Poetic Justice Begins Recruitment

This week, Poetic Justice will begin recruitment as part of the Byrne’s Criminal Justice Innovation grant awarded to John Boner Neighborhood Centers, along with co-applicant Shepherd Community Center, in 2018. 

The Byrne’s Criminal Justice Innovation grant, as awarded by the US Department of Justice, supports, “the Department’s priority to reduce serious and violent crime, including gun violence; dismantle gang activity; and strengthen local capacity to combat drug abuse.” In particular, the grant awarded to near eastside organizations, John Boner Neighborhood Centers and Shepherd Community, focuses on workforce development and alternative interventions for those who have been previously incarcerated or who are at risk of being incarcerated. Working within a very specific geography, the BCJI grant funds allow these organizations to concentrate community based crime reduction efforts into historic crime hotspots in the area. 

Outside of the workforce development efforts that will be conducted through local Centers for Working Families (CWFs), the alternative interventions will include the Poetic Justice program. Poetic Justice will be a 15-week pro­gram that pro­vides cre­ative writ­ing and com­mu­ni­ty arts train­ing to gen­er­ate peace, fos­ter joy, and re­duce vi­o­lence. Dur­ing Po­et­ic Jus­tice, par­tic­i­pants will prac­tice writ­ing, de­vel­op cre­ative re­spons­es to com­mu­ni­ty challenges, ex­pand ways of dis­cov­er­ing abun­dance, and gen­er­ate so­cial change. Par­tic­i­pants will also re­ceive cer­tifi­cates in as­set-based com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment and com­plete the pro­gram as pub­lished au­thors and artists. At the end of the program, Po­et­ic Jus­tice artists will host a com­mu­ni­ty arts event and will re­ceive sup­port for their own com­mu­ni­ty arts project. Par­tic­i­pants will meet once a week for 15 weeks. Ses­sions will last ap­prox­i­mate­ly 90 min­utes. We will pro­vide bus pass­es to meet­ing lo­ca­tions. Food and bev­er­ages will also be pro­vid­ed dur­ing each ses­sion.

This program will be facilitated by Marian professor, Mark Latta, and will launch later this Spring. 

To apply to Poetic Justice, click here.

To contact Mark Latta: mlatta@marian.edu