The Harmony Project is an award-winning nonprofit organization that targets at-risk youth in underserved areas of Los Angeles by promoting positive youth development through ongoing, year-round music lessons and ensemble participation.

“Our mission is to promote the healthy growth and development of children through the study, practice and performance of music and to build healthier communities by investing in the positive development of children through music,” said founder Margaret Martin.

Special Needs Network Inc. (SNN) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to respond to the crisis of autism and other developmental disabilities in underserved communities by providing educational forums, resources, and specialized learning opportunities for parents and caregivers of special needs children, intervention programs, and advocacy training. Founded in 2005, SNN grew out of the efforts of two mothers whose sons were diagnosed with autism.

In 1995, Street Poets Inc. founder Chris Henrikson began teaching a weekly poetry workshop in the Los Angeles County Probation Department’s Camp Fred Miller as a volunteer through the Writers Guild of America. The experience transformed his life, and, in the process, Street Poets United, a grassroots poetry collective for the workshop alumni, was born.

In 1997, the group joined forces with the New York City-based DreamYard Drama Project to form DreamYard/LA.

The Junior Firefighter Youth Foundation was founded in 2003 and is a community-based organization that aims to mentor, train and develop young minds for the future. Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Brent Burton is the CEO/founder of the foundation and County Fire Chief Deputy Daryl L. Osby serves as the director.

Burton is also the current president of the African American Firefighter Museum and former president of the Stentorians of Los Angeles County.

The foundation has created and developed the Junior Fire Cadet Program.