD School of Learning, Rayen Early College, Yellow Brick Place, the YWCA of Warren and Youngstown, EasterSeals, Potential Development School for Autism and Campbell schools on the Community Literary Workforce and Cultural Center campus.