ACTION: missing summer school in Los Angeles

Peace & Prosperity to you all,

Over on Face Book, I have a Cause up known as Summer Arts Simple & Easy (S.A.S.E). to help facilitate parents and kids finding affordable if not free summer school alternatives in the Los Angeles area. Included in that is also the offer to provide a series of my own and help other artists I know in setting up their own. Hit me up if you are down.

Below is the recent news item I posted in the Cause. There are two other projects that I know of working to fill this summer gap and they can use your PARTICIPATION. I am also urging members of S.A.S.E. to donate $25. If you've got $25 and want to help out, we are right now fundraising for the Boys & Girls Club of Venice. They are maxxed out. More details below. If you are on Face Book, please join the Cause and donate the cash!

1) PAPEL (People's Assembly for Popular Education & Liberation), an alternative summer school set-up by LAUSD teachers and parents launched last week offering classes @ 100 N Toluca St, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Click on their name and you will be taken to their blog. if you live out that way and want to support with a course of your own, please contact them directly.

2) USC has chimed in with an on-line resource for classes. SOS Classroom . They have a site with kids showing up, making use of the computers there. Please check out their site to see how you can help. The curriculum is free and open to everyone and is "crowdsourced." Very exciting.

3) We have a beneficiary! After reading an article in the Argonaut, I decided to call the Boys and Girls Club of Venice to see how we could be of help. In case you have not heard, this one facility alone is currently seeing 400+ kids per DAY due to the cancellation of summer school. Aileen Martinez explained to me the dire situation they are in: 10 student positions were cut due to budget issues prior to the closing, so they are short-handed, while servicing their community at record breaking levels. It is time to raise some funds and if you are out this way, sign up to volunteer. It is simple to give to them. Just click that you want to donate on our Causes page and walk through the steps! It would be great if you could each give $25, but every bit helps.

Now, right after I decided that we should raise funds for an existing organization and offer volunteer support, I got word that 826LA is also struggling under the weight of closed summer school. While Boys & Girls Clubs charge a very modest fee per week for their summer program ($25 - $35 per week), 826LA is free. They need us, too. So here's the deal:

826LA is having their Paddle Boat Regatta next weekend in Echo Park. Fundraising has already begun, but they are over $1000 short of their target. You can help them out by going directly to their website page for the regatta and donating to any team the tickles your fancy. You can also help them at their two sites in LA, here in Venice and in Echo Park by volunteering to help a child with their writing and reading. I will contact them directly to see if they would be up for a movement theatre-based writing project at either site.

There is so much undone here; it boggles the mind. This weekend I finally made it out to the boardwalk only to see a bunch of kids being arrested by a bunch of police. In fact, the police presence has been significantly increased here in Venice, no doubt, in response to the closure of summer school. This is the only response we can expect from the police. They are doing the job they know how to do. Therefore, it is up to all of us who know how to engage kids with excitement, art, and yes, love, to make ourselves available and PARTICIPATE in saving the kids. This is not metaphorical. The five kids I saw getting carted off can vouch for that.

Let's get the membership up on the Cause! Invite your friends and don't be 'shame to ask them for $25 for the Boys & Girls Club of Venice. If you have a B&GC in your neighborhood, ask them if they need help and let us all know. If you are participating in a project that needs volunteers, please post it to the board. It is my hope that we can rotate beneficiaries every two weeks. More than that, it is my hope that you will give a class of your own. Read the recommendations on how to go about that on the Causes page.

be the love and light,
-Anna