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About Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice promotes peace and community resilience through poetry, uplifting poets as change catalysts.
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About

Personal development
Welcome to Poetic Justice, a transformative project dedicated to cultivating peace, understanding, and community resilience through the power of poetry. In a world where discussions about crime prevention often overshadow the importance of nurturing peace, Poetic Justice offers a fresh perspective, advocating for peacebuild-ing as the ultimate goal, rather than merely a reduction of violence.

Poetry

Value of poetry
At Poetic Justice, we harness the universal language of poetry to explore our individual selves, our communities, and the relationships we aspire to build with others. Poetry serves as a vehicle for processing trauma, making sense of the incomprehensi-ble, and fostering collective dreams and aspirations. Through verse, we come togeth-er to grieve, celebrate, remember, and envision a better world.

Community

Poets do more than just describe the world they envision– they actively create it. That's why at Poetic Justice, we empower each poet to become a catalyst for change, training and inspiring others in their communities. Our unique approach combines asset-based community development training with writing support, equipping partic-ipants with the tools and confidence to effect positive change in their neighborhoods

Vision

Our vision is simple: a poet on every block. Instead of solely focusing on counting instances of violence and crime, let's shift our perspective to recognize and celebrate peace and possibilities. Through Poetic Justice, participants emerge as published poets and trained asset-based community leaders, ready to champion peace, joy, and community development in their own neighborhoods.
A Poetic Theory of Change Based on Peace and Abundance
We use poetry to explore essential questions and cultivate protective factors such as social connectedness, self actualization, and community leadership. Then, we begin to write about the world we want to live in and help create. Creative and personal writing provide significant benefits to personal health and community safety. Finally, we integrate asset-based community development training and provide funding so participants can act on their visions of local change. At the end of each Poetic Justice cohort, we publish an anthology of writing and celebrate their asset-based community projects. Each member of Poetic Justice emerges as a published author and community leader certified in asset-based community development.
Poetic Justice operates on the theory that none of us need to be perfect before we can do good. Rather than tracking violence and crime, we measure progress by the number of poets in each neighborhood and by the willingness of residents to lead small-scale change projects. We operate from a theory that eveyone has gifts and talents that can be used to create peaceful communities. Rather than focus on deficits and damage, we focus on abundance and desire.

Join poetic justice

Join us in our mission to reimagine our communities, one verse at a time. Together, let's count what's truly valuable – let's count peace and poets.
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Seeking Recruits and Organizational Partners

We also seek community organizations and service-providers to host a Poetic Justice cohort. Organizations who currently work with clients and individuals who would benefit from peacebuilding, writing, and social leadership training are encouraged to contact us for more information. Funding and support will be provided. Contact Januarie York at The Learning Tree, for more information.

Funding Acknowledgment

  • Poetic Justice is funded through the Elevation Grant Program, a partnership between the Indianapolis Foundation, Mayor Joe Hogsett, and the City-County Council with federal funding from the City of Indianpolis' allocation out of the Coronovirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, CFDA No.21.027, created by Section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan Act, Pub. L. No. 117-2 (March 11, 2021)..