FRESH START
Transition and Transformation
Fresh Start is an arts education intervention program designed to reduce recidivism rates for incarcerated juveniles. Designed to help adolescents currently in the justice system develop the means to map out the next steps in their lives, Fresh Start uses the expressive power and discipline of the performing arts.
Fresh Start piloted in May 2018 in response to New York State’s “Raise the Age” reforms. Starting at the nearby Hudson Adolescent Offender Facility (HOAF), incarcerated teenagers worked through creative and challenging exercises that helped them tell their own stories, discover more about themselves, and explore new means for expressing their wants, needs, and desires. In doing so, the inmates reflected on the choices they made in the past and how to make better ones in the future.
In January 2019, Kaneza Schaal, recipient of a grant from the Ford Foundation/Art for Justice Fund, assumed responsibility for the curriculum. The program also scaled to 4 facilities operated by NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). The program is now delivered in partnership with teaching artists from Oye Group, led by Modesto "Flako" Jimenez.
In addition, LUMBERYARD brings world-class performers such as Savion Glover and Rachel Chavkin for one-day workshops. Providing working artists with access to work with incarcerated youth is a valuable service that LUMBERYARD is uniquely positioned to facilitate. Our relationships with DOCCS and OCFS are highly valuable for navigating and negotiating the administrative details to coordinate access for NYC’s leading performing artists who are eager to participate in this impactful program.
Professionals and the participants themselves know the program is working through the visible change of attitude and behavior. It’s even having an effect on choices participants make about their time after incarceration. We can see more responsible choices and growth beyond previous bad choices.
Fresh Start programming is supported by the following funders: New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Heineman Foundation for Research Educational, Charitable and Scientific Purposes, Inc., the Hover Foundation, and Hudson River Bank Trust. Your support is also greatly needed, appreciated, and tremendously helpful to these young people.
Fresh Start proves that art really can change your life.
In response to New York State’s 2017 Raise the Age legislation, we approached the NY State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to initiate an arts intervention program for court-involved youth at Hudson Adolescent Offender Facility (HAOF). In May 2018, we piloted the program to 13 boys ages 16-17. We worked with HAOF to develop evaluation criteria that aligned with their and Raise the Age objectives. Participants demonstrated increases across 11 metrics of instruction, behavior, and performance including willingness to try new activities, demonstrated self-expression, and full participation.
In 2019, we expanded the program to include the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) juvenile detention facilities, adding the Columbia Secure Center for Girls, Goshen Secure Center, and Highland Residential Center. The program went on hiatus in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with detention facilities pausing all external services. Programming resumed at Brentwood Residential and Highland Residential in July 2021.
In 2022, Fresh Start is currently being delivered at Brentwood again, with 8 sessions provided in April 2022, 12 sessions in May-July 2022 exclusively for female residents, and an “intensive” 3-month module of 16 sessions from September-November.
Film Screenings:
On 16 October 2018, as part of the Fresh Start program, LUMBERYARD arranged two screenings of Raised in the System, the extended premiere episode of the sixth season of HBO’s Emmy-winning weekly news magazine series VICE.
The audiences were juvenile inmates and staff at two New York State Corrections facilities: Hudson Correctional and Greene Correctional.
After both sessions, Dominic Dupont, who is featured in the documentary, engaged in an extensive question and answer session with the inmates. Mr. Dupont served 20 years, 7 months, and 18 days before his sentence was commuted by Governor Cuomo, based on Mr. Dupont’s positive work while incarcerated.
Mr. Dupont clearly conveyed to the inmates the key message of the Fresh Start program: to have a chance to survive prison and to succeed upon release, you have to have a plan for self-improvement, and you have to be committed to sticking with that plan, no matter the obstacles you face.
Feedback from the inmates and staff was strong and positive, with questions ranging from:
— How long did it take you to decide to change after you got to prison?
— What kept you going?
— Did jail make you a man?
— What was the first thing you did after you got out of prison?
— Where did you serve time?
