Art

Justice Policy Institute’s Personas Project

Personas were developed collectively at the Understanding Lived Experience, DC Emerging Adult Justice event in 2023 by local justice policy, advocacy, and community leaders, as well as local District government and agency representatives. Personas were based on data from EAJP’s Emerging Adult Developmental Framework and interviews with DC’s emerging adults and validated by the Young Men Emerging unit at the DC jail. Art by Ovid Gabriel of copewithart LLC. Personas prepared by StrategyForward Advisors, with support from Thrive Under 25 coalition.

Persona card for Brandon, who aspires to finish high school, go to college or trade school, and someday start a business.
Persona card for Donté Benjamin, who aspires to complete high school and get a commercial drivers license.
Persona card for Hope, who aspires to have a permanent job with benefits and buy a house in a better neighborhood with better schools.
Persona card for Calvin, who aspires to become a first generation college student at an HBCU.
Persona card for Delonte, who aspires to be an entrepreneur in a delivery business and support the elderly.
Facilitations and instructions for using the persona card to center Brandon and other justice-impacted emerging adults in policy and practice decisions and actions.
Facilitations and instructions for using the persona card to center Donté and other justice-impacted emerging adults in policy and practice decisions and actions.
Facilitations and instructions for using the persona card to center Hope and other justice-impacted emerging adults in policy and practice decisions and actions.
Facilitations and instructions for using the persona card to center Calvin and other justice-impacted emerging adults in policy and practice decisions and actions.
Facilitations and instructions for using the persona card to center Delonte and other justice-impacted emerging adults in policy and practice decisions and actions.
Mural from the Young Men Emerging (YME) Unit at the Correctional Treatment Facility in Washington D.C.

Mural from the Young Men Emerging (YME) Unit at the Correctional Treatment Facility in Washington D.C.

Recess Art’s Assembly Project

The Assembly program, powered by Recess, is an artist-led diversion program for court-involved emerging adults in Brooklyn. Assembly participants avoid incarceration and the consequences of an adult record while creating art, harnessing energy, and dismantling dominant narratives of “criminal.” Below, find works that were featured at the Emerging Adults & Justice Reform Summit 2019.

These pieces were designed and produced as original book jackets in response to publications circulated in the Blue Lives Matter community — a police-led countermovement created in opposition to the activism of the Black Lives Matter movement — that include titles such as: “Black Lies Matter” and “The War on Cops”. Using screenprinting, digital design, and verbiage from actual police training manuals, Assembly participants have created works that explore the systematic violence and racism that they have witnessed.