FROM INSIDE OUT

FROM INSIDE OUT consists of art teachers and a dynamic supportive board of advisors.  After teaching art as volunteers at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail (ACRJ) since 2005, FROM INSIDE OUT was formed to bring these classes to prisons in central Virginia none of which had art programs. The Director of Programs and Superintendent of ACRJ, both FROM INSIDE OUT board members, and Wardens and Treatment Supervisors of the prisons where the program has operated have expressed the value of these classes; for example, in the jail, programs such as these have reduced the number of inmate on inmate assaults and inmate in staff assaults by 95%.

 HISTORY

 In July 2007, FROM INSIDE OUT received a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and in the fall of 2007 two more grants.  Combined with funds from private donors, these grants made possible  fourteen-week classes at Dillwyn and Buckingham men’s prisons, and Fluvanna women’s prison starting in January 2008.  FIO has since raised enough money from grants (one again from VCA) and donations to teach three more classes. The program has been very successful at all of these prisons and prison officials have expressed strong interest in continuing the project at their institutions.

Since 2007 FROM INSIDE OUT has had an advisory board of twelve members that has assisted in grant writing, creation of an evaluation process for the program, fundraising, non-profit management, and development.