Reenter, stage left

AT THE Dorchester Community Re-entry Center, Evan Gentler, an artist educator, is helping boys who ran afoul of the law produce an underground radio show, to be a podcast on the website of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Gentler says that given the isolation that many youth face - some barely leave their neighborhoods - it's important to give them a sense that their voices can carry beyond their circumstances.

The boys are part of the Creative Transitions Initiative, a state experiment that is using theater, art, and music to help juvenile offenders. Run in seven settings statewide, the program is a way for officials to see what it could take to build a system of high caliber arts programs rooted in the Department of Youth Services.

At the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Creative Transitions funds the salaries of three juvenile offenders. They started doing a variety of jobs, from office work to stage construction. Then each settled into a niche: one works in marketing, one in education, and one became an assistant stage manager for the company's Youth Theatre.

"They're very mature kids who respond well to being treated as professionals," says Cynthia Saunders, the company's director of education.

But funding runs out in a few weeks, and the theater company needs $7,500 in donations to keep these young employees working part-time during the coming school year.

It can be tempting to throw away the carrots and only use sticks with young offenders. But DYS Commissioner Jane Tewksbury says many of her charges have histories of trauma and educational failure. DYS already provides a traditional education. But many youth also need the alternative, supportive learning experiences that the arts can provide. And they have creative talents that are worth developing.

A good DYS arts program could also save public money if it steers more youth away from reoffending. Officials should find ways to track the long-term outcomes of young participants, to prove the program's worth to taxpayers.

Creative Transitions has $100,000, half from the Cultural Council and half matched by DYS. The program is run by the Hampshire Educational Collaborative, a Northampton nonprofit, and the program's efforts and potential are being evaluated by researchers from Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

The next step is for Massachusetts to gather evidence by taking a long-term look at what happens when court-involved youth become involved in the arts.