Today the IFF received a letter from the Colorado Department of Youth Corrections’ Betty K Mahler Center, a juvenile detention center that houses teenage girls. In 2014 a group of incarcerated girls made a Crochet Coral Reef as part of a program in which they practice “restorative justice” through handicraft. We have included the names of these 30 young women in our Crochet Coral Reef book, and the letter they have sent in return has touched us deeply. We quote here from one young inmate, Faith E: “I really appreciate how you guys really thought of us and put us in your amazing book. Thank you for noticing the unnoticed!!” We applaud the efforts, and the courage, of Faith and her fellow crocheters at the Betty K Mahler Center and its Rites of Passage program. These are girls whom society has overlooked and underlooked, young women, barely out of childhood, called upon to overcome cycles of disregard and violence. We are honored to include them in our worldwide family of Crochet Coral Reefers. A list of the names of these girls can be seen here.

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