OUR PROGRAMS

Art Attacks!

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. As of 2022, we operate this program in 100% of 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. Even with the obstacles presented by the pandemic, our relationship of trust with Probation allowed us to build a curriculum over Zoom, enhanced by dropping off arts supplies to our participating prisons, and resulted in a 100% voter turnout from participants!

Virtual Reality Reentry Program

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 Maximum Yards, which will have a fundamental effect on the re-entry space.

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, and executes classes that bring artists, technicians, and wellness experts together.

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 intervention can assist individuals with improving focus, control, mood 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

We are currently working on ways to continue to serve our community with this program amid the prison closures and disruption caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.

Organizational Trainings

Creative Acts is a social justice arts organization. With over 15 years of experience teaching in the most racially divided place on Earth, prison, co-founder Sabra Williams and her team are bringing their revolutionary, arts-based approach to diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism- to train corporations and organizations like yours!

What Sets Us Apart?

The Creative Acts Organizational workshops are interactive and fun as well as being transformative and educational. Participants will be invited to work in groups, exploring the challenges of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and systemic racism through arts exercises that encourage a group approach to anti-racism in the workplace.

Exercises may include:

-Group Poetry
-Drawn Art
-Interactive team-building exercises
-Theatre games
-Improvisation and dramatic readings

Our focus is not only on learning how to combat racism within your organization and the world at large, but also on building resilience to difficult conversations, and learning how to listen, work together, and center the voices of the most affected in conversations about diversity and race in your organization.

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!”

This program is currently unfunded- if you would like to help us make it ongoing, please donate here:

D.O.O.R.S. Program

Developing Opportunities and Offering Reentry Solutions, or D.O.O.R.S., is a wrap around service for formerly incarcerated people in the community. D.O.O.R.S. provide several services, and they have now brought in an arts component, which is us!

We are initiating a new arts contract, this allows us to stand firm in our wholistic approach to reentry that includes the arts. This program is fully run by formerly incarcerated staff and teaching artists. It has been a critical way for us to implement our innovative arts programming outside of actual prison walls. 

This last session we had our first graduates, Tarik Clark and Kenneth Pinto!

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