Our Story

In February 2015, artist Doris Thurber’s daughter Maya died of a heroin/fentanyl overdose.

A year and a half later, convinced that tackling the massive opioid crisis would require all the skills and engagement our community could muster, Thurber joined fellow artists Joanna Hay and Jennifer Zingg to launch Hands Healing HeArts, a weekly program within Franklin County Drug Court that guided participants through writing, visual art, theater and other creative processes to help give expression to their feelings, experiences and struggles. 

Hands Healing HeArts hired it’s first Executive Director, Amelia Berry, and then rebranded to Yes Arts in early 2019, with a new mission of mobilizing the power of community and the arts to disrupt the cycle of addiction.

The new focus gave Berry the opportunity to research the innovative Icelandic Prevention Model (now known in our community as the Just Say Yes coalition). Garnering strong community support, Just Say Yes quickly grew and evolved and in 2021, the JSY partners (Yes Arts, Franklin County Health Department & Franklin County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy) decided to “move” the Just Say Yes initiative (including the YES Card program, Franklin County Youth Survey, Parent/Youth Cafes) to the health department.

In 2021, while Amelia and Just Say Yes launched at the local health department, Yes Arts promoted Elle Travis, who was serving as the Youth Prevention and Recovery Program Coordinator, to Executive Director. That same month, Yes Arts officially signed a lease to utilize the space next to City Hall where we operate today.

Yes Arts offers therapeutic arts services, through our ART (Achieving Recovery Together) Program, for people in recovery from substance use disorder in partnership with Fresh Start Frankfort, Franklin County Drug Court and other local nonprofit partners.

Yes Arts also provides a robust youth prevention program known as YAY (Yes Arts Youth). YAY Program Leaders and Youth Mentors are trained on trauma-informed care, implicit bias, neurodiversity, child abuse, and ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) risk and protective factors. YAY exists to create a safe, inclusive space for children of all ages and abilities to find strong mentors, lasting friendships and quality arts instruction to reduce the risk of falling into the cycle of addiction and to mitigate harm due to generational trauma.

Yes Arts offers various Community Programs to encourage connection and support: a professional gallery featuring the work of local and regional artists, outreach programs for community engagement and a roster of more than 75 teaching artists.