CW’s in-jail and post-release programs (which were developed in collaboration with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department) include the award-winning Resolve to Stop the Violence Project, a comprehensive response to perpetrators and victims of violence based on the principles of restorative justice; Community Corrections, a post-release education program serving San Francisco county ex-offenders; in-custody arts and theater programming for incarcerated women; One Family, a contact visiting and parent education program in SF County jails; and Women Rising/Rising Voices, an integrated case management and arts mentorship program serving formerly incarcerated young women at SFSD’s Women’s Reentry Center. CW’s youth programs include ROOTS, a school-based program for students with an incarcerated parent which incorporates an arts and social justice curriculum with support services and case management; Project WHAT!, a youth leadership program for children of incarcerated parents that raises awareness about the impacts of parental incarceration on children, with the long-term goal of improving services and policies that affect these children; and in- and after- school arts education programs at the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center.

Many of CW's programs also culminate in a public arts component.  Through exhibitions, theater productions and installations, CW brings the work of its participants to the community to encourage dialogue and build understanding. CW’s flagship project Making a Difference is a large-scale public art project with a partnering cultural institution and artist(s) which engages youth in honoring community heroes through the creation of visual, performing and literary artworks created in response to meeting these individuals.  These projects are aligned with California content standards. Past projects, which include The Long Walk to Freedom (civil rights leaders), The Japanese American Internment Project, Americans Who Tell the Truth and Stories Behind the Songs, have traveled both locally and nationally and been presented at venues such as PBS and the San Francisco Public Library. CW’s arts and oral history projects, which engage youth from communities impacted by violence and incarceration, include Where We’re From, which took place in Richmond, CA.

CW directly serves approximately 1,100 people a year and reaches at least 2,000 more through public exhibitions and events.  CW works with populations impacted by incarceration and violence; specifically, men, women and youth in the criminal justice system, formerly incarcerated individuals, survivors of violent crime, children of incarcerated parents and their caregivers, and public school students.  Program participants generally come from low-income communities with high violent crime rates, such as Southeast San Francisco, West Oakland, East Oakland and Richmond.   Ninety-six percent of CW's program participants are people of color, primarily African American and Latino.  CW is unique in the Bay Area: it is the only organization that uses arts education as a primary intervention with populations impacted by incarceration: the arts as a tool for personal transformation, skills development and community building, and ultimately for social change. CW has realized their programs through lasting and successful partnerships with municipal agencies, schools and other community-based organizations.