US
These are some amazing organizations I am passionate about
Camp New Day
Comfort Zone Camp
R.Evolucion Latina
Camp New Day is a non-profit organization that provides respites and vacations for individuals with developmental disabilities, providing indoor and outdoor recreational activities that cater to all levels of client functionality. Providing camp weekends thorughout the year as well as a week-long camp in the summer, Camp New Day gives their clients the opportunity to have a fun vacation where they can play games, create arts & crafts, enjoy music & dancing, and make friends in a safe and loving environment. All of the staff are volunteers...It truly is one of the happiest places on Earth.
Check out the website to donate and help Camp New Day continue to bring happiness to these adults.
Comfort Zone Camp is another beautiful non-profit organization that sponsors FREE camps around the United States. It is a camp for children & young adults who have lost a parent or sibling...They come to this camp where they don't have to feel like their family is "different" because every camper and volunteer-counselor has also lost someone dear to them. The camp provides a safe place to tell your loved one's story out loud and to hear others' stories. Comfort Zone Camp allows people the time and space to grieve, which is something we don't often give ourselves the time to do. But it's not just sad stuff; campers have lots of fun with their new friends doing obstacle courses in the woods and sharing laughs around a campfire. Check out the website to donate: Every donation helps send a child to camp for free.
"Dare To Go Beyond"----That is the motto of R.Evolucion Latina, a non-profit organization founded by Luis Salgado (IN THE HEIGHTS) and Heather Hogan that is "dedicated to making a difference through the arts". Their mission is to "utilize the arts through educational and collaborative programming to empower the Latino community so they can discover their full potential." R.Evolucion Latina offers FOR FREE a "D2GB" camp for children in the summer as well as a theatre-training program called the "Beyond Workshop Series" for young adults. However, the organization depends on fundraisers/donations in order to send children to their camp and the young artists to their training program. So please, check out this wonderful organization and help make a difference through the arts like them.
Miss Representation
'It Gets Better' Project
I LOVE Miss Representation.org! MissRepresentation.org is "a non-profit social action campaign and media organization established to shift people’s consciousness, inspire individual and community action, and ultimately transform culture so everyone, regardless of gender, age or circumstance can fulfill their potential." Basically, this organization speaks out & takes action against media that sexually exploits women, which is a huge problem in our society today. Help be the change you want to see and promote gender equality by checking out www.missrepresentation.org
"It Gets Better" is a worldwide video campaign/movement whose mission is "to communicate to LGBT youth around the world that it gets better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to make it better for them." Over the past few years, bullying LGBT youth has become such an epidemic that in 2010 columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner telling their own story to assure and inspire hope in kids & teens that "it gets better". This was a beautiful and simple example of how our media can HELP instead of harm....People all over the country made their own "It Gets Better" YouTube videos. Check out the website and make your own "It Gets Better" video! <3
Artists For World Peace
I was just introduced to this organization recently because I sang for their fundraiser...And I am so impressed by the courageous work they do world-wide. Here is their mission statement: "Artists for World Peace is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We are artists and activists, and our goal is to feed the hungry, house the poor, and encourage peace throughout the world, working one person, one family, one community at a time. All donations are completely tax deductible. Artists for World Peace raises funds through making art to support grass-roots organizations in communities around the world. Currently, we provide schooling, shelter, food, clothing, and other necessities for those in need. Artists and peacekeepers everywhere incorporate the International Peace Belt in this important work."
Wendy Blacka-Nasta, the president of AFWP, gave me the International Peace Belt to wear at their fundaiser while performing...It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. People all over the world, from world leaders to celebrities/performers to children have worn the belt...Nelson Mandela himself has worn the belt and blessed it. I was so honored and humbled by this. Currently, AFWP is raising money for the house they are building this summer for a group of women in India that were sold into sex-trafficking at a young age and now have nowhere to live. These women have been unfairly treated and are now shunned...AFWP is giving them a fresh, new start by building this house....It is essentially rebuilding their lives. I am incredibly moved by the work this organization is doing, and I highly recommend checking out their website and donating what you can.