New Earth: Alternatives to Incarceration

Dr. Harry Grammer is an educator, activist, scholar, poet and founder of New Earth. As Founder and President of New Earth, Harry brings his leadership and visionary spirit, along with an extensive background in teaching poetry, advocacy and empowerment to incarcerated and system-impacted youth. As a result of spending five years on juvenile probation himself, Harry found his purpose in life: to help other justice-involved involved youth build a brighter future for themselves. Harry has personally worked directly with over 20,000 youth and has a stellar track record of reducing recidivism. In 2017, Harry was named a CNN Hero, and in 2018 was selected as one of 20 inaugural Obama Foundation Fellows. He recently earned his Ph.D. in Community, Liberation and Eco-Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Harry has led New Earth for over 16 years, but his work is far from over as cycles of injustice continue to impact youth.

Los Angeles County is home to the largest juvenile justice system in the world. The revolving doors of prison can be hard to escape, but New Earth is the alternative to incarceration for LA County youth. New Earth is a community-based re-entry organization providing a trauma-informed wrap-around service model for youth ages 13-25 who are impacted by the justice and/or foster care systems. The organization’s proven approach diverts youth from the criminal justice system, breaking cycles of recidivism and poverty by providing comprehensive services and preparing young people for high-growth career pathways. New Earth is proud to have a less than 7% recidivism rate for program participants. New Earth believes in the limitless potential of youth, equipping young people to overcome the traumas they have faced and create a new vision for their futures as well as for the future of humanity.

On an average day, over 800 youth are incarcerated in LA County and more than 5,500 are on probation. Justice-involved youth in LA County come largely from communities of color characterized by decades of systemic injustice, over-policing and racism leading to high concentrations of poverty, violence and gang activity. New Earth serves youth at a critical stage, including youth who are on probation, recently released from juvenile detention, or who have been system-impacted (foster system, juvenile justice system and/or homeless youth). Upon release from juvenile detention, many return to their old neighborhoods with few resources to help them successfully reintegrate into society, or to address barriers to success such as difficulty re-enrolling in school or finding employment. In addition, COVID-19 compounds issues such as food insecurity and economic instability that disproportionately impact New Earth’s youth and their families.

The United States incarcerates more children than any country in the world, and an estimated 70% of juvenile offenders will be incarcerated again as adults. New Earth’s programming seeks to change these statistics, and the organization’s success has inspired reform, transformation and creative alternatives to incarceration around the state of California. Ultimately, New Earth aims to inspire continued transformation across the nation. 

New Earth’s comprehensive wrap-around service model is actively providing innovative community-based alternatives to incarceration for youth in Los Angeles. As conversations about defunding the police and investing in community-based alternatives to law enforcement and incarceration are happening across the country, New Earth’s 16 years of experience with young people offers a model for communities across the nation.

Youth who are on probation, recently released from detention, or who have been system-impacted can access a full spectrum of trauma-informed services at New Earth’s Arts and Leadership Center community location. The one-stop-shop youth reentry center includes a charter high school diploma program, mental health services, clinical case management, arts and leadership education, mentorship, life skills training, paid social enterprise job training, and career placement. Since COVID-19, the center also provides a weekly food pantry for the greater Los Angeles community.

In addition, New Earth has partnered with the Culver City Police Department and the County of Los Angeles to develop a youth-centered diversion program. Through this program, young people are referred to New Earth in lieu of arrest when possible, limiting their interaction with the justice system through pre-arrest diversion. This pilot program is scalable and could be replicated across the country. 

New Earth provides services to approximately 800 system-impacted youth annually, ages 13-25. Since the organization’s inception, New Earth has served over 20,000 youth across the greater Los Angeles County region. The youth served by New Earth are almost exclusively low-income and are at high risk for entering or (re-entering) the juvenile justice system. The individuals served are approximately 54% African American, 43% Latinx, 2% Asian and 1% White. Approximately 65% are male and 35% are female.

New Earth has always prioritized a trauma-informed approach to all of the organization’s programming. Trauma-informed programming is grounded in and directed by a thorough understanding of the neurological, biological, psychological, and social effects of trauma and the prevalence of these experiences in youth who experience the justice and foster care systems. Trauma-informed care is a person-centered response focused on improving an individuals’ all- around wellness rather than simply treating symptoms of trauma.

In partnership with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and its team of Leadership Alumni, New Earth developed an assessment tool called F.R.E.E.E. that measures key outcomes for program participants: Formally off Probation, Regularly Housed, Educational Advancement, Employability, and Emotional Stability.

Aligned with the Elevate Prize’s commitment to ensure all people have access to vital services and safe environments to live and prosper, New Earth is daily making this a reality for hundreds of system-impacted young people. With funding from the Elevate Prize, Dr. Harry Grammer and New Earth have the energy, ideas, and proven solutions to elevate the skills and dreams of one of the most disenfranchised populations in the United States and inspire transformational change that will have a multi-generational positive impact.   

Dr. Harry Grammer tells the story behind this project in his own words, sharing: “I was one of these young people. I spent five years on juvenile probation as a young man, was a teenage father, left home at 18 years old, and was a college drop out. I also spent time in homelessness, and during that period I had a lot of time to reflect on my life. And as a result, I found myself reflecting on giving back to my community, looking at how young people in our community lived and died, and knowing how badly things needed to change for them. That set everything else into motion.” 

New Earth’s work began with Dr. Grammer teaching poetry for self-expression and healing in juvenile detention facilities, having the audacity to think that something out of the box like arts education could help youth transform their lives and break cycles of incarceration. “I realized that providing young people who may have traveled down the same path as I did with the services, the mentorship and the support they need to pull themselves out of the system would help set them on a road to success.”

New Earth was founded on the belief that opportunities for success should be made available to all young people equally––regardless of their racial, economic and/or “criminal” backgrounds––as we are all born with the limitless potential to elevate humanity. New Earth’s founder, Dr. Harry Grammer, was himself impacted by the juvenile justice system. His passion comes from knowing that if he had had committed and caring adults with lived experiences in his life at the time that he was dealing with his struggles as a young person, then his life would have been easier and his direction would have been clearer. Harry is committed to providing that level of support to every young person that walks through New Earth’s doors.

New Earth maintains a less than 7% recidivism rate, meaning that at least 93% of youth served are not re-incarcerated. This success has further driven New Earth’s leadership to expand its programming, with the ultimate vision of transforming juvenile justice systems nationwide.

Founded in 2004, New Earth began by providing mentor-based creative arts and educational programming in Los Angeles County juvenile detention facilities. Since its inception, New Earth has served youth in as many as 18 detention camps and halls at one time (some of these facilities are now closed). In 2012, New Earth added post-release reentry services to support successful transitions into the community after incarceration and therefore further combat recidivism. In September 2015, the New Earth Arts and Leadership Center (NEALC) opened in Culver City, CA to house all operations and post-incarceration programming. The center represents a landmark achievement for the organization and is still the only youth reentry center in Los Angeles. Since opening the center, over 350 young people have received programs and services at the NEALC and 70% have been placed in jobs. In addition, over 84 young people have graduated with their fully accredited high school diploma and 93% of those served have remained free from re-incarceration. 

New Earth has a full clinical case management team lead by a staff Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and works to keep the staff very diverse with the intention of providing mentors that youth can identify with. New Earth was and remains the first and only youth reentry center in Los Angeles, and is one of very few Black-founded and led organizations in the field. As such, New Earth is fully equipped to continue delivering our innovative and impactful services to help young people transform their lives.

When the COVID-19 outbreak hit, New Earth had a choice to either stop operations and potentially shut its doors or pivot and respond to the increased food insecurity and economic insecurity facing youth and their families. New Earth quickly pivoted existing wrap-around services to meet social distancing requirements, and added a weekly food pantry and grocery delivery service. New Earth is currently delivering fresh groceries and essential baby supplies to over 100 families each week, as well as offering an on-site weekly food market that is free and open to the greater Los Angeles community.

Despite a great deal of the organization’s funding being reduced due to the pandemic economic context, New Earth found innovative solutions to meet the need. New Earth immediately convened a network of partnerships with local farms and food distributors that have otherwise lost their market demand due to restaurant closures, and would have been forced to destroy their surplus. New Earth is uniquely positioned to connect the healthy produce and essential groceries with families facing food insecurity, while also hiring youth through the organization’s social enterprise job training program to provide youth paid job training experience to lead and implement the program.

In 2017, Dr. Harry Grammer was approached by the Chief Officer of the Los Angeles County Probation Department to embark on a groundbreaking project in partnership with Los Angeles County– the repurposing and transformation of a former youth probation camp into a residential vocational training institute that would be operated solely by New Earth. In the months and years to follow, Harry and the New Earth team developed the framework and model for what would be a unique six-month career training immersion for system-impacted youth ages 18-25, many of whom were disconnected from school or work. This vision was presented by Dr. Harry Grammer in a 2018 TEDx talk in Santa Barbara.  Unfortunately, due to a shift in the LA County Board of Supervisors’ priorities moving from youth development to mental health, and the resignation of the Chief Probation Officer, the project is currently on hold. Still, the County, recognized and affirmed Harry’s leadership when he was called upon to partner in designing a project of this scope and size and New Earth remains committed to pursuing the project.

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Los Angeles County has set a justice reform goal of eliminating all juvenile detention facilities by 2025. With compounding factors from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing national conversations around alternatives to law enforcement interventions, alternatives to incarceration are now more crucial than ever. New Earth IS the positive alternative to incarceration for LA County’s youth. New Earth continues to build on 16 years of experience by creating new and innovative opportunities to help youth gain transferable and competitive job skills to fight recidivism factors and compete in an increasingly challenging job market.

Often the jobs that formerly incarcerated young people can access are entry-level or manual labor jobs with little growth potential, perpetuating cycles of poverty and incarceration. New Earth’s social enterprise job training model equips youth with critical soft skills and transferable job skills, providing pathways to enter high-growth career fields including technology, digital media, and more.  By investing in youth to learn skills for high-growth career opportunities, New Earth aims to help youth see their worth and envision their potential in new and empowering ways.

If given the chance to scale, New Earth’s comprehensive wrap-around service model including social enterprise job training pathways will provide the opportunity to create almost unlimited possibilities and opportunities for system-impacted youth from across LA County who currently do not have access to a training program of this type created to meet their individual and complex job training needs.

New Earth believes that all young people deserve dignity, respect, and equal opportunity. New Earth believes that education, arts, mentorship and jobs are critical in keeping youth engaged, inspired, and free from gang involvement. New Earth believes in the limitless potential of our youth to become leaders when provided consistent and healthy guidance, and support.

New Earth’s theory of change, in part, is based on the concept of a continuum of youth interventions that leads to long-term transformation. In a hierarchy of needs format, New Earth believes that first one’s psychological needs must be addressed, followed by substance abuse, complex trauma & gang entrenchment, health needs, learning abilities & gaps in education, and finally a renewed vision of self.

New Earth’s basic logic model includes:

Activities: Trauma-informed wrap-around services including high school diploma program, mental health services, clinical case management, mentorship, arts education, social enterprise job training, and career placement.

Objectives:

• Serve at least 125 youth each year in LA County juvenile detention facilities, providing case management and holistic programming for reentry support
• Enroll approximately 100 students annually to complete their High School diploma while receiving clinical case management and support
• Provide employment for at least 70 youth annually through New Earth’s social enterprises
• Provide essential weekly groceries for at least 100 families during COVID-19
• Mentor at least 100 reentry & diversion youth annually to advocate for their needs during this economically challenging time

Outcomes:

• Maintain a less than 7% recidivism rate for program participants
• At least 95% of youth served will report that New Earth’s programs made a positive impact on their lives, evidenced by improved reading and writing skills and enhanced self-confidence and life skills
• At least 99% of youth in New Earth’s post-release programs will successfully transition back into the community, evidenced by obtainment of a high school diploma or employment

The long-term outcomes of New Earth’s program include economic mobility through transferable job skills and high-growth career placements, decreased recidivism rates in LA County, and cycles of poverty and violence broken for young people and their families. New Earth's vision is to end the cradle-to-prison pipeline.

Current number of people served: New Earth serves an estimated 800 youth annually, including inside juvenile detention facilities and in the community.

Number of people New Earth will be serving in one year (by 2021 with funding): 1000

Number of people New Earth aims to serve five years from now: 5000

Goals:

1) Deepen and Expand Current Programs: The New Earth Arts and Leadership Center was established in 2015 and operations have outgrown the existing 7600 square foot space. New Earth has identified the need for a larger space to serve more young people and to deepen our work in Los Angeles County for system-impacted youth ages 13-25, who are almost exclusively youth of color.

2) License and Replicate the Transformative Career Institute (TCI) Model: New Earth intends to move forward with the unique and unprecedented model that the organization developed for a residential vocational training program. This model will build on New Earth’s trauma-informed service model and provide a state-of-the-art career training center that provides industry recognized career certifications and training, immersive mentorship, and guaranteed career placements.

3) Replicate New Earth’s Community Campus Model: New Earth has achieved unprecedented success in providing trauma-informed programs in LA County juvenile detention facilities since 2004 and less than 7% of New Earth’s youth who receive continuous care and services have been re-incarcerated. With funding available, New Earth aims to replicate this model with other community-based organizations across the country as alternatives to incarceration and a solution to over-policing of communities of color.

In addition, as one of very few Black-founded and led youth service organizations in Los Angeles, serving the most vulnerable youth of color, New Earth is positioned to seize this time in history, modeling solutions to our nation’s systemic injustices, and expanding our critical work.

New Earth continues to face the overarching challenge of a non-profit in today’s philanthropic world: funding. While New Earth is actively pursuing public and private funding, it can be a challenge for emerging non-profits with leadership of color to break into many long established institutional funding models. In addition, New Earth has experienced a significant loss of funding due to COVID-19 including some local government fee-for-service contracts as well as social enterprise revenue in this economic climate. Funding remains the greatest challenge for New Earth to meet the needs of youth, and we would be honored to win The Elevate Prize. 

New Earth is boldly pursuing new revenue streams including individual donors, philanthropic networks through the organization’s board members, foundation grants, government grants, and impact challenges such as The Elevate Prize program that would position New Earth for significant growth in impact.

New Earth maintains an ongoing relationship with the LA County Office of Education (LACOE) which funds New Earth’s arts education programming in juvenile detention facilities. As a grantee of the LA County Arts Comission, New Earth is focusing on building up the organization’s private donor network to engage individuals to support our work. Additionally, the organization’s relationship with The Obama Foundation and the ongoing work that Dr. Grammer does with the President and Mrs. Obama continues to provide support and resources to the organization’s forward movement.

Culver City Police Department/ Culver City School District: New Earth was chosen to provide youth diversion in partnership with the Culver City Police Department, limiting the interaction young people have with the justice system through pre-arrest diversion. Additionally, New Earth works with the local school district to serve youth who have been identified as at-risk for entering the court system.

Da Vinci RISE Charter School: New Earth’s new implementation partner for academic programming starting this summer is Da Vinci RISE Charter High School. Da Vinci RISE’s mission is to provide homeless, foster, probation, out-of-school youth, and underserved students an individualized education through the coalescence of their personal and professional goals, their interests, and the academic skills necessary for success in the high-demand, constantly changing world around them. Paired with New Earth’s existing wrap-around service model, Da Vinci RISE provides a highly responsive, holistic, and integrated model that meets the unique needs of youth navigating foster care, housing instability, probation, and/or other circumstances that have cause disruptions in their academic journeys

LA County Office of Education (LACOE): Since 2004, many youth first encounter New Earth through the arts education and mentorship programs the organization provides for incarcerated young people inside LA County’s juvenile detention camps and halls. Since the organization’s inception, New Earth has served up to eighteen camps and halls at one time when they were open with funding from LACOE. During Covid-19, New Earth continues to provide programming remotely in partnership with the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

New Earth has received recent funding from the Collins Foundation ($25,000), the Annenberg Foundation ($39,000) and the California Community Foundation ($25,000).

New Earth’s budgeted revenue streams for FY2020 include:

Earned Income (Social enterprise) $1,000,000

Government Contracts $2,000,000

Foundation & Corporate Grants $700,000

Program Income (LA County Office of Education) $400,000

Individual Donors and Other Fundraising $175,000

Other Income $70,000)

New Earths FY2020 budget is $4.345m including funding from county and local government, foundation and corporate partners, and individual donors. In addition, New Earth is actively fundraising for COVID-19 gap funds through social media and additional outreach to local and institutional donors. 

FY2020 Expenses:

Salaries and benefits $3,416,000

Equipment $30,000

Program Expenses $180,000

Insurance Costs $45,000

Consultant/Professional Fees $175,000

Rent, Parking, Utilities $330,394

Fundraising Expenses $25,000

Marketing & Advertising $25,000

Professional Development $30,000

Telephone and Internet $30,000

Total = $4,301,394

The Elevate Prize goals align with the work of New Earth, as New Earth aims to deepen work in the Los Angeles community as well as provide a model for nationwide innovative responses to systemic issues. Funding and support from The Elevate Prize would help New Earth to expand and scale the organization’s successful programs, services, and alternatives to incarceration to further impact and inspire juvenile justice reform and community-based interventions nationwide. 

New Earth would be honored to partner with MIT and The Elevate Prize to deepen our work in the greater Los Angeles community as well as expand and scale to inspire juvenile justice reform nationwide. 

New Earth dreams of building a wider network of partners in both the music industry and the tech industry. New Earth’s social enterprise job training model and arts education programs would be a strong fit for providing internships and career placements in these creative high-growth fields that often lack adequate representation of the voices that New Earth represents. Located on the doorstep of Silicon Beach, New Earth is in the early stages of building out a technology and digital media career pathway and would welcome new partners in providing employment support and job opportunities for young people.