Dearest neighbor,
The last few weeks have been extremely difficult for our youth. As we navigate COVID-19 along with the very visible reality of police brutality and racism that impacts our youth's daily lives, we are learning how important art is, now more than ever.
Will you help us interrupt trauma with love, kindness and art?
For the first time in our history, we have been selected to participate in this year's Global Giving accelerator campaign. We are proud to participate in their June Accelerator, which challenges us to raise $5000 from 40 unique donors from June 8-26.
GlobalGiving is the world’s first + largest global crowdfunding community that connects nonprofits, donors, and companies in 170+ countries
Donate to our cause here: http://goto.gg/47229
For the past six years, we've hosted month long art exhibits #KNOWJUSTICE led and created by our youth artists. Since 2016, we've partnered with Drake University Law School to learn with and educate our youth on how to represent themselves in court, how to engage with authorities, landlord vs tenant rights, their rights as a student in the education system, the steps to become a citizen, the history of U.S. immigration and the structural and systemic inequity.
Here are photos from our #KNOWJUSTICE exhibits in the past:
(Click the photo below to flip through the album.)
As you know, we cancelled our 6th annual #KNOWJUSTICE: Know Change youth art exhibit last month due to COVID-19. Because of this, we lost over $30,000 of revenue through ticket sales, art income sales and sponsorships. We won't lose hope because next year, our #KNOWJUSTICE: Know Change exhibit will include all the changes that have happened and will happen this year. We look forward to your support and can't wait to share with you what our youth artists create in response to "knowing change".
We know it's not new for our youth artists to face racial trauma like racism in their everyday lives, but at a time like this, when it's easy to be plugged in from anywhere, these images of violence and videos of police brutality continue to keep our youth living in fear, uncertainty and with consistent trauma. 100% of the youth we currently share space with are youth of color who identify as those being harmed from people who are supposed to protect them.
Our youth artists need YOU!
Donate today through our Global Giving page and help us #KnowChange through art: http://goto.gg/47229
With love and kindness,
The ArtForce Iowa Family
