Artful Solutions: Pathways From Homelessness
In 2007/2008, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the L.A. County Quality and Productivity Commission’s Productivity Investment Fund to implement an 18-month pilot program, Artful Solutions: Pathways from Homelessness grant initiative. This initiative was the nation's first regional effort to include the arts as an important component of support services for homeless populations and to provide data that can be used in the future to help solve the challenges of homelessness. To download the report on the initiative, Artful Solutions: Creativity, Self-Worth and the Path from Homelessness click here.
The Arts Commission awarded five pilot grants of $18,000 to arts organzations that partnered with a housing, shelter or social service agency to provide homeless individuals or families with quality arts programming. The partnership was central to the objective of the initiative, to stabilize the lives of participants and improve their access to permanent housing. Grantees and their partners were:
Armory Center for the Arts in partnership with Union Station
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in partnership with My Friend's Place
Imagination Workshop in partnership with New Directions
Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) in partnership with Lamp Community
Venice Arts: In Neighborhoods in partnership with Ocean Park Community Center
(OPCC)
This initiative supports the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' Homeless Prevention Initiative, which funds a variety of projects within the County to address homelessness by providing housing and supportive services to those at risk of and/or experiencing homelessness. Click here for the full press release.
