Train 20 youth involved in “bounce” rap culture to use organizing tools, tactics, and strategies for solutions to community problems, including violent crime, domestic abuse, and homophobia.
As federal, state, and local funds for social services dry up, New Orleans youth find fewer access points to opportunities for self and community improvement. Added to this: a) Louisiana’s gun death rate is twice the national average, b) New Orleans' police system arrested 1 in 5 residents in 2009, and c) the city's school system ranks near the bottom of most major U.S. cities, and you have a hostile environment for minority teenagers and young adults in New Orleans.
We will take the vibrant social and cultural dynamic of the city’s bounce rap youth culture and integrate organizing for change by training youth to advocate for themselves.
The project will serve as a catalyst towards preparing currently unengaged and apathetic New Orleans youth to use themselves and their culture as the foundation for being civically engaged residents in the future of their city.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
