“One of the best parts of Jubilee Year is getting to collaborate with some absolutely amazing non-profits. This week we had site visits at Neighborhood Youth Association, an after school program focused on student empowerment, enrichment, and college readiness – and Open Temple, a dynamic, creative, emerging Jewish community that seeks to foster a sense of openness and connection to transform the world!

We’re so blessed to have such amazing partners!”

Learn about of the Echoes of Hope programs. These programs are what funds from the Leo Buscaglia Foundation help support.

The EOH Youth program offers resources for current and former foster youth, low-income, and at-risk youth, between the ages of 13-30. 

Services support youth at colleges, universities, and nonprofits throughout the country. 

Some of the younger youth qualify for the Rising Stars Club. 

Resources for EOH Youth include, but are not limited to: 

·      Housing assistance

·      Grocery store gift card and/or food vouchers

·      Transportation (i.e. bus and gift cards)

·      Uniforms

·      Fees relating to school (i.e. commitment fees, graduation fees, testing fees, etc.)

·      Backpack/Toiletry drive

·      Extracurricular (i.e. dance and voice lessons, sports equipment, etc.)

Qualifications: 

·      Actively enrolled in school  

·      Must be low-income, at-risk, and/or former foster youth

Click here to learn more about other 2020 recipients.

Margaret Atwood’s Beauty Bus story began when her husband was ill and their daughter, Ashley, was his caregiver. Margaret had learned about Beauty Bus and thought her daughter could benefit from a Home Visit. Little did Margaret know that she would carry on her husband’s legacy through her own volunteer work with Beauty Bus.

As a licensed cosmetologist, Margaret’s husband Gilbert, was impressed with the work that Beauty Bus performs. He made it his goal to become a Beauty Bus volunteer after he recovered from cancer. Sadly, that was a goal he was unable to fulfill.

Margaret volunteers at both Pop-Up Salons and at Home Visits. “It’s a way to honor him,” says Margaret of the volunteer work she and Ashley do together. “I’ve gone on home visits and sometimes it’s tough. But I feel good that I can go! The gratitude and feeling the clients have when we leave… it’s just great.”

March 2020, conductor Jessica Bejarano was coming off the success of the debut concert for the orchestra she founded, the San Francisco Philharmonic. While large ensembles haven’t had much of a chance to perform since then, Bejarano is keeping up the orchestral collaboration.

This week, the conductor is partnering with L.A.’s American Youth Symphony. It’s a return appearance of sorts: Bejarano was the first woman to conduct the ensemble, in 2019. This Friday’s concert, a free family event that has Bejarano teaching a short conducting lesson and AYS musicians playing a selection of solo and duet repertoire, isn’t back in the concert hall yet. But online, it’s still bringing people together.

The music from Bejarano and AYS is one half of a larger event, hosted by A Place Called Home, a community organization serving South Central L.A. APCH screens a film following the concert; this week, it’s the 2016 animated movie Sing. It’s all part of a regular series, Family Film Fridays, that, for the first time, AYS is playing the pre-show for, along with APCH’s own Youth Strings Ensemble.

Bejarano, who grew up in L.A. and has made a point of giving back to the community in music, says: “It’s incredibly important to bring free classical music to families to aid in enriching and fulfilling their lives. I also find it incredibly important and notable that AYS is not only bringing music to APCH families but also demonstrating how to be a leader through the conducting lesson that I will be teaching. It gives our youth a different lens through which to experience music and the world.”

Click here to learn more about other 2020 recipients.

Looking to get involved? We have a wonderful volunteer opportunity coming up on Saturday, June 11th. More details to come! Contact cathy@villageforvets.org to sign up!

Click here to learn more about Village for Vets. 

Check out Street Poets words fest!

“We’re so excited to be partnering with @tiachuchas for the 17th Annual Celebrating Words Fest!!! For the first time ever, CWF will have a 2nd Stage and we’ll be hosting!!! There will be poetry, music, and space for you to share your voice on the open mic! Come celebrate with us on Saturday, May 21, 2022 from 2-7pm! “

Click here to learn more about Street Poets. 

Read about this recent sharefest project.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation believes strongly in investing in local communities to help make people’s lives better. Working with local nonprofit, Sharefest Community Development, Inc., Marathon recently completed a beautification project at Del Amo Elementary school in Carson. Over the course of the day, Marathon’s many volunteers completed 14 large scale mural walls. This project is just one of many Marathon has completed with Sharefest over the past several years. “Marathon is a longtime partner who truly wants to make our communities better places,” said Chad Mayer, Executive Director of Sharefest. “They take on huge projects that transform schools because they know how important it is for youth to feel valued. In fact, this is our second project with them this year and they’ve invested $63,000 into the Wilmington and Carson communities!”

Click here to continue reading and see more photos. 

Here is a little history on Save Our Youth

It seems like yesterday when a small group of parents met to discuss their concerns about rising violence among Costa Mesa’s youth. It was 1992 and the city had just experienced its first drive-by shooting. The parents didn’t want their teens to be drawn into gangs or street life. They met with City Manager Allan Roeder and other city staff to express their concerns. With City Councilman Joe Erickson leading the way, the City agreed there needed to be an alternative to the lure of street life, so they provided space at Rea Center, but it was up to the parents to provide and sustain the program. And so Save Our Youth was born. Share Our Selves acted as an umbrella agency until SOY became incorporated in 1993 and had its own federal tax number.

The parents and some community supporters got to work accumulating donated furniture, computers, pool tables, weights and exercise machines, even mirrors and padded gym flooring as well as a boxing ring to attract the kids. Many teenage boys flocked to the new center and when a Girls’ Program was started teen girls also came. The greatest early lift was an amazing donor who contributed money for over 16years to establish an innovative scholarship program which paid students for good grades and awarded them a grant upon graduating equal to the amount of money they earned during their years at SOY. Almost $2,000,000 were allocated to hundreds of SOY graduates who went on to colleges all over California. They draw the money down as they need it for college expenses.

From that humble beginning, SOY is now a full service organization, as these pages illustrate. Its numerous programs serve almost 400 teens. Because of financial cutbacks, SOY is operating with only two dedicated staff and has had to eliminate much of the scholarship program, but a core of dedicated volunteers and growing numbers of donors are helping to keep the Center open to fulfill its mission of serving Costa Mesa’s youth at risk. SOY is extremely grateful for the community support it has received these past 20 years.