Empowering Through Art, Music, and Culture

Youth Participation

D3 Arts collaborates with local organizations to provide youth with opportunities to explore art, music, and culture. Through hands-on activities and workshops, young participants develop creative skills while connecting with their cultural roots.

Our Partnership with Lincoln Hills Cares

Each summer, D3 Arts teams up with Lincoln Hills Cares and youth from the Westwood community. Together, they create art for Mikailhuitl, an annual celebration honoring ancestors and traditions.

This collaboration inspires young people to learn about history, culture, and self-expression through meaningful artistic projects.

Full Circle

Full Circle is an integrative program that supports individuals who are recovering their true selves. We use 12-step group meetings, arts instruction, cultural practice and peer counseling to nurture the social and emotional wellness of the individual, family and community.

Full Circle uses the 12-Step meeting to provide reliable structure, support and accountability and the indigenous tradition of the talking circle to create space for deep reflection, open expression and peer support; together, they organically foster trusting relationships, shared language and experience, creativity and healing.

Full Circle generates leadership from within, by relying on peer wisdom, by structuring opportunities for participants to design, evaluate and generate activities, and by developing a community that relies on mutual respect, honesty and co-accountability

Traditional 12-Step Program

Meets 4 times per week for an hour each meeting | A 12-Step Program is a model, derived from Alcoholics Anonymous, that has demonstrated benefits for helping a variety of addictions. Project lead: Santiago Jaramillo.

Peer Counseling

Meets 2-3 times per week for 2 hours | We use the indigenous practice of talking circles or the círculo to foster deeper listening and reflection. Peer-to-peer groups promote long-term recovery, reduce relapse, minimize negative effects during early intervention, and are usually non-threatening to participants.

Arts Training

Projects take place in 3-4 week blocks that occur quarterly. Participants meet 3 times per week for 2 hours | Artistic projects provide entry points that foster social emotional learning, build skills, and help participants to see the world around them in new ways. Participants in arts programs develop a personal drive, discipline to work, and perseverance.

Arts projects may include mural production, painting or the making of traditional Mexica instruments. Instructors will teach technique, skill build and encourage aesthetic interpretation and inquiry. Participants will steer their own projects, design collaborations with one another and plan and organize their own exhibitions.

Art is an effective yet underutilized tool in supporting individuals involved in the criminal justice system and/or suffering from substance misuse. Results include higher order thinking skills, greater emotional self-regulation, a sense of purpose, raised consciousness, and an individual’s belief that they can realize positive changes in their own lives.