June 23rd, 2022
The California Arts Council has announced a grant award of $19,000 to Options Recovery Services as part of its Reentry through the Arts program in its first round of funding for 2022. The funds provide arts training and activities of substance use disorder clients who are returning to the community from incarceration and/or homelessness. Clients have the opportunity to develop artistic skills to tell their stories of recovery and sobriety. Samuel McFarland, one of Options’ first Reentry through the Arts clients, created the artwork shown here. Samuel has since graduated from the program, obtained a master’s degree in arts therapy, and provides counseling, arts therapy, and arts training to adults in recovery, using his experience from the Reentry through the Arts program “to bring art into my work with others on their paths to sobriety, to heal their trauma, cultivate their emotional intelligence, and learn to love themselves.”
Options Recovery Services was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council, with grant awards for its Cycle A programming totaling more than $31 million across more than 1,100 grants supporting nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout the state. The dollar amount already marks the largest annual investment in the California Arts Council’s 46-year history.
