Art Helps Returning Citizens ‘Cross the Threshold'

Each year, close to three million dogs and cats are killed in shelters - in some cities more than 70 percent of the animals in shelters are euthanized. Target Zero is a program that works with fellow cities to spay and neuter animals and return them to the streets. Public complaints about animals have plummeted, and many shelters are well on their way to achieving a 'zero-kill' status.

The Live6 area is home to a robust cultural and creative community. And with an increase in development, there's opportunity for artists and institutions to tap into that energy to spur growth.

An ensemble of New York Police Department officers and members of the public are participating in a theater program designed to bring together the opposite sides of the nationwide debate on interactions between police and minority communities.

Uganda has some of the highest fertility and HIV prevalence rates in the world. Yet the government has banned comprehensive sexuality education in schools, and parents feel uncomfortable talking about the taboo subject. So Chicken & Chips, a television show about puppets, was created to educate the country’s young people about sexual and reproductive health.

Italy has had a huge influx of migrants, many of whom are placed in rural areas and struggle to create their new life. An Italian theatre company 'Teatro delle Albe' has helped migrants integrate by including both Italians and African migrants in their productions, helping to foster relationships and help migrants settle.

For many offenders, prison can be a tense, divisive, and anger-inducing environment, fueling the negative influences that landed them there in the first place and leading to high recidivism rates. Actor Tim Robbins - who once famously portrayed a prisoner himself - started a program called The Actors Gang to bring theater to inmates as an outlet for emotion and expression, breaking down barriers between former gang members and helping individuals to process their troubles.

Abortion is a highly stigmatized topic that can lead individuals to selectively disclose who they tell about the experience. Storytelling is now being viewed as a way to help de-stigmatize abortion based on contact theory and empathy as a means of bringing people together.

Some communities in Malawi are beginning to fight child marriage their own way—with music, dance, and a few tears, using theater to motivate cultural change.

In La Paz, local government is using people dressed in zebra costumes to direct traffic and change the behavior of people who break the rules. La Paz borrowed the idea from Antanas Mockus, the former mayor of Bogota, who discovered that people are more afraid of being ridiculed than being punished. Through humor, the method has improved driving and people's moods on the streets, hospitals, and schools.

Arts education programs in the United States are subjected to cutting for maintaining tight school budgets. Technology sectors in Seattle seek professionals who have been trained in problem solving skills and innovative idea generation. In response, Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture collaborate to promote equity in students’ access to the arts.