Building Supportive Third Places: The Use of Arts-Based Programming in Family Resource Centers to Promote Resilience and Prevent Maltreatment

Family Resource Centers (FRCs) have the potential to function as welcoming "third places"-similar to public libraries-that effectively support families while avoiding the stigma often associated with formal interventions. This article explores how arts-based programming can be integrated into FRCs to strengthen family protective factors and healing through non-clinical approaches. We provide an illustrative case example, detailing how federally-funded FRCs in Indiana offered a manualized sequence of A Window Between Worlds (AWBW), a 10-week trauma-informed nonclinical arts program. Facilitated by trained community members, AWBW emphasized safety, peer connection, and creative expression. Our evaluation showed significant reduction in trauma symptoms among caregivers who completed the program to fidelity, suggesting that trauma-informed arts-based programming, specifically AWBW, can enhance resilience without professional clinical training. Ongoing implementation of nonclinical programming that can enhance protective factors and promote healing and resilience is needed to ensure family resource centers function as effective third places for proactively and holistically meeting family needs and preventing maltreatment-while also expanding opportunities for healing, connection, and collective good. To achieve this, sustained investment in local FRCs and the networks that support them is essential.