The seed of Street Poets Inc. was planted back in 1995 when Writers Guild member Chris Henrikson first began volunteer-teaching a poetry workshop at Camp Miller, a Los Angeles County Probation camp for boys. That seed quickly took root and soon there was a waiting list of camp minors eager to get into the class. “The Street Poets workshop was like a breath of fresh air in that place. There was no judgment, no gang drama, no probation officers cussing us out. We could just be ourselves, and we got to see each other for real, even our so-called enemies,” former Camp Miller minor Jason Quezada remembers. “That poetry workshop was my favorite two hours of the week.”

After three years, the alumni network for that one weekly writing circle had grown to over 100 formerly incarcerated youth, six of whom linked up with Chris “on the outs” to form Street Poets United, a poetry performance group that had its first public show in 1998 at the Los Angeles Theater Center, and later went on to light up mics and bullhorns at restorative justice conferences, educational reform rallies, schools and churches throughout California.

During that time, Street Poets aligned itself with DreamYard, a New York City-based arts education organization, to expand our outreach into foster care facilities and public schools. Six years later, Street Poets established its own California non-profit 501(c)3 status. Since then, we’ve traveled to the San Carlos Apache and Navajo Reservations in Arizona, as well as internationally, to share our methodology and creative healing practices with youth and adults worldwide.

Meanwhile, back home, Street Poets deepened our presence in Los Angeles’ middle and high school classrooms, and launched our Poetry in Motion van to bring pop-up music and poetry events directly to the parks and projects of our city. In 2015, we joined forces with five other visionary non-profit organizations to create the Arts for Healing & Justice Network to advocate for arts-based intervention work and system change in Los Angeles County and beyond (AHJN now includes 15+ member organizations).

Today, Camp Miller, the probation facility where Street Poets first began, is closed for good. But the formerly incarcerated alumni of our writing circle there continue working to create an inspiring community-based alternative to that system. The Street Poets Center for Community, Culture & Wellness, scheduled to open in South Los Angeles in 2024, represents the fruit of that labor alongside countless former students, teaching artists, healers and peacemakers who continue to breathe life and poetry into our community.

Veteran Street Poet David Sanchez, who now runs his own organic gardening business, explains: “If a Street Poets Center had been here when I was growing up, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have joined a gang and taken such a hard road to get to where I am today. 15 years ago, I had to get locked up to find Street Poets. With this new community center, we’ll be catching lost kids like I was before they get caught up in the System. I’m just grateful I’ve survived long enough to be a part of the solution, and in the same neighborhood where I used to be a part of the problem.”

“Parentis Foundation is a non-profit educational resource bringing together older adult volunteer tutors and young learners to offer mentorship and educational growth.

Academic success is the key to a better future. However, not all children have access to the resources and educational opportunities that they need. Reading and literacy skills are essential to ensure improved learning and build positive attitudes towards education.

Our experienced and skilled volunteers apply their lifetime of knowledge to help young learners achieve grade level proficiency.

Volunteer tutors age 50+ benefit from ongoing training and support that strengthens their natural mentoring abilities, builds their confidence, and fosters a sense of purpose that helps ensure their success as tutors – and the success of the children as readers.”

What does the Reading Club mean to you? from Parentis Foundation on Vimeo.

Jubilee Jump is an exciting jump rope fitness program for youth ages 8-16. Competitive jump rope involves amazing tricks, skills, choreography and community. We have teams in Los Angeles neighborhoods where the need for health justice is great, but the resources are minimal. Jubilee Jump is a program offered by Jubilee Consortium, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that believes everyone should have the opportunity to be healthy and happy—especially our youth. Come join us!

In 2015, Jubilee Consortium launched rope jumping programs at three different low-income neighborhoods around Los Angeles: Hollywood, Inglewood and Highland Park. Today, we are expanding to cover 8 locations—all of which will form part of a strong and talented jump rope league. Youth participants in Jubilee Jump learn basic rope jumping skills, increase their understanding of the sport of competitive rope jumping, engage in regular fitness activities, receive mentoring from coaches and adult volunteers, and develop life and leadership skills that they will be able to translate into other aspects of their lives.

Fringe Benefits is an educational theatre company dedicated to early hate crime prevention.  Our mission is to replace hate with understanding through collaboratively created plays, videos and programs that promote constructive dialogue about diversity and discrimination issues. We are committed to opening hearts and minds and promoting progressive action around a wide array of social justice issues including racism, sexism, classism, ableism, ageism, and immigration rights. In honor of our first community collaborators, homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth, and in light of the ongoing need to ensure that they feel included, valued and safe, Fringe Benefits gives special attention to LGBTQ+ issues.  We believe that it is imperative for disenfranchised communities to come together, listen to each other’s concerns, stories and ideas, and work together to frame their/our own narratives. Working together, we stand a better chance of being heard and heeded. Our goal is to create a context in which people can turn their damaging experiences with discrimination into art that promote respect, inclusion and justice.

Founded in 1991, Fringe Benefits has a lengthy track record of collaborating with schools and communities, both nationally and internationally, to create groundbreaking social justice-promoting theatre, videos and programs. Our partnerships have produced over 100 world-premiere plays.  Additionally, we published 56 original children’s plays, songs and poems in our critically acclaimed Cootie Shots: Theatrical Inoculations Against Bigotry. The anthology of essays about our unique play-devising methodology, Staging Social Justice, is used in university classes throughout the United States.  Sir Ian McKellen narrates Surviving Friendly Fire, the award-winning documentary about our work. All of this work, along with Fringe Benefits’ theatre activism workshops and residencies, has earned acknowledgement by the President’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and awards from: the CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice (2016 and 2018),  the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (2009), The Castillo Theatre (2004), Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Los Angeles  (2003), the Korean Youth and Community Center (2002), and Cornerstone Theater Company (2002).

Click here to learn about more 2021 recipients.