ACCOMPLISHMENTS

October 2025
NH GOVERNOR'S AWARD: ARTS IN HEALTH

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Board Member Dr. Cynthia Whitaker with NH Governor Kelly Ayotte
Learn more HERE

Winter 2025
Open Sky featured in 603 Diversity

Fall 2024
ART by Yasmina Reza

Learn more HERE.

Spring 2023
NH Business Committee
​for the Arts
​Artrepreneur Award

Learn more HERE.

Fall 2022
"True West" by Sam Sheppard

 This production was featured on WMUR's NH Chronicle. ​Click here to watch it.
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In 2024, Open Sky was designated a Promising Practice by New Hampshire’s Service to Science Expert Panel. As part of this process, Open Sky worked closely with JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. evaluators who conducted the initial analysis of data that helped the Open Sky achieve designation as a Promising Practice. According to JSI's preliminary findings, the Open Sky Model positively impacts the emotional and mental health of those involved, and teaches prosocial skills crucial to re-integration.

​Today, JSI continues to work closely with Open Sky Founder Derek Lucci and program participants to collect and analyze data in support of Open Sky achieving designation as an Evidence-Based Program. 

JSI is a global public health nonprofit working to improve health and education outcomes around the world in within our local communities. The New Hampshire office, known locally as the Community Health Institute, is located in Bow, NH. To learn more, visit jsi.org. 

Open Sky: A Promising Practice

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​In November 2024, Open Sky received a Promising Practice designation from New Hampshire’s Service to Science Expert Panel.
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Programs endorsed as a Promising Practice have demonstrated readiness to conduct a high-quality, systematic evaluation with the ultimate goal of acheiving a status of Evidence-Based – as is Open Sky’s next step.

​To learn more about Service to Science and the varying designations, visit nhcenterforexcellence.org/service-to-science/.

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 What does it mean to be a Promising Practice?

​The Data Behind the Promising Practice
Learning to answer the question: Who Am I?

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All Open Sky participants partake in a self-reflection exercise that asks them to, in their own words, answer the question... Who am I?

Each cohort completes a minimum of two essays answering this prompt, which is left intentionally vague:

  • Pre-Essay: written at the beginning of each year, usually in conjunction with new members or cohorts joining the program. This helps establish a baseline.
  • Post-Essay: completed toward the end of the year, usually just before performances are held.

From pre- to post- essays, program evaluators at JSI Research & Training employ a variety of analyses to track participant attitudes and outlooks. Themes present across essays and which spoke to program outcomes detailed in the logic model were coded, and their frequencies tracked.
​What we found in Open Sky "Who Am I?" essays ​after program involvement:

Looking Ahead to Evidence-Based
Programs endorsed by the Service to Science Expert Panel as Evidence-Based:
This process of manualization and continued evaluation ensures that programs are rigorously tested. The key here for Open Sky is replicability.

​Continuing the progress toward program manualization, and sustaining evaluation efforts using the “Who Am I?” essays and a new psychological self-assessment designed using validated mindfulness and empathy subscales, Open Sky also plans to expand the program’s reach into other prisons in the state.
The Path Forward
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To expand the program to other incarcerated populations in New Hampshire,
​Open Sky plans to:
Open Sky
Derek Lucci, Founder & President
[email protected] 
Open Sky is a 501(c)3 organization registered in the State of New Hampshire.​All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.