The 3 Lines Collective Joy Initiative

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Our team has a deep understanding of the issue we are seeking to address. We have been conducting workshops for transitional-age youth for two years in San Bernardino County, and Maya has been teaching Improv for individuals of all ages to marginalized communities for seven years. Dr. Shum (Licensed Therapist) and Annette Martinez (Licensed Social Worker) have a combined history of working with individuals in foster care for over twenty years.
Regarding the book on the criminalization & school-to-prison pipeline for black girls, as a black female, I can remember it was always implied to me to not take up space. I was shy, got decent grades, excelled in sports, and didn’t go to one party or do any drugs or drink alcohol, however, I still didn’t escape the criminalization and excessive discipline that black girls in this country experience daily. My goal with this book is to help educate others on this topic and help with this difficult topic that is often overlooked.

The 3 Lines Collective Joy Initiative will be offering free Improv & Creative Writing Workshops and therapy sessions to kids, teens, and transitional-age youth who are currently in foster care or have aged out of foster care. Our goal with these workshops is to enrich the lives of marginalized communities through art classes, and mental health access, and the issues that we will be addressing are healthcare access, support for foster & systems-impacted youth, community safety, and social support networks. In the past we have had similar successful initiatives, however, funding these initiatives is always our biggest hurdle to overcome. This grant would allow us to expand the reach of our work and have a positive impact on more marginalized individuals. This grant will also allow us to conduct academic research/interviews for our next book on the topic of criminalization & the school-to-prison pipeline for Black female adolescents. According to a 2015 report by the African American Policy Forum and Columbia Law School’s Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies; black boys are three times more likely and black girls are six times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts. Whether it’s hair discrimination, or being over-sexualized due to biased dress code regulations, black girls in our education system seem to be fighting a different battle daily that nobody is talking about.

We believe laughter is the best medicine and joy is contagious. The mission of The 3 Lines Collective is to teach art classes to uplift marginalized communities so that members of those communities can then uplift their own community! We also know how important is to to stay busy for a lot of youth, and that a lot of times when teens and young adults get into not the best circumstances is when they have too much free time. Our classes will give attendees something fun to look forward to! Regarding our book, it is not lost on us that a lot of unfair treatment of Black girls happens in educational environments. Our goal with our book is for it to be a resource for educators so that they can improve upon their biases so that the next generation of Black girls are allowed to grow up receiving fair treatment in environments where they are meant to learn.

This is an existing initiative that we will be expanding upon. For the past two years, The 3 Lines Collective has taught our specialized course "Improv for Racial Healing" at the Tay Center in Ontario, CA free of charge. We have measured our success by taking notes on workshop attendees' experiences, conducting surveys, and keeping in contact with the staff who is in direct contact with workshop attendees daily and they have agreed the workshops had a positive impact on the individuals. We will be doing all of the same things for our workshops in Los Angeles County. Another way we have measured our impact is by writing our self-care workbook for teens "Glowing Up", written by Maya Gwynn and Dr. Emily Shum. After the completion of our workshops, we studied the notes that were taken during our workshops and wanted to create something tangible for teens & young adults to have in their self-care journey. Our book was met with praise from teens, teachers, and parents.