Michael Etter

DreamYard / LA

Grant Awarded: $13,449

DreamYard / LA is an arts-based violence intervention and prevention program dedicated to the creative process, as a force for individual and community transformation.

Its mission is to inspire at-risk youth in the juvenile detention facilities, schools and streets of Los Angeles to discover and develop their voices as writers, artists, and human beings. Ultimately, DreamYard / LA aims to create a healing community that unites different racial, ethnic and socio-economic segments of the city around the transformational power of the creative process.

Although DreamYard / LA has been going on for many years, there was still a real need to help people understand the work being done by the organization. There was also a need to create an enduring document of the community thus far. With this in mind, a photo-driven poetry book was chosen as the creative direction. The goal was to interest potential grant-funding and private donors as well as educate the media.