The potential impact of Collision Project programming in the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice

The cause for justice involvement can vary although research has shown that young adults in confinement often suffer from some sort of polyvictimization. These traumas, left untreated can have negative effects on recidivism, or return to the justice system, because confinement only worsens personal development. This presentation includes ethnographic research from my experience as a peer leader in the Kennesaw State University Metro Collision Project. I will support my discoveries with similar national projects described in William Cleveland’s “Art in Other Places: Artists at work in America’s Community and Social Institutions.” The Metro Collision Project aims to change the trajectory of justice-involved Atlanta youth in Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice. Our methodology, which we call the “collision” model, consists of the collision between person and art. Throughout the collision project, students in the Metro Atlanta justice center can explore iconic texts to use as inspiration for their own original stories. Our expected outcome is that this program will serve as an outlet to heal from life-altering traumas, so justice-involved youth may thrive as individuals upon re-entry to their communities