Download FreQ Nasty's Exclusive Remix of Michael Franti's New Track, "The Future" and Help Build a Better Future for 300 Kids.
Power to the Peaceful Festival and Otto Schutt's BassCamp Foundation are raising funds for The Hunters Point Family to build a music studio and mentor program for at-risk youth.
The issue:
- Although San Francisco is renowned for its beauty, enlightenment, and progressiveness, the children and teens of Bayview Hunters Point must endure the harsh reality of poverty, rampant drug abuse, and overwhelming violence.
- 100% of kids in the Hunters Point Family program have lost a close friend or relative to violence in the community in the last year, and 35% have witnessed a homicide.
- Over 70% of these kids live with a family member with substance abuse issues and at least 35% of them were born addicted to controlled substances.
- 100% of these kids come from low and very low-income households and over 70% of them enter the program reading at least two grade levels below their own.
Please help!
The project:
The "Beats for a Better Future" action campaign goal is to raise $6,125 – enough money to equip a recording studio for the 300 boys and girls in the program, and the older youth who will mentor them, with everything they need to record and produce their own albums in house.
Join Michael Franti and FreQ Nasty, and donate to the “Beats for a Better Future” campaign. Help give the kids of Bayview Hunters Point a place to channel their energy into creativity instead of drugs and violence, and create themselves a better future.
Please help!
We talked with Michael Franti and the Power to the Peaceful crew, along with FreQ Nasty, to get their perspectives on this campaign and why they got involved:
Giveback: Can you tell your fans a little about this project?
FN: 'Beats For a Better Future' was partly a response to the death of a good friend of Michael's and mine, Otto Schutt. Otto worked with the kids of the Hunters Point Family for 10 years to try and provide a meaningful alternative to the harsh reality of the streets and homes of one of the most difficult to live in communities in the US. He inspired those kids to believe they could make a difference to their own and each others world, and in doing so inspired many more crew like myself to try and make a difference to those I come into contact with. The stats that we've come across in doing this campaign are unbelievable (see above), and to be able to help pass on the gift of making music to these kids is immense. I know sometimes it was the only thing that got me thru a hard time in my life. It's a cliche, but as Sir Bob said about music "when it hits you feel no pain". The Hunters Point Family is on the front line giving hope thru music and arts, and I'm down 110%. They remind me of what we should all be doing everyday. Thank you HPF!
Giveback: Why do you resonate with this particular issue?
MF/PTTP: Michael Franti has lived in Bayview/Hunters Point for the last 10 years. Being a resident in the neighborhood, Michael has seen the struggle in the streets and the needs for community centers, art and music programs in the schools. Since the government has cut back on these essential programs and neighborhood centers have been closed, the importance for people to give back to communities they live in and communities in need is vital. Music is obviously a passion and a business for Franti and the Power To The Peaceful organization, so helping to establish a music studio in Hunters Point is a big deal.
Giveback: What do you hope that donating this track will achieve?
MF/PTTP: Spreading the message of music to inspire art, action and compassion to help those in need.
FN: I want to see these kids get access to the tools to make music, to mentor the younger kids coming up in the neighborhood, and to give them all a chance to work on something that will help them achieve their goals. Music has the power to bring kids off the street and into the studio to bring goodness into others lives and I want to be a link in the chain that helps them achieve that.
Giveback: What can your fans do right now?
MF/PTTP:
Take action and do anything you can to help make positive change. For this project, cash donations will help materialize the dream for a music studio in Hunters Point and inspire positive change in lives!
Thank you!
This campaign is dedicated to the memory of Otto Schutt, who fought a heroic battle with cancer in 2008, and had been working with the Hunters Point Family since 1998.
Please help!
