Programs

Loop Dreams

The Loop Dreams program uses a music education and youth development curriculum to expose young people to the hip hop arts and foster key skills that contribute to long term educational and career success. The program teaches participants how to produce music, write lyrics, dance and succeed in the music industry. More importantly, Loop Dreams teaches students key skills such as communication, financial literacy, goal setting, integrity, respect, responsibility, self discipline and time management. By combining music education with a youth development approach, Loop Dreams encourages participants’ musical aspirations and creativity while also giving them the skills needed to reach their goals.

College Drop In Program

The Kanye West Foundation implemented the College Drop In Program in collaboration with the Dr. Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA during the 2009/10 academic school year. This program exposes students from the Lou Dantzler Middle School to UCLA faculty who are conducting research pertaining to hip hop, jazz and African American culture and will introduce them to college level curriculum, activities and campus life. The program will occur during four weekends throughout the year.  By giving middle school students first hand exposure to the college atmosphere, both academic and fun, the Foundation hopes to spark their continued interest in their studies and help them create connections to a world class university located right in their city.

Kanye West Foundation S.H.O.W.

The Kanye West Foundation S.H.O.W. was created to address academic performance, attendance and behavior problems in public high schools, specifically in Chicago. Highland Park High School sophomore, David Abrams, conceived the event concept as he listened to a story on NPR about a Chicago Public School (CPS) student who was failing out of school. As an incentive to stay in school, the student’s mother offered him two tickets to a Lil Wayne concert. David turned to his mom and said, “We should do that - let’s get kids to SHOW up to school, get their grades up and put on a free concert for them.” After enlisting the help of his friend Zach Harris, a sophomore at New Trier High School, the two of them gathered their friends and founded S.H.O.W. (Students Helping Our World), eventually forming partnerships with CPS, the City of Chicago and ultimately, the Kanye West Foundation.

Last year, the Kanye West Foundation S.H.O.W. challenged students at 6 Chicago public high schools to improve their grades, attendance and behavior. In exchange for their improvement, KWF S.H.O.W. offered free tickets to see Kanye West perform at the Chicago Theatre. In an amazing demonstration of their commitment to their education, more than 2,500 students improved their grades and attendance and were in the house on June 11, 2009 to see a special Kanye West concert in their honor. The event was taped and broadcast by FuseTV providing a national television platform to help raise awareness of the important work that the Kanye West Foundation is doing to keep kids in school.