I met an interesting young lady, Brigitte Klaric, who’s in charge of fundraising for varying children’s organizations, including the Vancouver School Board (VSB) and a few of it’s umbrella children’s organizations. We started talking about outreach programs for children and this is a very brief transcript of our convo.
Tell me about the funding shortage for youth organizations.
We are facing continuous funding cuts so i have taken it upon my self to fund-raise. For that we organize varying events which draw audiences to party with a cause, tapping into the club scene of Vancouver but converting the scene into a responsible party-with-a-purpose event. One such event is “Fierce” which will be held once a month at celebrities night club, the second wed of each month. Dj’s delux and analog will be playing hiphop, and I will host the show. The show will consist of drag performances and burlesque. The show will also be closed with a professional dance troop number that will leave everyone completely impressed.
How else do you garner funds for your programs?
I receive donations from various sources to have a raffle during each event. The cover is simply 5 dollars for most of the events we hold and the vibe is wicked. The first Fierce was huge success so I am excited to watch the support grow as months pass.
What other ideas are you developing and require funding?
Starting April all my events at Celebrities and elsewhere will be going towards a hip hop program I plan i to start in the school next sept. The concept is called PARTY WITH A PURPOSE funding hip hop education to motivate, elevate and educate inner city youth through self expression. These events will create work and exposure for various dancers, dj, mc’s, vocalists etc.
Do your artists also get paid when they play?
After paying performer costs I will use the money to hire these same people to work with and mentor my students. I am an MC, Vocalist, promoter and strong believer that consciously through expression and lyrically through song we can reconnect community. I have a large loving fan base who has a strong desire to support the things I do for the kids. I’d also like to thank you for helping spread the love.
IMAGE CREDIT: http://www.chandlerportraitstudios.com/img/childrenssepia3.jpg
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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 2:42 am and is filed under Activism, Celebrations, Dance, Education, Interview, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sometimes I don’t want to think about where all our tax money really goes because I know the answer will be scary. There should ideally be no need to rely on fundraising in order to run youth programs. At the same time though, it’s neat to see that some people are determined to find creative ways to fund youth programs regardless of whether or not the government is willing to pitch in.