ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A new report from the UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings Master of Public Health (MPH) program looks at how community health and well-being are improved through crafting.

Graduate students worked with six Craft & Community Vitality grant awardees to explore how the craft artists’ work connects with community health.

“We know the work that craft artists and organizations do has a powerful impact on communities, and are grateful to collaborate with the public health program to explore how and why,” Anna Helgeson, Center for Craft’s grant program manager, community vitality, said in a written statement.

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What they found was the practice of creating and sharing crafts helped with individual and emotional well-being. It encouraged inclusion and healing and even had physically calming effects.

“The collective framework illustrates the breadth of characteristics and approaches of the craft artists and a resulting range of rich individual-level and community-level health impacts,” Professor Ameena Batada, who led the class and research pilot, said in a written statement.

See the report here at canva.com.