Hollywood Arts Draws Big Name Supporters

Photo by Hollywood Arts via Flickr

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Photo by Hollywood Arts via Flickr
Hollywood Arts, a non-profit targeted at providing arts education for high-risk youth, has announced Michael Yo from E! will host this year’s Dream Awards, which will be held at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles on November 13. The third annual award ceremony is Hollywood Arts' big fundraiser geared toward raising funds for the school’s new facility. With a little over 100 students ages 18 to 25 and around 40 students 13 to 17, the organization says they plan to move to a larger space within the next couple months that is more functional and can accommodate more students.

Most enrolled students at Hollywood Arts have been through the foster care system and are now living on the streets. Statistics show there are currently around 10,000 youth from the ages 13 to 25 living there, many of whom have gone through about nine different foster care homes prior to finally giving up.

Hollywood Arts believes their arts curriculum provides a learning environment that builds confidence, re-enters the students into an academic setting, and allows the youth to start envisioning their lives and future.

“Formal learning can be very intimidating…. by the time they come to us they believe they cannot achieve,” said Rachel Romanski, executive director of Hollywood Arts, “We make learning fun and accessible to them.”

Within just four years Hollywood Arts has already seen much success in helping local youth as well as attracting large name supporters. Last year’s fundraiser had guest performances from Maroon 5 and had celebrities such as Adrien Brody, The Good Wife star Alan Cumming, Greg Finley from Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Monica Raymund from Lie to Me, all contribute in spreading awareness about the organization and its mission. This year the Dream Awards will feature a special performance from Grammy Award winning guitarist Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine.

"Nobody likes to be underestimated. Everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue their dreams: to get the education and the guidance that they need and to have a life that they can truly be proud of,” said Jason Sudeikis actor and supporter of Hollywood Arts, “Hollywood Arts helps young people who need a little extra support, a little extra guidance in life, and I think that's fantastic."

With help from the Dream Awards, a VIP reception, dinner, and musical performance, Hollywood Arts hopes to give it all back to the students and their education.

The venue holds about 400 seats and tickets start at $300.

“It is important that people know that this is, for many of our young students, the last intervention in their lives. Many of these young people have been shuffled around systems and we if we don’t do something then we are talking about these young people living chronically as homeless adults,” said Romanski, “this is unacceptable to me. It is so important that LA warps their arms around these young people and let them know they are not invisible and let them know that their lives do matter.”