Reentry through the Arts Grant

Knitting in Recovery recently received a grant for Reentry through the Arts (RTA) from the California Arts Council (CAC).

Reentry Through the Arts is a new, two-year pilot grant program rooted in the California Arts Council’s belief that the arts are a powerful vehicle for positive change in people, communities and society.  The grant supports high quality arts programs for people who have been convicted of a criminal offense and have served time in correctional institutions. The proposed grant project must have the arts as a central component of a holistic and integrated approach to reentry that also identifies other community-based support services including but not limited to job skills training, job placement, mental health and wellness, drug treatment, and/or case management.

Knitting in Recovery, in collaboration with the Ventura County Arts Council (VCAC), is using this grant to provide workforce training to one of our clients who is on probation and has been clean and sober for over a year.  She lives with her infant son and is a talented crocheter.  Now, she is able to serve others by teaching Knitting in Recovery classes at several of our facilities.

Through the grant, she is able to work at the VCAC Arts Collective in the Pacific View Mall.  At the Arts Collective, she is learning customer service, inventory, point of sale, merchandising, event-planning, and other valuable workplace skills.