MISSION

Creative Justice builds community with youth most impacted by the school-to-prison-(to-deportation) pipeline. Participants and mentor artists work together to examine the root causes of incarceration, like systemic racism and other forms of oppression, creating art that articulates the power and potential of our communities.

VISION

Art makes us think and it feeds our spirit. It is also a conduit towards a more just world. By responding to personal and social issues through the creative process, youth and mentor artists engaged in Creative Justice attack systemic issue that contribute to our oppression, while building healing-centered spaces that strengthen the protective factors that help us all to thrive.

A REGIONAL/NATIONWIDE IMPERATIVE

Decades of research show that juvenile incarceration fails—it does not increase public safety; places youth in crises at further risk, dampening their future prospects and ability to thrive; and wastes tax dollars that could be used in much more productive ways. In response, efforts locally and regionally have made remarkable strides decreasing reliance on youth incarceration.

However, not all young people have benefited equally: almost three quarters of juvenile detention admissions in King County are youth of color. Black, Brown and Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by this system. In 2015, local community organizers, led by Black and Brown youth, helped to pass a Seattle City Council resolution calling for “zero use of detention for youth” and employing more community-based alternatives instead.

4Culture and a cohort of community partners developed Creative Justice as an innovative approach to this regional effort.