(Haley Duval/ Kern Sol News)
Kern County’s 5th District Supervisor Letica Perez held a joint press conference with Kern Family Health Care CEO Emily Duran on September 4th. The conference was held to announce a $60,000 donation for the Art Council Of Kern County’s program “Art4Rehabitbtaion”, which targets juvenile youth in Kern County in hope to teach them skills within the arts that can possibly lead to employment and better opportunities upon their release.
“With the help of the dedicated staff at the Kern County Probation Department, this program has already helped dozens of youth and now with the additional funding being provided by Supervisor Perez and Kern Family Health, it will be allowed to continue to grow and change even more lives within our community,” according to the press release.
Emily Duran, CEO of Kern Health Systems said this program is a way to give youth in the juvenile centers in Kern County rehabilitation and a second chance through art.
“We want to transition out of incarceration, but with an opportunity. That’s sometimes what we forget is that the point is to rehabilitate and to be able to. For example, through art, provide a different avenue in life for our youth,” Duran said.
This project takes various forms of the arts that are part of the creative economy into the Apex and Crossroads program through the probation department for young people who are incarcerated according to Executive Director of the Arts Council of Kern, Jeanette Richardson.
“When we first talked about it, it was like a hope and a dream. We could do this. I’ve seen the arts transform lives,” said Richardson.
As of right now, Richardson said the program approximately has about 17 to 24 youth and it’s moving into more.
Richardson shared when it’s time for the youth to leave the program she hopes if people out there want to consider hiring them for a job and to “give them a shot.”
“We had a wonderful young man who was getting ready to be released and he had artistic talent. So we had our mural artists work with him and mentor him and offer him work outside. So he’s still doing well,” Richardson said.
To learn more about the “Art4Rehabitbtaion” program, visit kernarts.org.
