About Friends, Family, and Neighbors

At Friends, Family, and Neighbors (FFN), we provide arts education, vocational training, and workforce development programming for young people in Los Angeles County juvenile camps and halls. Through hands-on learning in photography, muralism, podcasting, illustration, visual arts, and other creative fields, youth have opportunities to develop technical skills, gain professional experience, discover new interests, and build pathways toward education, employment, and continued community involvement.

Our name, Friends, Family, and Neighbors, reflects how we see the young people we serve. Youth who are incarcerated are not separate from our communities—they are our friends, our family members, and our neighbors. They are artists, students, workers, mentors, siblings, children, and valued members of the communities they come from and will return to. Incarceration is one circumstance in a young person’s life; it does not define the entirety of who they are or what they are capable of becoming.

Our name also reflects our belief that community has a role in a young person’s growth. Rehabilitation and reentry cannot rest on the young person alone. Young people need people who continue to show up: family, friends, neighbors, educators, artists, mentors, employers, and community-based organizations willing to make space for them to learn, contribute, make mistakes, grow, and return home.

Meeting Youth Where They Are

Our programming is built on ensuring the youth’s voices are heard. We take young people’s interests, goals, experiences, and aspirations seriously and use them to guide our teaching. We continually adapt our curriculum and teaching methods to meet the youth where they are.

When a young person expresses an interest in learning a new artistic medium, developing a particular skill, or exploring a potential career, we work to find ways to make that possible. We believe access to creative and professional opportunities should not be determined by incarceration, financial circumstances, or whether someone has previously had access to the right equipment, training, or connections.

Through hands-on training in photography, muralism, podcasting, illustration, and visual arts, young people develop creative skills, professional experience, and pathways toward education, employment, and community engagement. Our programs use art as a tool for self-expression, healing, leadership, and personal growth, helping youth build confidence, strengthen their voices, and envision positive futures beyond incarceration.

Beyond Incarceration

Our work is designed on a foundation of continuity of care. The skills, relationships, and interests a young person develops while incarcerated should not disappear when they leave a facility.

FFN works to create connections between programming inside juvenile facilities and opportunities available in the community. Through vocational training, workforce development, mentorship, partnerships, and continued creative programming, we aim to help young people carry what they have learned into education, employment, artistic practice, and community life.

We also recognize that growth and rehabilitation are rarely linear. Young people may experience periods when engagement is difficult. Our response is not to give up on them. We ask what can be done differently, what barriers may be getting in the way, and how our approach can better meet their needs.

At its core, Friends, Family, and Neighbors is about being present. It is about recognizing young people as valuable members of our communities before, during, and after incarceration and creating opportunities for them to be heard, develop their abilities, contribute meaningfully, and giving the youth the confidence and tools to shape their own futures.

The youth are our community.