SECTOR: Arts and Social Justice
EMPLOYEES: 40 Member Organizations
INTRODUCTION
The Arts for Healing Justice Network (AHJN) envisions a future where youth are empowered and systems are transformed using the arts as a catalyst for change. As California’s only arts collaborative serving incarcerated youth, AHJN unites diverse community-based organizations to deliver high-quality arts programming—including creative writing, spoken word, visual arts, theater, digital media, dance, and music—to youth in Los Angeles County detention facilities. This programming builds resilience and wellness, reduces recidivism, and advocates for juvenile justice reform. AHJN uses arts education as a core strategy to address trauma, redirect lives, and support successful reentry, while providing trauma-informed training for institutional staff to promote systems change. The network fosters collaboration among artists, youth, policymakers, funders, nonprofits, and researchers, leveraging the transformative power of the arts for justice and reform.
THE CHALLENGE
AHJN approached Lumos Transforms to support its staff and teaching artists working in probation camps—high-trauma environments where many staff also have lived experience within these systems. AHJN sought training and tools to build resilience skills to mitigate the secondary and vicarious trauma experienced when working with incarcerated youth.
THE SOLUTION
Building Embodied Resilience to Address Trauma
Given the prevalence of trauma-related stress in criminal justice settings, Lumos recommended its Embodied Resilience for Workplace Wellness course. Delivered in early 2023, this training equipped AHJN member organization staff and teaching artists with tools to enhance self-awareness, emotional regulation, and empathic connections to foster healthier relationships and workplace environments. Using the Resilience Toolkit framework, participants developed embodied self-awareness and practiced accessible strategies to manage stress responses in real time. The training also explored vicarious trauma and burnout, emphasizing professional quality of life and supportive boundaries. Two peer practice sessions reinforced these skills, fostering trust, collaboration, and healing through shared experiences and mutual support.
The positive response to the training led AHJN to request additional capacity building sessions. Lumos offered the Foundations of the Embodied Trauma-Informed Resilience-Oriented (eTIRO) Approach, which is centered on the core principles of safety, trust, collaboration, voice, cultural humility, and peer support. Participants examined the impact of interpersonal, historical, and collective trauma on individuals and groups, exploring how trauma manifests physically, emotionally, mentally, and relationally. They learned actionable strategies for implementing eTIRO principles in organizational change efforts, fostering a culture of equity, compassion, and justice. This training built on the embodied resilience skills from the first course, extending their application to individual organizations and AHJN as a whole, with the goal of cultivating a cohesive, value-aligned, and collaborative culture.
THE RESULTS
Increased Resilience and Confidence
After the first course, participants reported increased confidence in identifying and managing stress and trauma responses. They appreciated having tools that helped regulate their nervous systems and enjoyed the autonomy to select practices that worked for them. One participant shared, “Classes like this are essential and should be available to everybody.”
Following the second course, participants gained deeper insights into how embodiment supports boundary-setting, empathy, and addressing vicarious trauma. They also recognized the connection between self-care and their ability to effectively care for others. Participants explored the far-reaching effects of interpersonal, historic, and collective trauma and how to implement the eTIRO framework to create trauma-informed organizations. Peer breakout sessions fostered connection and collective problem-solving, with one participant reflecting,“The more we talk about real things that have happened, the more we don’t feel alone, and the more we can discuss how to move forward.”
A significant number of participants expressed a desire for continued training, with one saying: “Consistently practicing these tools in a safe place is crucial. This should be offered at least a couple of times a year.”
