About Us

From the Founder

After 12 years as a Police Officer with service at Country Police Stations, Suburban Detective Offices, the Child Abuse Squad, and the Homicide Squad, I have experienced the horrors that face the First Responder community on a daily basis. We truly experience extraordinary trauma. It is no wonder the First Responder community is overrepresented in terms of work-related psychological injury. I am also not surprised that studies show we are less inclined to report mental health difficulties.

The First Responder community faces unprecedented hardships. It is crucial for our community that those on the front line are happy and healthy; inside and out. It’s no longer enough that we wait until the wheels fall off, we must maintain mental well-being and cultivate resilience. We need to be contemporary and proactive in our approach to the well-being of our community. The Creative Wellness Project is one way of serving that cause.

In 2012 I attended the suicide of an 18-year-old boy who was found by his mother. For some reason, despite the many other desperately tragic scenes I have attended since, this attendance has always stuck with me. So, in early 2022, I decided to buy a pack of pencils and draw my memory of it. I got it off my chest and onto the canvas. I felt the tension melt away. I researched what ‘it’ was that I had just discovered and thought that ‘it’ must exist for other First Responders grappling with similar scenarios. It was called creative wellness and I was wrong; nothing existed for us. That needed to change.

In January 2022 I met with WA Police who were supportive of a pilot project testing the merits of a non-clinical, peer-driven creative wellness project. Fast forward nearly 12 months and with the help of an enormous list of volunteers and supporters we completed the State’s first Creative Wellness for First Responders pilot project.

An evaluation study completed by researchers at Curtin University found the project had tangible benefits to the First Responder Community. This report is available on request.

The Creative Wellness Project incorporated as an association and returns to provide safe and encouraging environments for First Responders to participate in creative expression beginning July 2023.

Evan Jackson | Chairperson | Founder | First Responder