Louisville, KY
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 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 April 4, 2013, Artistic Director Matt Wallace began the new Shakespeare Beyond Bars program at Uspiritus – Brooklawn Campus with SBB co-facilitator Keith McGill, working with students who need intensive therapeutic support to overcome the effects of abuse, neglect or other family crisis.
SBB Facilitator Keith McGill now facilitates this annual spring program at Uspiritus.
The program meets twice a week with an ensemble of self-selected boys and girls ages 15-18 participating in the program. Facilitators lead the students as they explore the values and pursue the goals of the SBB program in this critical time of their lives as they work to successfully transition back into society.
Uspiritus – Brooklawn Campus is a 28-acre psychiatric residential treatment center for youth, ages 6 to 19, who need intensive therapeutic support to overcome the effects of abuse, neglect or other family crisis. Brooklawn utilizes the Boys Town Psychoeducational Treatment Model when working with young people. Brooklawn’s mission: In response to God’s intent that all persons reach their potential, Brooklawn restores hope to emotionally troubled children and their families by providing comprehensive care, treatment, and education.
For more than 160 years, Bellewood Home and Brooklawn Child & Family Services have worked separately to nurture thousands of Kentucky’s most vulnerable children. Now, they have combined their strengths to provide greater care for foster children and families who depend on them. The boards of the two agencies voted on 12/12/12 to merge and create Uspiritus, a Louisville-based agency serving children and families across the Commonwealth. Uspiritus serves children and youth – from infants to age 22 – with a range of services that includes family preservation counseling and therapy, therapeutic foster care, residential care, psychiatric residential treatment and transitional and independent living. www.uspiritusky.org
The program is funded through the incredible generosity of the Norton Foundation, Inc.
