Hearts Of Fire Project Update

[Bob Ballard]

Hi Everyone (especially Sally and Ray)!

Just wanted to log in here and tell you what we are up to with the Hearts Of Fire Project.

Hearts of Fire is a project that will shift public perceptions of the homeless through artistic self-expression. The humanity of the homeless will be expressed to the world through their individual and collective expression of art and music. The objectives of this project are an extension component of the Give US Your Poor initiative: to change attitudes and behavior toward homeless people, garner support for powerful solutions, and engage the public through multi-media technology.

The Hearts of Fire project brings the voice of homeless people to the public through compelling expressions of their art and music that educate and inspire. We will capture the art and music of the homeless on site using mobile recording and art studios. In partnership with local homeless advocates and agencies, we will tap into the vast pool of artistic talent among the homeless. We will use that talent to not only draw attention to the issue of homelessness, but to begin a fundamental shift in how people relate to the homeless. By facilitating, capturing and publicizing the art and music of homeless men, women and children, we vividly display the face of their humanity to the world.

Newsletter, August 3, 2007

What’s New

New Team Members!

A big, warm welcome to:

 Raymond Powers – Volunteer/Intern Team

Ray is an amazing guy and we are very excited to have him on the team. He will be contacting colleges, universities and art/music schools in each tour city to find student interns who wish to assist us on site. He will also coordinate the scheduling of the interns to best meet our needs. To learn more about him, visit his web site www.simplebrilliance.com.

The Tour

East Coast

Boston (October 1 – 5)

The Pine Street Inn has expressed serious interest in the project and we expect them to come on board.

New York (October 8 – 12)

One shelter has signed up - Ichan House in mid-town Manhattan. We have also contacted Icahn House East on the lower east side, and several other shelters

Washington, D.C. (October 15 – 19)

We have two shelters on board in D.C - Community of Hope and Turning Point! Community of Hope has two sites and serves 30 homeless families. Turning Point is a shelter for women with children and serves between 20-28 families. Two other organizations contacted us regarding the project and are expected to come on board soon. Jobs Have Priorities, Inc. assists homeless individuals with finding permanent employment and housing and is affiliated with Federal City Shelter. Bright Beginnings is a child and family development center serving 65 families with 90 children that provides Early Head Start and Head Start to children who are homeless. The week in DC is just about full!

West Coast

San Francisco (October 29 – November 2)

We have contacted several shelters and there is strong interest here! We have started conversations with Central City Hospitality House, Raphael House and St. Anthony’s Foundation.

Los Angeles (November 5 – 9)

Two major shelters are very interested in the project and we expect them to finalize their commitment next week. We are also identifying and contacting additional shelters.

San Diego (November 12 – 16)

We are very happy to announce that Father Joe’s Villages will be hosting the last two days of our tour! We will spend one day at the Village, a large community housing center and another day at the Toussaint Academy of Arts and Science, a school for homeless teenagers. We will celebrate the final day of the tour at Toussaint and are very excited about working with the talented teens who participate in the cutting edge programs there.

Film

We are discussing the project with the final film makers. We will select a film maker shortly to make this amazing documentary and help us get it to the public.

Funding

The budget for the project is $57,000. So far, we have raised about $5,000, counting in-kind contributions.

What’s Needed

People

Critical: We need someone with significant and successful fundraising experience.

Critical: We need someone with marketing and publicity experience, particularly in major markets like New York and LA.

We also need a local “street team” to put up posters in the vicinity of the shelters in each city the week before we arrive. We also need people to help with intake, setting up, etc. at each site.

We are looking for people like you who really want to contribute to shifting our view of humanity and, in the process, transforming your life working on this project.

To find out more about who we are looking for, go to www.volunteermatch.org, select “Virtual” from the Distance drop down menu and “Homeless & Housing” from the Interest Area menu in the Search area. Who knows, the person you see described there might be YOU!

If you or anyone you know are interested, please contact Bob Ballard, Tel. [phone] or email [e-mail].

San Francisco

We need help in San Francisco. What we need is someone to be the local project coordinator. That entails contacting and working with shelters to ensure everything is set up for our visit in November.

Web Site

We need to get our web site up and running. Any web site designers out there who are ready for some fantastic exposure?

Celebrities

We need one or more celebrities to attract media attention and funding to this project. If you know anyone, who knows anyone, who knows anyone, etc., etc., etc. (think 6 degrees of separation here) that may be connected to a celebrity, PLEASE let us know. This is an amazing opportunity for one or more well-known actors, performers or even politicians to associate themselves with an inspiring and easy to work with project.

Funding

We are searching for patrons to fund this project. Funding is a critical aspect of this project. Any amount is appreciated.

If you know of anyone or any organization that you believe would support this project, please let us know about it as soon as possible.

Please send your tax deductible donations to:

Give Us Your Poor/Hearts Of Fire 323 E. Matilija Street
Suite 110-251
Ojai, CA 93023

Project Brochure

Download Brochure 7-9-07.pdf

We have attached our Project Brochure to this message. Please feel free to distribute it to those whom you feel would be interested.

We also have a more detailed Project Plan that is we will provide to interested parties upon request.

Summary

This project will change how we see homeless people and how they see themselves. All we need to do is let it happen. It is clear from the response and the conversations we have had with people that we are ready for a "a world where all people are loved, respected and embraced as valued members of the human family; a world where our similarities are more important than our differences."

Bob Ballard Project Director
877-827-2012 (toll free)
805-933-9294 (direct)
[e-mail]

[Sally Carless]

This sounds like a beautiful project, Bob!