Creativity has always been at the heart of residential childcare worker Fraser’s life. Before joining Care Visions, he trained as a secondary school art and design teacher, later moving into prisons across Scotland to teach art to men, women and young offenders. It was there, in some of the most challenging environments, that Fraser saw just how powerful creativity can be for people who are struggling.

 

“I saw first-hand how art helped individuals become calmer, more focused, and more open,” Fraser explains.

 

In prison, creative projects often became a turning point, a rare chance for people to reflect, express themselves safely, and reconnect with parts of themselves they’d lost along the way.

 

“It was a gateway,” he says. “A way for them to engage, to think differently, to process things they couldn’t say out loud.”

 

That experience shaped much of what Fraser brings to residential child care today. When young people arrive in residential child care, they’re often coping with stress, overwhelm or trauma. Talking about their feelings can feel impossible. Creativity offers something gentler.

 

“Art gives young people a quiet, introspective space,” Fraser says. “A different kind of therapeutic care.”

 

Fraser supports a young person who finds it hard to focus or express their thoughts verbally. Traditional conversations can be overwhelming, but give them a creative project connected to their interests, and everything shifts. They settle. They concentrate. They communicate through what they create.

 

“They’re able to express ideas they are not yet ready to put into words,” Fraser explains.

 

For Fraser, these moments are everything. Creativity doesn’t just soothe; it builds connection. Sitting side by side, drawing, painting or making something removes pressure and opens the door to trust.

 

Most importantly, creativity reminds young people that they are more than their history. They are makers. Thinkers. Artists. Capable of growth and expression.

 

As Fraser says, “Art helps young people see what they’re capable of sometimes long before they believe it themselves.”

 

In residential child care, that isn’t just creativity. It’s healing.

 

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