Lifting the humanity of our incarcerated youth

Dear John xxxxxx,

Since my own release from prison, my greatest passion has been mentoring youth in juvenile hall. With so much of their lives ahead of them, incarcerated youth need to feel that someone not only believes in them, but genuinely cares for them—and that there is hope. This is why I mentor young men and women in Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall each Saturday, and why we are planning to bring them pizza to celebrate on New Year’s Eve.

For kids in Ventura Youth Correctional Facility, there was a special treat right before Christmas: 11 incarcerated young men and women were taken to the Lakers’ practice facility to ball with the team. Their 8-hour respite from incarceration was part of the Represent Justice campaign, which supports the January 10th release of ARC founder Scott Budnick’s film Just Mercy.

The film’s star, Michael B. Jordan, showed up and dedicated two hours of his time to give love, inspire, and dig deep with the young people. The Lakers blessed them with new Lebron shoes, jerseys, and swag. Lakers Legends Robert Horry and Metta World Peace coached a 5-on-5 Play for Justice game and participated in a roundtable discussion with the youth, Represent Justice surrogates, and ARC members. Finally, current Lakers came out for a session with the youth.

The youth are all back in the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility now—but temporarily and with hope, inspiration and a continued path of transformation. All are coming home soon. All 11 were picked because they are computer coders, college students and mentors—all while behind bars. Four of them were kids that Scott or I had mentored personally.

During the roundtable, speaking to the youth Michael B. Jordan quoted Bryan Stevenson, “You are not the worst thing you’ve ever done. Your legacy begins now with what you do with your lives.”

Many thanks to Michael, the Lakers, LeBron James, Troy Daniels, Kyle Kuzma, Dwight Howard, and more for all the love and support. And thank you, Scott, for relentlessly and creatively lifting up the humanity of incarcerated people.

But most of all, THANK YOU for empowering ARC to do this transformative work. Your support gives tangible hope to men, women, and youth that most of our society has discarded.

As you make your final charitable contributions in 2019, please keep in mind the enormous impact you can have by contributing generously to ARC. ([link removed][UNIQID])

And know that your impact will be doubled by generous ARC board members Paul Blavin and Damon Lindeloff, who will match dollar-for-dollar all gifts made by December 31, 2019.

So, this is the time to give as generously as you can to ARC! ([link removed][UNIQID])

Thank you in advance for your continued generosity and partnership.

Sincerely yours,

Sam Lewis
Executive Director
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