CREATELA has HEART
The LA has HEART initiative seeks to connect professional working artists with at-risk youth through educational arts workshops.
Please describe yourself.
Collaboration (partners are signed up and ready to hit the ground running!)
In one sentence, please describe your idea or project.
The LA has HEART initiative seeks to connect professional working artists with at-risk youth through educational arts workshops.
Which area(s) of LA does your project benefit?
Central LA
East LA
South LA
San Gabriel Valley
San Fernando Valley
South Bay
Westside
What is your idea/project in more detail?
LA has HEART is a program that is composed of workshops including everything from creative writing, music, acting, culinary arts, fashion, documentary filmmaking, and fashion. The goal is to provide instruction and hands-on training in small groups – one workshop at a time. This format allows participants the opportunity to absorb, practice, and sharpen their skills under the guidance of working arts professionals. Participants are not only given opportunities to express themselves, but they are also educated on how they can turn their talents into possible careers.
What will you do to implement this idea/project?
In order to implement this initiative, we will work with our existing partners who have been serving at-risk youth, so we can effectively and efficiently impact increasing numbers of our targeted population. Through collaborating with local social service agencies and community groups, HH brings instructors to share industry expertise and creativity with hundreds of at-risk youth each year who might not otherwise receive this unique training.
How will your idea/project help make LA the best place to CREATE today? In 2050?
Our initiative will benefit at-risk youth within the Greater Los Angeles area as well as local artists. The LA has HEART project also seeks to benefit the LA community as a whole by creating arts programs that will deter at-risk youth from engaging in street crime and activities as well as giving LA the chance to educate itself in the importance of arts education and empowerment.
The LA has HEART initiative directly takes advantage of the unique opportunities that only LA can offer—great artistic partners and young artists. In collaborating with them, we can, through each workshop, work towards eradicating street crime and increasing interest of the arts among at-risk youth.
Whom will your project benefit?
Our target audience is teens and young adults, ages 13-21, who face a number of serious issues such as poverty, unstable family environments, drugs and alcohol, medical illness, and/or absence from school.
The initiative will also benefit artists who seek to create a network for themselves or find opportunities to share their talents.
Please identify any partners or collaborators who will work with you on this project.
LA is fortunate to have many organizations that offer arts instruction to at-risk youth. HH has strong relationships with two of these, CoachArt and The Mobile Film Classroom, with which we have completed over 10 programs and four workshops, respectively. In addition, HH has facilitated two filmmaking workshops with the IBD Support Foundation and partnered with the San Fernando Valley Partnership, Hillsides Education Center, Gabrielino, and Los Angeles High School as well.
Recently HH established new collaborations with The Salvation Army Algeria and the Laurel Foundation, and is in talks to offer programming with the Boys and Girl Club of the West Valley.
Our ability to establish sustainable partnerships is illustrated in our 19-year partnership with One Heartland for our summer arts camp. HH is dedicated to strengthening relationships with all our existing partners and continually seeks to collaborate with other like-minded organizations in for future programs.
How will your project impact the LA2050 CREATE metrics?
Employment in creative industries
Measures of cultural and global economic influence (“soft power”) (Dream Metric)
Percentage of graduates from local higher education institutions that remain in LA County 5 years after graduating (Dream Metric)
Please elaborate on how your project will impact the above metrics.
In a recent article, "How to Save our Schools" regarding the importance of funding arts and music in public schools, a statistic that reinforces the importance of the Hollywood Heart mission is cited: "[according] to the US Department of Education, almost 6 million elementary students--overwhelmingly in our highest poverty schools--have no art or music classes". The youth we target for services are graduates of the elementary education which the article critiques. We will address this lack of arts education by providing educational workshop for at-risk youth in the LA area.
Please explain how you will evaluate your project.
-We will track the growth in the number of participants and artists involved every month within each artistic field to track the program’s popularity and success
-We design and develop surveys for students, staff, and partner organizations. The first survey will be conducted when the workshop begins and the second will be conducted culminating the event. These surveys will measure how satisfied participants, staff, and volunteers are with this unique art skills immersion experience. These surveys will also show that the students absorbed, practiced, and sharpened their art skills during their experience as they measure the students’ agreement with questions that incorporate self-evaluative concepts like confidence and comfortability.
What two lessons have informed your solution or project?
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Explain how implementing your project within the next twelve months is an achievable goal.
Implementing this project within the next twelve months in an achievable goal because this specific initiative will build upon our existing Educational Arts Workshops. The structure of the workshops as well as the network we have created among various artists and organizations has made a great foundation for making the LA has HEART initiative an achievable goal.
Please list at least two major barriers/challenges you anticipate. What is your strategy for ensuring a successful implementation?
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