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Victoria Sammartino is the Founder and Executive Director of Voices UnBroken a Bronx-based non-profit organization that makes high quality creative writing workshops accessible to vulnerable youth - ages 14-21 - with a focus on working with young people who are incarcerated/detained or in the foster care system.

She is also a poet, educator and Bronx native. She has served as poet-in-residence at various schools, jails/prisons, community centers and youth organizations, including Island Academy/Rosewood High School on Rikers Island, where she taught a nine-year poetry workshop. And she has consulted with non-profit organizations to develop and implement curricula aimed at enhancing youth leadership. She has also consulted with re-entry organizations around the needs of women being released from prison. Victoria's writing has been featured in Sojourner, Mosaic Magazine, Shout Out and various other publications.

Victoria received a BA in Community Arts from Bennington College in 1999. In 2001 she was granted a Union Square Award for the work of Voices UnBroken. and in 2005 she was granted a fellowship from the Robert Bowne Foundation to conduct research on the impact of creative arts programming for out-of-school youth, including those currently incarcerated/ institutionalized. She is currently participating in the We Are The Bronx Fellowship (a program managed by CAUSE-NY); is a member of the NYC Department of Juvenile Justice's Resident Advocacy Program, the Community Justice Network for Youth and the Juvenile Justice Coalition (a program of the Correctional Association) and a founding member of the Prison Arts Coalition.

For more information about Voices UnBroken -- workshops, curriculum and/or the upcoming trainings we have for youth development professionals who are interested in learning how to use poetry to engage hard-to-reach youth – call 718.292.3018 or email victoria@voicesunbroken.org

www.voicesunbroken.org