ABOUT

While the number of youth incarcerated in the King County Youth Service (Detention) Center has decreased, racial disparities still persist. In 2014, nearly 75% of youth held in juvenile detention in King County were youth of color. 4Culture and a cohort of community partners developed Creative Justice as innovative arts-based approach to ending racial disproportionality and youth incarceration.

CREATIVE JUSTICE USES ART AS A VEHICLE TO:

  • Prepare young people to be leaders in community and the workplace;

  • Amplify youth voice as a source of community transformation;

  • Promote teamwork, collaboration, and community engagement;

  • Help lift up the power of young people of color, youth from low-income families, and LGBTQA youth;

  • Increase youth and community understanding of the histories and conditions that create racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression;

  • and Enhance skills that help young people reflect on their social position, choices, and personal power so they can stay out of jail.

Creative Justice has established a relationship with King County, including the King County juvenile criminal legal system, and offers arts instruction and healing engaged spaces for court and systems-impacted youth and young adults with an agreement that their time and creative work can be used in mitigating any active court cases or other systemic burdens they may be facing. In this way, Creative Justice asks our legal system, especially the criminal legal system, to behave differently: to view our youth through a wider lens, to trust the community to address its own needs, and to celebrate the strengths, brilliance and creativity of young people navigating a complex world.

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