Since 2018, Renovare Music's Founder and Director Rebecca Shasberger has taught a weekly strings class at the Grafton Correctional Institution, a medium-security men’s prison west of Cleveland. Over the last three and a half years, Renovare has watched 20 men come alive in a new way through the process of learning to play violin, viola, or cello and getting to share their musical journey with friends, family, and the broader community through public performances. 

Renovare is working to start a second, similar strings program at the Northeast Reintegration Center (NERC), the woman’s prison in downtown Cleveland. “Music for the Soul” will provide 16 women at NERC with the opportunity to learn to play the violin, viola, or cello through participation in a weekly, 90 minute class taught by Renovare Music. These classes will offer women a supportive space to build relationships with instructors and one another as they engage in music making and reflective activities toward personal growth. Participants will be able to share their progress with people outside the program, both family and friends as well as the broader community in biannual showcase performances, the first of which will occur this summer. 

Participants in “Music for the Soul” will be empowered to overcome shame and isolation, two of the defining features of prison and two of the primary drivers of recidivism. 68 of the women imprisoned at NERC have already expressed enthusiastic interest in the participating. In order to launch the program, Renovare needs help from our community to purchase more instruments - that's where you come in!