LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network (AIYN), a nonprofit collaborative that uses arts to heal youth and change the systems that serve them, announced today it is welcoming a new name and new leadership reflective of the organization’s impact, growth, and future. Effective October 1, Associate Director Elida Ledesma will be promoted to Executive Director as the organization embraces the new name Arts for Healing and Justice Network.
The new name was the result of a deeply thoughtful, collaborative, and inclusive process – one that prioritized youth voices and their central relationship to the organization. The process also exemplified the organization’s networked approach with its member agencies, advisory council, and other valued community partners.
“Our success and evolution over the last five years has outpaced our original name,” said AIYN Board Chair Fabian Debora. “Arts for Healing and Justice Network better represents the organization’s significant growth and more accurately showcases who we are today, in this we continue to aspire and embrace the values that gave birth to this organization since day one.”
Founded in 2015 with the first-ever multidisciplinary arts program for incarcerated youth in LA County, AIYN’s original name reflected what was then a radical proposition of integrating arts system-wide into youth detention settings. Even as the organization has demonstrated success with implementing this program and shifting perceptions, AIYN has continued to challenge assumptions, reimagine systems, and inspire new approaches to serving youth and strengthening communities.
Over the last five years, AIYN has expanded its reach to include support for successful youth development and reentry, and new programs focused on youth leadership, advocacy, and collaboration. AIYN has also been working with emerging arts and justice collaboratives outside of California that are replicating AIYN’s proven model of community-centered networks grounded in arts and cultural engagement. Collectively, this evolution and expansion has resulted in a deeper, more connected community presence here in LA County, greater access to public dollars for smaller community-based organizations, and an increasing national role as a leader in the movement for centering arts in youth and community wellbeing, and in juvenile justice reform.
As the organization continues this trajectory of growth, the Board has unanimously voted to elevate rising leader Elida Ledesma to the role of Executive Director. Elida succeeds Kaile Shilling, who is moving into a new role as Founder and Senior Advisor supporting this transition.
“I am humbled and energized to step into the position of Executive Director and continue stewarding our mission under the new banner of Arts for Healing and Justice Network,” said Elida Ledesma. “The future is bright as we implement the next phase of our strategic vision and redouble our efforts to build resiliency and wellness, eliminate recidivism, and transform the juvenile justice system.”
AIYN envisions a future where youth are empowered and the systems that serve them are transformed by using arts as a foundational strategy and catalyst for change. In the years ahead, the organization will continue to expand its reach and impact in each of its four focus areas: arts education, training, advocacy, and collaboration. Specific initiatives include bringing healing-informed arts practices – not just as intervention, but as prevention – to new partners like the County Departments of Youth Development & Diversion, Mental Health, Public Health, the Office of Child Protection, and school districts, among others. The organization will also be moving its headquarters to the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles at the end of the year, a new space that will serve as a hub for the work of building community power, equity, and access.
“Elida is the right leader at the right time for AIYN,” said Kaile Shilling, the organization’s founding Executive Director. “Elida’s history of achievement with the organization, her earned trust and respect of members, staff, and partners, as well as her clear vision for its future make her the ideal leader to ensure the organization and the work continue to grow, to thrive, and to live more deeply into its founding values and purpose.”
A Southern California native and longtime social justice leader, Elida Ledesma has been an integral member of AIYN’s staff for the entirety of the organization’s lifespan. Most recently, Elida has served as the Associate Director, overseeing the creation of a shared theory of practice, and ongoing trainings for members and county agencies, in addition to managing the organization’s daily operations. During her tenure at AIYN, Elida received a County of Los Angeles Commendation from Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and a Certificate of Congressional Recognition from Congressman Ted W. Lieu for her participation in the Changemaker Challenge through the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Elida was selected as a 2016-17 Arts for LA Activate fellow and received a Certificate of Recognition from District 14 for her participation as an Arts Day LA Delegate. Additionally, Elida was awarded the Delta Omega Award for Innovative Curriculum for co-developing, “We Gon’ Be Alright: Addressing Racism and Anti-Black Violence as a Public Health Crisis,” a curriculum for graduate level studies. Elida also co-wrote and published the article, “Health Implications of Housing Assignments for Incarcerated Transgender Women” in the American Journal of Public Health and earlier this year was inaugurated into Delta Omega’s Honor Society in Public Health. Elida holds a Master’s in Public Health from UCLA with a concentration in Community Health Sciences.
###
About Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network
The Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network (AIYN) is an interdisciplinary collaborative that provides exceptional arts programming in order to build resiliency and wellness, eliminate recidivism, and transform the juvenile justice system. Founded in 2015, AIYN is the only arts collaborative for incarcerated youth in the state of California, and provides structure, coordination, and support to arts organizations serving youth in the Los Angeles (LA) County juvenile justice system. Under AIYN, 13 member agencies serve youth in detention in LA County, providing high-quality arts education that includes creative writing, spoken word, visual arts, theater, digital media, dance, and music. This work now extends beyond the 22 Probation-run facilities AIYN serves throughout LA County, to include support for successful youth reentry and expanded community programs. For more information, visit https://www.aiynetwork.org/.
AIYN’s 13 member agencies are: Actors’ Gang, Armory Center for the Arts, artworxLA, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, InsideOUT Writers, Jail Guitar Doors, Rhythm Arts Alliance, Somos LA Arte, Street Poets Inc, Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural/Young Warriors, Unusual Suspects Theatre Company, Versa-Style Dance, and WriteGirl/Bold Ink Writers.