Grantee Database
Grant Year
2026-27
Grant Program
Impact Projects
Award Amount
$12,600.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, After Life Initiative will expand Stories of Resilience, a peer-led literary arts program where people returning from incarceration transform lived experience into spoken word, short film, and visual art. Led by formerly incarcerated peer facilitators, the program uses storytelling circles and structured workshops to help participants reclaim their voices and create original works rooted in their experiences. During the grant period, 75 to 100 participants will take part in free workshops at ALi’s office at 777 S. Alameda St. and in community spaces across Los Angeles County, with a particular focus on South and East LA. CAC funds will support peer facilitator honoraria, staff coordination, journals and art supplies, printed curriculum materials, transportation assistance, and accessibility accommodations so that cost, disability, and other barriers do not prevent participation.
Organization Summary
After Life Initiative delivers a continuum of peer-led reentry programs that center healing, dignity, and creative expression for people returning from California prisons and their families.
Navigating Life is our flagship program, offering peer-led healing circles, mentorship, and monthly wellness outings. At its heart is circle-based storytelling where participants share experiences of harm, survival, and transformation in spaces grounded in trust and accountability. Within Navigating Life, Stories of Resilience lifts this practice into a literature and humanities initiative where lived experience becomes spoken word, short film, and visual art. The program treats storytelling as both art and healing practice, a way to process trauma, build confidence, and shift public narratives about what incarceration does to people and communities. In 2025, ALi held 24 peer support groups and 12 wellness outings serving 214 members.
Her Testimony House provides transitional housing and workforce preparation for women returning from long prison terms, a population chronically underserved by reentry systems. Women in Her Testimony House also participate in storytelling circles that affirm identity and build community ties.
Housing Assistance for Returning Citizens stabilizes participants through housing navigation, short-term rental assistance, and wraparound reentry services, grounded in the understanding that stable housing is inseparable from healing. In 2025, ALi distributed over $345,800 in rental assistance, housed 26 participants, and helped 41 members secure employment.
Our in-reach programs at four California state prisons have served 826 incarcerated individuals to date, delivering restorative justice circles, reentry preparation, and leadership development. Our Train-the-Trainer program at CCWF equips incarcerated women as peer facilitators, creating a leadership pipeline inside California’s largest women’s prison. In 2026, ALi launched a three-year in-prison reentry program in partnership with the California Department of Corrections, bringing our curriculum and peer mentors directly inside.
Organization
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Address
626 WILSHIRE BLVD
LOS ANGELES
90017-3209
County
Los Angeles
Region
South – Los Angeles & Orange
Website
Congressional District
34th Congressional District
State Assembly District
54th Assembly District
State Senate District
26th Senate District
