HOSPITALS
THE LAUGH LAB
(WORKSHOPS)
HALL PASS
(IN-SCHOOLS)
Safety, trust, connection and being in the present moment are requisites for healing from trauma and they are also the foundation for improvisation. This overlap is the cornerstone of Humor for Hope’s work. We offer an alternative and effective model to handling some of life's most challenging circumstances.
This is where it all started!
In hospitals across Chicago, we use short-form improvisational games to aide in relieving the trauma that comes with spending time in a hospital. Working with youth ages 4-21 who endure trauma, acute, chronic or terminal illness, we equip patients with social emotional tools and improv skills to help them navigate the extreme challenges of their experiences; furthermore, we give them space to laugh and be creative – all within their isolated rooms. Knowing the body, mind and spirit are connected, we aim to empower children, their families and staff as they navigate sometimes months-long stints in a sterile hospital, all through laughter.
School Program
Using a holistic and integrative approach,students learn improvisational comedy and comedic storytelling to aid in trauma healing, mental and social emotional learning.
Hall Pass is our free mental health based arts program that infuses improvisational comedy with therapy and group processing. The program aims to provide Chicago Public School students faced with high levels of trauma and limited support the opportunity to experience post traumatic growth and stimulate healing.
Prison Program
Humor for Hope has partnered with prisons to use our foundation of improvisation as a form of therapy for individuals who are experiencing trauma. Here, we utilize short and long-form improv games, along with sketch and stand-up writing exercises to allow incarcerated individuals a space to feel safe, seen, heard, and connect with themselves and each other on a deeper level. In an environment that perpetuates trauma and breeds isolation, defense and tension, the key is to provide safety, trust, community, and a safe place to process and play and, thus, work through this specific trauma that is often ignored.
We sell goods from small intentional communities that we’ve worked with all over the world that are sustainably crafted among locals and used to build indigenous economies. All proceeds go to the artisans and to Humor for Hope to fund programming and create job training for our youth.
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