OUR PROGRAMS
Art Attacks! Civic
Engagement for Youth
The Art Attacks! Civic Engagement Arts program brings incarcerated youth and teaching artists with lived experience of incarceration together with prominent artists and leaders, empowering them to use their voices and their votes to be agents of civic change. Exercises of Theater, poetry, visual arts, and music teach youth methods of self exploration, emotional capacity and social engagement. Through these exercises, youth have the opportunity to unpack and heal the trauma associated with their incarcerated experience and become the leaders of the future. We operate this program across LA County Juvenile Probation Facilities.
We use our unique approach to inspire participants to transform their narratives about who they are and the impact they can have as citizens. Our recent program resulted in a 100% voting rate in the recent Presidential election and facilitated deep connections between our incarcerated youth, older returned citizens, and March for Our Lives.
The work is cathartic and healing for older Teaching Artists who have experienced extensive incarceration and helps them to become leaders in changing the narrative about people with lived experience. Their stories create impactful and positive narratives for the younger community members. And the addition of targeted virtual reality content, ideated by the youth, has deepened the impact of this much requested program.
"It’s important to know history, it’s a cycle, we gotta learn how to break it.”- Youth at Camp Afflerbaugh
Virtual Reality Reentry
Program - A first of its
kind!
95% of incarcerated people will return to their communities, and of that, 60% are expected to return to prison due to lack of support and preparation for the realities of modern life. Our program intends to transform that approach. We reimagine where “Re-entry” begins, changing the narrative to envision it starting inside solitary confinement and maximum security yards- fundamentally changing the narrative around re-entry and transforming the possibilities within the most silenced and invisible part of the prison system.
In our fully computerized world, people who have been incarcerated for decades arrive on what is essentially another planet when they return. Simple daily tasks, such as pumping gas or checking out at a supermarket become mountains to climb for those for whom the technological revolution has passed them by, and the resulting stress and stigma often makes reentry seem impossible. The unique design of our program identifies potential reentry issues by centering alumni and systems-impacted experts, engages alumni and teaching artists with Virtual Reality developers to create innovative content that is specific to these problems, connects each VR experience with a series of arts exercises tailored to ease the trauma surrounding the event.
Having worked with this population for so many years, we have heard their issues, fears and obstacles and have created this program to directly address them. The unique part that Creative Acts adds to this cutting edge Virtual Reality program is the use of artistic practices, such as theatre, drawn and written art, to address and support the emotional outcomes of returning and the trauma prison life leaves on the human condition as well as breaking down barriers of race and gang affiliation to demonstrably lessen violence and build community.
Therapeutic Art interventions can assist individuals with improving focus, emotional control, and receptiveness for additional interventions. The digital immersive experience of VR will affect:
1. The individual’s ability to redevelop capacity to take in sensory information without being overwhelmed.
2. The individual’s ability to regulate emotional response to sensory input.
3.The individual’s ability to cognitively process the sensory input and emotional response to make proper decisions and solve problems effectively. Measures are Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control, assessment, [Gussak, 2007] hair samples, heart rate, eye movement (biofeedback
Organizational Trainings
Creative Acts is a social justice arts organization that harnesses the transformative power of the arts and virtual reality (VR) as healing tools inside prisons and in reentry spaces. With over 20 years of experience working in some of the most racially divided and trauma-impacted environments in the world, our expert team now offers your organization our revolutionary, arts-based approach to conflict resolution, workplace culture transformation, and culturally responsive engagement.
Our Organization Training courses provide the same creative wellness practices and artistic tools that have empowered incarcerated and returning community members to heal from trauma, reimagine their futures, to foster both individual and organizational well-being to your staff.
What Sets Us Apart?
The Creative Acts Organizational workshops are interactive and fun, as well as transformative and educational. Participants will be invited to work in groups, exploring workplace challenges and systemic issues through arts exercises. Each exercise is designed to encourage a collective approach to resolving problems in the workplace.
Exercises may include:
-Group Poetry
-Drawn Art
-Interactive team-building exercises
-Theatre games
-Improvisation
We help you navigate challenging workplace conversations by building resilience. Our training focuses on difficult conversations, active listening, collaboration, and prioritizing the voices of those most impacted.
Email info@creativeacts.us to for more information or to sign up for a training.
Valley State Prison
Youth Opportunity
Program
“You changed my life”
At the request of the Warden at Valley State Prison, we created a new program to address the behavioral issues the young people incarcerated at the prison were experiencing. As a result of working across the juvenile system, we understand that the issues they face are rooted in trauma, and we crafted a week-long intensive program that merges art and virtual reality to give the resources to address the roots of their behavior, and provide joy and creativity. It was a game-changer!
“Oh my god, the stars! I haven’t seen stars for so long!”
California Men’s Colony
Mental Health Report coming soon!
“I felt out of body. Where we come from being taken out of the ghetto I’m like damn, I thought I’ve seen everything. And to see this!” Corcoran Participant
With the incredible success of our VR Reentry program in solitary confinement, mental health professionals have started to request it as a mental health resource. At the request of mental health professionals at The California Men's Colony Restricted Housing Unit, we created a program that targets the men dealing with deep trauma and mental health challenges in this building. The program design models a full somatic response to trauma, which enables indirect learning through the vehicle of the arts. Our skilled, majority formerly incarcerated teaching artists, build a space of safety and accountability that allows people to self-reflect, take responsibility for their actions and do better. The added advantage of peer learning deepens the trust in the room and the successful outcomes of the work.
“Before this group, my mind and heart were locked in this negative and cold cycle. After this group, I feel like it was the key to unlock that cycle to allow me to let go of my negative perspective and believe in positivity in our world. I have to remind myself of who I AM, not who I WAS." CMC participant.
California Men’s Colony is currently unfunded. If you would like to help us make this program ongoing, please donate here.
D.O.O.R.S. Program -
Reentry in the
Community
Developing Opportunities and Offering Reentry Solutions, or D.O.O.R.S., is a wrap around service for formerly incarcerated people in the community in partnership with LA County Arts and JCOD.
Developing Opportunities and Offering Reentry Solutions (D.O.O.R.S) is an inclusive creative community of innovative resources for those impacted by the justice system-where individuals, their families and the broader community-find healing, support, wellness and hope towards opportunity.
As an organization, we understand the deep connectedness between the arts and healing and have developed roots in our community. Our presence at DOORS has brought a new creative arts and virtual reality program to this community and is developed and run entirely by our formerly incarcerated alumni, led by DOORS Manager and Teaching Artist, Misti Hassan.
Virtual Reality at Central
California Women’s
Facility
Creative Acts recently piloted a new program at America’s largest women’s prison, The Central CA Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, CA. The Warden and Staff asked us to create a program for their Restricted Housing Unit (RHU aka Solitary) as they have no programs. We brought our signature arts and virtual reality approach to a group of ten amazing women in unbelievably difficult circumstances. Our presence offered a reminder that anyone living and working these circumstances is going to be negatively impacted by what they witness and experience daily.
Thanks to our healing justice centered training and the lived experience of our amazing Teaching Artists, we were able to stay on track, despite the obstacles, and be part of a visible culture change in the RHU. Both the women residents - who achieved their own, deep victories, and the staff - who eventually joined in some exercises, were blown away by the behavioral change they saw in the participants.
People in their cells surrounding the Day Room where we worked started joining in, and by mid-week the staff and the women were saying, “Have you noticed how quiet it is now on the tier? They’re changing too!”
In a first for us, some people, who weren’t in the class, started writing 602s (Official complaints) to demand they be allowed to join.
“I've never seen the Sgt. laugh before he played this game with us!”
This program was supported by the @CDCR RIGHT Grant, which was created by @TPW
Virtual Reality at Central California Women’s Facility is currently unfunded. If you would like to help us make this program ongoing, please donate here.