Giving At-Risk Youth a Voice
by Amber Adrian

Much is made of theatre's ability to bridge gaps and create empathy, and few communities need this more than incarcerated youth. Voice, perspective and self-esteem are rare commodities for these teens. Sadly, those who most need the benefits art can offer are often the least likely to be exposed to that art. Each One Reach One steps into the gap, running a playwriting program for at-risk youth in alternative schools and incarceration facilities in the Bay Area. It's not branded a cure or a solution, but the program offers troubled kids a new label: playwright.

Robin Sohnen, founder of Each One Reach One, says, "Some of them have never even seen a play. Some are illiterate. Certainly writing is not their top skill, and many are very far behind academically." She continues, "This is an opportunity to experience tremendous success, which is a rarity for them."

Each One Reach One was founded in 1998 and currently works with youth in San Mateo and San Francisco, pairing each teen with a professional artist. With help from their one-on-one mentor, the teens participate in an intensive, two-week playwriting program, where they complete a one-act play. The play is given a staged reading for parents, friends, peers and the community at large. Sohnen notes that they've never had someone fail; if students show up every day for the prescribed two weeks, they finish. She says, "They begin to change their view about themselves, about what's possible."

Mentors are carefully trained not to make suggestions; no one wants to give the students any chance to invalidate their own achievement. If a mentor asks leading questions or unduly influences the process, it's easy for those ever-present insidious thoughts to creep in. The last thing mentors want is for a young writer to stand on stage thinking, "Well, if my mentor hadn't offered this idea, hadn't helped with that scene, I wouldn't have finished."

Mentors help the kids discover what's important to them—what experiences or thoughts have been burning in the backs of their brains. Mentors help their students pull out deeply embedded fears and hopes and turn them into a story. "The mentors are totally there to support them," notes Sohnen. This support is often unprecedented in their lives and can go a long way toward teaching a teen to trust adults.

The plays are all written in metaphor, offering the kids a safe space to delve into past traumas. "Many write very emotional stories," says Sohnen. "The life experience they're having is extreme, and there's not much vehicle for any expression of it." It's not drama therapy, but it often helps kids open up and promotes dialogue with relatives. Sohnen describes of one young man (name withheld for obvious reasons) who wrote a piece about his family. He described a fish in the sea that couldn't stop eating all the salt. He explained that he and his sisters (tadpoles) had to stand up and leave because their mother (the fish) was killing them. After the performance, he stood up and said, "What I learned is that I desperately need someone to love me. So I'm going to let more people in." This brand of self-awareness is extremely valuable--as is the willingness to share it, something most kids don't feel comfortable doing, especially in an institutionalized environment. Sohnen muses, "This two-week process blows the doors off their belief of who they are."

Teens are chosen for Each One Reach One's program by staff at the centers where they're incarcerated. Each One Reach One asks for the kids who really need it, the ones who are convinced they're going to fail. If they're illiterate, mentors take dictation. "Because they have a professional with them, they're enabled to succeed," says Sohnen.

Parents of the playwrights don't have many opportunities to see their children do well, explains Sohnen. "They get to come be part of something their kid has done." The long-term impact is something they can't measure, but mentors do see families in deep discussion after a play. Staff members at the facilities where the kids are kept also see the plays, which allows new insight into the teen's personality and background--a peek into what's rumbling around in their brains. "Their perception can change a bit," says Sohnen.

The system can put kids away for life at 16, sometimes for a crime they didn't commit. Plays written by youth remind people that they are, in fact, just kids, often very traumatized kids. In 1999, Each One Reach One received the National Council on Crime and Delinquency's New American Community Award for its efforts to reduce crime. Teaching a vulnerable population of young people that their voice and their efforts do matter is a type of positive reinforcement not often seen in the justice system. Before leaving the program, each teen is told, "You have taken your spot in a circle of artists. Keep writing. What you have to say is important."

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