Spirit Awakening Foundation

2023 Impact and Overview Year of Expansion & GrowthThe foundation restructured itself to better support program participants and clients; administrative department was streamlined to strengthen its capacity to be in greater proximity with students, their families and communities. New hires included a Program Coordinator, an Administrative Manager and an Administrative Assistant. New Master Teaching Artists and Teaching Assistants were trained and contracted to work in the schools and juvenile facilities.The foundation was awarded two major program contracts from the Office of Violence Prevention and Amity Foundation. SAF became a multiyear grantee of EDL Northwest for the next 4 years and continues to be a multiyear grantee of The California Wellness Foundation. Additionally, program participants were invited to present to the board of directors of The California Wellness Foundation at the invitation of outgoing President Judy Belk.Spirit Awakening became an inaugural member of Liberty Hill Foundations Liberation Fund; joining a cohort of 10 organizations creating an initiative for LA to become the largest jurisdiction in the nation to end the incarceration of girls and gender expansive youth.Marqueece Harris-Dawsons office gave SAF the use of the newly refurbished Historic Crenshaw Fire Station 54 to host our after-school Mentoring Leaders gatherings through which we provide free nutritious meals and non-alcoholic beverages, cultural and artistic field trips, retreats, international service trips, meditation/mindfulness practices, visual and performing arts programs.The foundation offered an Open House event at the Skirball Cultural Center where we acknowledged and celebrated the talents, wisdom and resiliency of our scholars.SAF was able to re-shoot the magical garden sequence in its upcoming narrative feature film.Spirit Awakening students at Dorothy Kirby probation camp, under the direction of the foundations Art Director and Master Teaching Artists began work on a new Los Angeles mural which will welcome visitors and students at the interior entrance of the facility. This project is a collaboration between LA Countys Probation Dept, Dept of Arts and Culture and Spirit Awakening.