Programs

Voices Beyond Bars makes creative writing workshops accessible to young people who are incarcerated or detained. In these workshops, young people learn new tools for coping with stress, moving past trauma, and learning to take responsibility for their actions and emotions.

By helping participants develop fundamental communication skills, Voices UnBroken seeks to aid and better the communities to which these young people will return.

As with all our workshops, participants improve their ability to speak in public, practice creative self-reflection, interpret challenges with a positive mindset, develop a hopeful future outlook, gain a willingness to engage in other essential services (counseling, re-entry, education, etc.), and increase confidence in their voice as a vehicle for change both in their lives and in their communities.

Voices Beyond Bars workshops generally meet for 1½ hours, twice a week for five weeks and culminate in a final reading.

Speaking Our Voices workshops are socially, emotionally, academically, and geographically accessible workshops which introduce young people to practical communications tools.

Voices UnBroken trains facilitators to establish an enjoyable and productive forum for self-expression for teens and young adults in the alternative and transitional environments where our workshops take place.

Writing sessions and group discussions develop participants' comfort with communication, while guided practice reinforces this learning.

The majority of young people who participate in Speaking Our Voices workshops live in restrictive residential facilities that they have been referred to because they are in the foster care system or have pending criminal charges. All Speaking Our Voices workshops take place in partnership with other organizations and agencies.

Speaking Our Voices workshops generally meet for 1½ hours, once-twice a week for 10 weeks and culminate in a final celebration to which families, site staff and other service providers are invited.

Launched in 2011, Voices in Action is a leadership program specifically for girls and young women who have participated in Voices UnBroken workshops and are interested in using their voices to advocate for themselves, their sisters, and for their/our communities.

Voices in Action members are currently working on their first book-length publication which will feature memoirs and poetry and will be distributed to young people who are involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and to the adults who work with them and/or develop policies that impact them.

If you have participated in a Voices UnBroken workshop and are interested in joining Voices In Action, please call us at 718.684.2125 or connect with us on Facebook

The Voices Network is a collective of former workshop participants, young people, teachers, writers, and other artists dedicated to the incorporation of student voices in a supportive community.

The network involves trainings, presentations at workshops and conferences, among other forums. We also use the network to connect participants to community resources.

Voices UnBroken is also a member of the Juvenile Justice Coalition and The Community Justice Network for Youth.

Having our participants' voices exposed to the larger community has always been a part of Voices UnBroken's vision.

Writing by our participants has been featured in many publications including The Daily News and YM Magazine and on local television and radio.

In 2001, we published our first full-length anthology of participant writing, and since then, we have published eight more full-length anthologies. And, in 2005, we began publishing Voices Ink, a 24-page magazine printed twice a year that is distributed throughout the country. We circulate approximately 1,000 copies of each issue.

Click here to download issue 9 of Voices Ink.

Click here to download issue 8 of Voices Ink.

Click here to download issue 7 of Voices Ink.

As a recognized leader in the field of creative arts programming for hard-to-reach populations, Voices UnBroken receives requests to provide aid and services at a level beyond our current capacity. Schools, institutions, and organizations across the country have asked us to replicate our work in their communities. In response to these requests -- and with a desire to make effective creative arts programming tools for youth widely accessible -- Voices UnBroken developed the Write Your Way curriculum, a 120-page book that includes the lessons we've learned from nine years of training facilitators and providing writing instruction.

Please click here to download the Write Your Way Curriculum teaser.

If you are interested in purchasing the curriculum and its companion anthology, please use the button below.

Voices UnBroken is happy to offer custom trainings on how to use the curriculum and, more broadly, on using the arts to engage hard-to-reach youth. We have previously partnered with the Manhattan Borough President's Office, Community Word Project, and the Fund for the City of New York to offer these trainings. Please contact us if you are interested in arranging a training at your school, organization and/or corporation.