Background Statement
2020 and Beyond: As needs change, so too does our programming. In early 2020, strategic planning identified and added a new focus to our work: to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. The pipeline is a charged and complicated issue, but we found it affecting youth everywhere we operated. That is, not just in the juvenile detention centers but also in the schools and communities we serve.
In short, ensuring “safe” schools through 1. Zero Tolerance Policies, and 2. increased police presence in public schools have led to minor infractions being treated as criminal offenses. The result is drastic, exclusionary punishment ranging from detention to incarceration. Once students have been affected, they are often trapped.
Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse, or neglect and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and pushed out.
Through studies of the issue and consultation with lead researchers in the field, we have learned that Mirror Image Arts can have a real impact. SEL and theatre can create safe, honest spaces where youth can build and maintain positive relationships with adults and their peers. They can process their challenges and trauma and work toward healing.