Creative Comeback: Warriors Unleash Their Potential Through Art Partnerships

For many veterans, the battle doesn’t end when they return home — it simply changes form. And sometimes, the most effective weapon in that new fight is a paintbrush, a guitar, or the rhythm of a well-told story. These new tools can also create new missions – new ways to engage, heal, and thrive.

Across the country, veterans are turning to creative expression not just as a pastime, but as a lifeline. In studios, community spaces, living rooms, and even hospital beds, they’re picking up instruments, pens, clay, and cameras — reclaiming pieces of themselves often lost to trauma, grief, or silence. Through strategic partnerships between Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) and its arts-focused community partners, healing is taking shape in alternative ways. These are more than creative classes; they’re sanctuaries of connection, resilience, and rediscovery.

Songs of Service: Veterans and Songwriters Unite

SongwritingWith:Soldiers (SW:S) connects professional songwriters and veterans through retreats, workshops, and community events to promote creativity and connection via collaborative songwriting. With support from WWP, SW:S hosted a three-day retreat for warriors to unleash their creative spirit and share their stories while connecting with other veterans. The strategic decision to host this songwriting retreat in El Paso, TX, was made to specifically serve remote veterans in the surrounding area.

SW:S worked very closely with WWP’s Project Odyssey team to ensure warriors had the opportunity to benefit from this workshop. This collaboration demonstrates the impact of when organizations work together to serve veterans through collective impact.

This retreat gave Army veteran Dave Gerhardt the opportunity to reflect on his experience of being a father in the military. He left on his first deployment with his wife at home, two months pregnant with their daughter. Writing the song brought back many memories, both the tough and the positive moments.

“For the first half of the deployment, she wasn’t born yet. But then I got to go home – I got to meet her. I got to spend a few days with her, and then I had to go back to Iraq,” said Dave. “The deployment started as just this young guy and then ended as a father.”

Dave says he’s hoping to use the song he wrote during the retreat, My Daughter, for their father-daughter dance at his daughter's future wedding.

Navy veteran Leonel “Doc” Ortega had a similarly powerful experience when he wrote his song, On Earth and In The Sky, about his relationship with his family and his faith.

“I think in order for a person to be able to write about their feelings, to write about their emotions, about their experiences, you have to be willing to surrender and to be vulnerable and share those experiences openly,” said Doc. “And that’s what I did.”

Doc said initially, he shared a lot of things he would’ve preferred to stay in the room with the writer, but now, he’s honored that so much of it ended up in the song. He hopes to help others transform their emotions and experiences into healing – a process he says requires humility.

“By me sharing my thoughts and what I went through, to me, is going to inspire another person. Another veteran. Another human being,” Doc said. “… We’re going to be broken for a long time, and there’s no medications, no therapy, that is going to help us unless we’re willing to [be vulnerable].”

Connection Through Creation: Where Virtual Access Meets Veterans Anywhere

Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP) is another WWP™ community partner that offers community arts programs for veterans, service members, military families, and caregivers. The organization uses creativity to support healing; its mission is to empower the military community through artistic expression, skill-building, and connection.

Through its partnership with WWP, ASAP has made art more accessible to warriors and caregivers. The organization offers in-person and virtual events that meet warriors and caregivers where they are, whether that’s participating in a comedy class from a bed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center or learning how to weave a pillow while caring for a critically injured spouse.

WWP’s support for ASAP’s Virtual Chapter supports 400 post-9/11 veterans and military family members in their journeys to learn new skills that improve social connectivity, resilience, and self-esteem, and reduce depression and stress. Through workshops and virtual classes, participants discover newfound passions in a variety of artistic mediums such as creative writing, comedy, visual arts, and more. ASAP works very closely with WWP program teams to offer programming that meets the warrior and family support member where they are in their journey.

Danny Bahena, Air Force veteran turned ASAP program coordinator, has seen this impact first-hand.

“I felt like I was holding it together on the outside but really struggling on the inside – I had to relearn how to live again. The mission was over, and I had no idea what came next – I felt stuck, numb, and disconnected,” Danny said. “[The programming] helped me build the muscle of expression again.”

The virtual events support underrepresented groups that also deserve support and creative outlets. Events like a four-week writing session for women warriors or a painting class for caregivers give them a chance to embark on a new, creative adventure.

Harnessing the Arts to Strengthen Veteran–Caregiver Relationships

CreatiVets empowers wounded veterans to heal through creative programs in music, visual arts, and storytelling. The organization’s mission is to help veterans use the arts to cope with trauma and rebuild their lives. With WWP’s support, CreatiVets recently hosted a powerful program that included songwriting workshops tailored for both veterans and their caregivers. This program includes professionally guided songwriting experiences led by Nashville-based and world-recognized musicians, producers, and songwriters. The veterans and caregivers collaborated directly with these talented professionals, turning personal stories and emotional experiences into original, recorded songs.

For participants like Janet, the wife and caregiver of Army veteran Juan, this event turned into a lifeline of newfound support and recognition that she isn’t alone in what she’s going through.

 CreatiVets worked very closely with WWP’s Independence Program to recruit warriors and caregivers to participate in the workshops. By hosting concurrent veteran and caregiver workshops, the caregivers were able to fully be present, knowing their veteran was taken care of and benefiting from the program as well.

This workshop was one Janet immediately knew she had to be a part of, to connect with her husband as well as other caregivers and warriors with similar experiences. Juan served more than three decades in the Army and is now battling Parkinson’s disease – a new challenge he’s taking on with Janet right by his side for support. The two of them are navigating this new chapter hand in hand, and using events like this to make new memories and continue growing together.

“Juan’s challenges aren’t necessarily visible to everyone – you know? You can’t really see why we’re parking in a handicapped spot or why he isn’t walking right now. But, with events like this, we get to learn about other people’s experiences too,” said Janet. “We all deal with stress over one illness or another, but here, we get to do it together and maybe learn some of the ways that other people are handling things that I haven’t thought of.”

That deeper understanding and connection to other veterans and caregivers with similar challenges drove Janet and Juan to try this new adventure of songwriting and sharing their stories. Janet also has a goal of helping other people understand that not all wounds or illnesses are visible.

“I’ll be honest, I’m a little shy, I’m a little nervous about this, but I know it will be worth it. I know that for Juan to meet other veterans who are facing similar things, and for me to just get a second to open up about everything,” Janet said. “It’s worth the uncomfortableness that I’ll be feeling.”

Through the laughter shared at a comedy show, the quiet strength revealed in a woven pillow, or the courage poured into a microphone during a songwriting night, these creative spaces are resulting in something extraordinary. They're giving warriors and caregivers the room to be seen, heard, and healed. Each brushstroke, each word, and each note are testaments to their resilience — and what is possible when community, creativity, and compassion come together.

WWP is the largest nonprofit funder of other veterans service organizations. Since 2012, the organization has granted $436 million to 221 organizations.

Contact: Kaitlyn McCue, Public Relations, kmccue@woundedwarriorproject.org, 904.870.1964

About Wounded Warrior Project 

Wounded Warrior Project is our nation’s leading veteran services organization, focused on the total well-being of post-9/11 wounded, ill, or injured veterans. Our programs, advocacy, and awareness efforts help warriors thrive, provide essential lifelines to families and caregivers, and prevent veteran suicides. Learn more about Wounded Warrior Project.