Greetings friends of The Beat Within! Welcome to our latest issue, 26.39/40. It is such an honor to share with you all this latest publication of writing and art from inside juvenile hall and beyond.
Over the last month, we have been incredibly touched and humbled when dear friends, colleagues, peers, associates, and even strangers reach out to us and offer their respects to us for accomplishing 25 years of The Beat Within. It seems like yesterday we were just getting this program off the ground in San Francisco. Fast forward 25 years and wow, have we seen and done plenty in this journey. It is really hard to imagine we have been doing the good work for 25 years and counting! The other day, the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department asked us to share at their all staff meeting, in celebration of our 25th year, and update them on our work and share our story. It was such an honor, given San Francisco is the mothership of The Beat Within.
We are also in the process of putting together a Zoom panel next month, mid-November, in celebration of 25 years! We are excited to have our loyal colleagues share their connection with The Beat Within with the greater Beat community, as we celebrate giving voice and what writing has meant to them and continues to mean to them. This is the first of hopefully other celebrations we will host going into 2022. Some of you have asked if we will be putting together an in-person celebration, as we did for our 20th anniversary, and the answer is yes! We are working on that now. More details will come as things unfold. Of course it is a bit challenging due to the various Covid restrictions, but we are figuring it out! What a ride!
Speaking of this ride, known to most of us as The Beat, it has been one heck of an amazing, inspiring, joyful, even tearful, yet rockin’ good time! But also at times quite stressful too. As a small non-profit the work is constant, but continuous in a good way, a positive and loving way. Yes, we truly love what we do and do not want to pass this editorial note off as something that we are not passionate about. To be as successful as we are with The Beat Within, you best believe we are emotional about the work and every single one of you who is involved. Thank you all for your time and work!
You can only imagine… One minute we are doing what we love the most, leading workshops inside a juvenile hall, the next minute we are on a Zoom call, leading the groups, that are still off limits to us due to Covid. Regardless, when we can have a solid conversation with you about the weekly topics or about a concern or your life, this makes for the best results. We value our relationships and the trust you have in us. Of course, not every day is a workshop, so when we are not running groups in person or over the computer, we are answering emails, we are typing and editing the writings that are mailed in, as well as the ones from our weekly groups, or we are laying out the latest magazine. This is not even including the other leg of the job, fund raising, we’ll leave that for another note.
Since day one, the work has been non-stop and super challenging, but since Covid struck is has made everything a bit more challenging for all of us. We all have had to be resilient on how to navigate this world, and now that we have slowly figured this out, with many of us vaccinated (which we hope all of you are as well). While the world is now slowly opening up, we now have to figure out how to best work with the current times and still stay safe, most definitely to start we must continue to wear a mask.
As busy as we are, we still feel like we have dropped the ball on many of our friends. We are sorry. This tiny non-profit does the best we can each day, but we know we too carry flaws in our work and missing a personal letter, breaking a promise, or not owning up to what we said we would do, stings. We are terribly sorry.
It is hard to believe October is upon us. 2022 is around the corner. Where does the time go? We certainly hope those of you reading this are embracing these times and doing your best to accomplish your goals and dreams. We hope on the top of that list for many of you is getting your learn on and embracing your education. If there is one thing you can do for yourself at this time, it would be to work on getting that diploma, getting your school credits up, taking that college course, making time to read that book, journaling and improving your writing and communication skills. Keeping your mind sharp and ready for the next chapter of your life, be it in the free world, or on the next chapter of your incarceration.
We can’t thank you enough for your time and work. We value every single word you share on paper. We appreciate your commitment to yourself and The Beat Within community.
Thank you all for being a part of this amazing one of a kind journey. We have all learned so much, thanks to this platform. We are all better for it too. Love and appreciation…. Enjoy the issue, stay in touch!