artworxLA (formerly the HeArt Project)
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Mission Statement
artworxLA combats the epidemic high school dropout crisis with a long-term, sequential arts program offering students a pursuable life path that inspires them to stay in school, evolve as unique individuals and flourish as creative adults.
About This Cause
artworxLA was founded in 1992 as The HeArt Project to help fill the void in arts education among L.A. inner city youth. We have steadily grown from one workshop at a community center in Skid Row to serve over 600 students every year at 25 alternative high school sites in three school districts -- the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), Culver City Unified and LAUSD. We have served thousands of L.A. students by partnering with working artists and creative professionals, cultural centers, and colleges/universities. Leveraging their resources and expertise, we offer a four-step "ladder" of increasingly advanced arts opportunities to underserved youth in alternative education who otherwise have no arts in their curriculum. In 2018, we jointly launched the Design and Media Arts Academy (DMAA) in partnership with LAUSD. At DMAA students receive 4 days of arts programming and Career Technical Education (CTE) certificates for media arts career track and real world experience in industry-themed pathways. artworxLA serves teens (ages 14-18) who struggle to graduate in the face of harsh realities—poverty, gang violence, pregnancy/parenting, learning disabilities, domestic abuse, and alcohol/drug addiction. They have been sent to continuation and community day schools because of failing grades, behavioral issues, a history of incarceration, or expulsion from their home districts. Most are low-income, endure difficulties at home and are three times more likely to be in foster care or with a relative. They are three times more likely than 11th graders statewide to have been in four or more fights at school in the past 12 months, and to have carried a gun to school. (“Alternative Education Options: A Descriptive Study of CA Continuation High Schools,” 2008). artworxLA schools are at least 90% Latino or African-American; many students are English Language learners, at least two years below grade level in reading, math and writing, and many are on probation. All are at high risk of dropping out for good, significantly increasing the likelihood of unemployment, poor health, incarceration, violence, and gang involvement (“CA Dropout Research Project” 2009).