I am beginning a new non-profit organization called Everybody Deserves Music. I began the project this year, in response to the need of youth in Los Angeles for quality after-school intervention and enrichment programs. Historically, students in inner-city areas in Los Angeles have not been given the educational opportunities they deserve. A large achievement gap between the wealthy and the poor in this country persists, and will continue if we do not provide additional educational services to students in poverty. By the time they reach fourth grade, children living in low-income communities are already two to three grades behind their higher-income peers. Overall, only one in ten of these students will go on to graduate from college (www.teachforamerica.org).

Students living in low-income communities face challenges outside of the classroom that can make learning very difficult. Some factors that make learning more difficult for teenagers in poverty include: dangerous or unhealthy home environment, additional stress caused by environment, homelessness, discrimination, exposure to violence, limited family resources, poor nutrition, and absence of a care giver in the home. Yet, these students are still not being given access to a free, quality public education.

Everybody Deserves Music's mission is to provide high quality after-school intervention and enrichment programs to at-risk teenagers living in low-income areas in Los Angeles. Through academic tutoring, mentoring, and focused music instruction, we will give students in poverty the tools and the confidence to succeed.

Everybody Deserves Music is sponsored by the Los Angeles Leadership Academy, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation qualified as exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Donations to my project will go directly towards implementing our FIRST after-school program for 6th graders at the Los Angeles Leadership Academy. 

It's easy to support our effort to implement a new, high-quality after-school program for the students at-risk of failing in our school in Lincoln Heights!