Riley Cheer Guild is a volunteer auxiliary that provides comfort and cheer to patients and caregivers at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health and the IU Health adult hospitals on the academic health center in downtown Indianapolis. In addition, Riley Cheer Guild is a not-for-profit, section 501(c)(3).
Our Programs
For new resources for children and families from the Riley Children’s Health Creative Arts Therapy Team, please click here!
Toy Room
The Riley Cheer Guild Toy Room is located at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. It is filled with toys and other items that are ready to be distributed to patients. Each month, more than 9,000 Toy Room items are given to patients within the hospital. Many items in this room have been donated to the Riley Cheer Guild by our members, chapters, families, businesses, and members of the community. Although we receive many donated items, the Toy Room requires an annual budget of $70,000 to keep a consistent inventory of the most popular items needed for distractive therapy and play.
Music therapy
The Riley Cheer Guild has been funding the music therapy program at Riley since 2000. In 2014, IU Health University Hospital asked the Riley Cheer Guild to fund their music therapy program for adults, which helps us to further our mission! The annual budget is $200,000.
What is Music Therapy?
Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions. Through live music, Board Certified Music Therapists create a safe, inviting environment where patients and families can explore their thoughts and feelings through music. Music therapy is designed for each patient based on individualized needs. You can find music therapists at each of the hospitals leading songwriting, singing tunes, playing instruments, making digital music, or creating improvisational music with patients.
Music therapy interventions can be designed to:
Promote wellness
Manage Stress
Alleviate Pain
Express Feelings
Enhance Memory
Improve Communication
Promote Physical Rehabilitation
Making a Difference for Patients
Music therapy has been shown to be an effective therapy option when no other therapies seem to work. It stimulates all of the senses and involves the patient at many levels. It is a form of sensory stimulation, which provokes responses due to the familiarity, predictability, and feelings of security associated with it. This “multi-modal approach” facilitates many developmental skills. Music is highly motivating, yet it can also have a calming and relaxing effect. Enjoyable music activities are designed to be success-oriented and make patients feel better about themselves. Because the brain processes music in both hemispheres, music can stimulate cognitive functioning and may be used to help with some speech and language skills.
To become a musician volunteer, please apply here and choose “musician volunteer”.
To apply for music therapy internship, visit here for more information.
For Level 3 and 4 music therapy practicum guidelines, please download this document.
For observation practicum, please email lservos@iuhealth.org
Learn about the new Music and Play Kit program!
Click here to watch the Riley Music Therapy 101 presentation including case studies and vignettes by Riley Music Therapists.
CompleteLife
The Riley Cheer Guild began funding the Art Cart at the IU Health Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center in 2011. Riley Cheer Guild now supports Art and Music Therapies through the CompleteLife program. The Riley Cheer Guild raises $125.000 per year to sponsor this program. The CompleteLife Program is an integrative medicine program including complimentary Art, Massage, Music, and Yoga Therapies and supportive services.
· Art Therapy : “Art therapy is a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Art therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensorimotor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.” (American Art Therapy Association, 2024)
· Music Therapy: “Music Therapy is the clinical & evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. Music therapy interventions can address a variety of healthcare & educational goals:
Promote Wellness
Manage Stress
Alleviate Pain
Express Feelings
Enhance Memory
Improve Communication
Promote Physical Rehabilitation
and more”
(American Music Therapy Association, 2024)
DREA’s DREAM pediatric Dance Movement Therapy Program
Due to the continued generosity of the Andrea Rizzo Foundation, we have been able restart our pediatric dance movement therapy program. Learn more here (video by Gabby Gonzalez with Riley Children’s Health Social Media)
