How to Volunteer with Create Now! and Help Our Kids Personally
We help kids in trouble turn their lives around
Create Now! changes the lives of high-risk and at-risk youth through creative arts mentoring, resources and opportunities.
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Sharing Volunteer Experiences
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Now! offers volunteer mentors the chance to share their knowledge and experience with the kids who need it the most in our community. Many of our mentors feel more fulfilled and happier with their careers, since their lives take on special meaning. It's very powerful to know that you've made a positive impact on a young person's life. Our volunteers report that they also get along better with their own families after mentoring these youth and find themselves becoming more patient, open-minded and better prepared to deal with challenges.
"I've been in the film and TV industry for many years. And I can look back at all my successes and the wonderful things that I've gotten from my career, but nothing has given me so much joy as working with Shanell. This makes it all worthwhile." - Babs Greyhofsky, writer/producer "Magnum PI," "Sheena"
"I happened to run into the mother of Daniel, one of the boys that I'm working with at Camp David Gonzalez. She asked if I was the writing teacher and when I responded ' yes,' she told me that Daniel talked about me and our class every week with great enthusiasm. She asked me if he was forced to take my workshop and I explained that it was voluntary. Daniel's mother was shocked. She couldn't believe that her son had actually volunteered to join a writing workshop. She was absolutely thrilled that he was asking for books and wanted to read more." - Glenda Shaw, writer/producer, "Leeza Gibbons " and "Montel"
"I'd meet with Steven and Eddie and it would energize me. I'd feel revitalized. Afterwards, I was really glad that I'd met with them."- Jim Bernstein, sit-com writer "The Family Guy" and "American Dad"
"This experience was one of the most rewarding I have had. I watched the kids literally blossom from closed and shut down to excited participants. I was amazed by their creativity, production savvy and willingness to help each other. I know that by working on this video project, these children have a little more belief that their dreams can come true." - Laura Doyle, "Early Edition" (CBS)
A Mentor's Letter
After a little down time I wanted to find a different placement and Create Now! placed me at Gardner House, a group residence for boys 12 to 18 years of age. I have held a weekly session there since November 2001 and it has been incredible. There were some rocky times in the beginning where I felt completely under qualified to deal with some of the stuff that I had to face but I saw that the boys looked forward to the class and I could not let them down. To date we have completed three short video projects and are embarking on our fourth. We write the script or outline for each project. Rehearse, improve and act each out and edit on a laptop computer. We also read from professional scripts each week from TV and movies, with everyone taking a role - it's a great thing because it seems so simple but so much can be conveyed from script structure to the timing of a joke to basic reading skills and even to just confidence. I have seen boys change before my eyes from scared or rebellious to interested and fun - I know it has to do with the larger program but the creative time provides an outlet that is irreplaceable.
One of the kids from our Tuesday night groups, Sam, is now interning for me here at the American Film Institute because he wanted to learn more about movies and filmmaking.
Overall, the experience with Create Now! and Gardner House has been hugely life affecting. It is something all of my friends, family and co-workers know about. It is a subject I go on about at cocktail parties. I work in a business where people are stressed, preoccupied and always short on time. Yet I feel that I give an hour to two hours a week to this volunteer effort - less time than it seems that most people I work with commit to following some reality TV show - and it gives me back something so huge that it is difficult to explain.
Sincerely,
Joe Petricca
Vice Dean,
AFI Conservatory
American Film Institute
Note: Sam has graduated from Gardner House and is now enrolled at Santa Monica College. He is pursuing a career in Stand Up Comedy and recently performed at Create Now!'s Third annual Comedy Night at the Laugh Factory.
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