Chris Brown’s giving back initiatives are now in full effect. The Grammy winner officially launched his Symphonic Love Foundation yesterday (Nov.5) at the Lafayette Recreation Center in Los Angeles with several festivities, including a performance from The Debbie Allen Dance Academy.
On the heels on the foundation’s kick off, various Team Breezy leaders around the world gave back to their communities through volunteerism, walks and other activities including leading community arts and recreation programs; helping to renovate schools and gardens; donating food, clothing and school supplies; recycling; serving at soup kitchens; and volunteering at a festival for the homeless.
According to the Foundation: “Symphonic Love supports and creates arts programs for youth while encouraging every day public service, respect and kindness. The Foundation creates programs and provides grants in two focus areas: ART and LOVE. The ART grants are intended to encourage all forms of artistic expression to help youth realize their unique and creative selves. The LOVE grants are intended to promote the values of public service, kindness and respect for yourself and others.”
“It definitely has been a labor of love. That’s what it’s all about for me â art and love,” said Brown in a statement. “Art influences every aspect of my life completely. It helps me to be myself. Focusing on positivity and love helps you have respect for yourself and others. It’s what I strive for, so I hope this foundation and the website encourages everyone to express themselves creatively and be who they want to be.”
In 2012, Brown’s $200,000+ in grants include:
ART Programs
⢠Symphonic Love Scholars with The Debbie Allen Dance Academy: to provide full financial support and mentorship for five Symphonic Love Scholars during the Academy’s intensive year-long program.
⢠Symphonic Love Wheels with HOLA â Heart of Los Angeles: to provide SLF custom branded transportation for 500 kids from inner-city LA to receive ongoing arts education classes throughout the year.
LOVE Programs
⢠Jenesse Center: to support youth education programs, including the annual Change Youth Conversations which drew more than 200 teenagers this summer in Los Angeles and a multitude of youth nationally, to talk about dating violence and healthy relationships.
⢠Break the Cycle: to engage, educate and empower youth to build lives and communities free from domestic violence.
⢠Symphonic Love Best Buddies Day: to support one day every year when Team Breezy throughout the world reaches out to build friendships with the Best Buddies participants and to share the Symphonic Love value that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and kindness.
⢠AIDS Project Los Angeles: to sponsor The Collective to inspire the next generation to support HIV/AIDS testing and to fight stigmas against people living with HIV/AIDS.
Brown is also working with his mother and his aunt to create an arts and recreation center in his hometown of Tappahannock, Virginia.
To learn more, and to support Symphonic Love with the “Giving Assistant,” a free social giving app that enables fans to win prizes and raise funds for the cause while shopping online, visit: www.symphoniclovefoundation.org.
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