Shakespeare Behind Bars believes it is imperative to create transformational programs that provide at risk youth with the tools they need to work towards a future outside correctional institutions and thereby reduce the rate of youth who will commit crimes that could lead to their spending their adult lives behind bars. The Shakespeare Behind Bars juvenile programs employ the same vision, mission, values, and techniques that have proven successful in the adult program founded in 1995 at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, KY.
On February 4, 2013, Artistic Director Matt Wallace began the new Shakespeare Beyond Bars program at Home of the Innocents, working with students who are the victim of abuse, abandonment and neglect, as well as medically fragile children and children with autism.
In the spring of 2014, Keith McGill and Amy Attaway led a weeklong Shakespeare residency with students of Home of the Innocents which culminated in a final sharing performance.
The program consists of week-long residencies throughout the year working with middle and high school students. The program explores the values and pursues the goals of the SBB program in this critical time of their lives as they work to successfully transition back into society.
The program is funded through the incredible generosity of The Norton Foundation, Inc.
Home of the Innocents, a community of dedicated people and those they serve, provides the skills and opportunities by which vulnerable children, youth and their families may improve their lives.
Home of the Innocents has been our region’s open arms to kids in crisis since 1880. The Home provides loving, therapeutic care to children who are victims of abuse, abandonment and neglect, as well as loving and skilled care to medically fragile children and children with autism. In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, nearly 300 children a day and over 2,100 total children and at-risk families were served through the Home’s residential and community-based programs and services. www.homeoftheinnocents.org
