Fresh Camp Fundraiser 2018

Registration is Open!! 

Families are signing up their students at freshcamp.org right now! The Glenville Fresh Camp is June 4th - 15th. The East Cleveland Fresh Camp is July 9th - 20th. The Buckeye Fresh Camp is July 30th - August 10th. It's great to here parents excited to sign up their students again as well as hear from new families!

We Empower Youth

Youth are the leaders of tomorrow? Wait, hold up. We believe youth can be leaders today!

By championing youth voice, we are empowering them to grow in creativity, confidence, and character. As we explore our neighborhood's freshest people, places and attributes, our minds are open to new possibilities, new friendships, new ideas, and new music. We put our ideas to words and our words to music, creating powerful neighborhood anthems that ring out like mini Dr. King speeches. We teach students that their voice has power, and that their voice is needed. If words create worlds, words to a beat create universes!

Why Do It

Here are a few disturbing statistics about our neighborhoods:

- 56% of residents on Cleveland live in a food desert area.
- One in three students in Glenville are poisoned with lead.
- This is a lack accessible arts programming in Cleveland neighborhoods.

We use a project-based experiential learning process where students discuss community health issues such as obesity, lead poising, gun violence and a lack of jobs to find and help develop actionable solutions. Our arts-integrated eduation on these topics help students learn and retain their learning. By creating motivational songs, they become the spokesman and spokeswomen to help educate and inspire peers to be the change they want to see. So far, we've seen students pursue college for recording arts and culinary arts, start their own home garden, gain entreprenuerial mindsets and even start their own recording studio! Hope is the first step toward healing any of our communities challenges. Fresh Camp empowers the youth to inspire hope. 

More Than a 2-week Summer Camp

During the 2-week summer camp portion of our program, students learn beatmaking, lyric writing and studio recording as they create their original songs. Over the weeks following camp, they take their message to the streets! Public performances increase their confidence and give them experience making a real difference as they uplift their community one song at a time. If our campaign is successful, we will grow our advanced year-round programs through the foundations who support us. That's how your contribution helps create a year-round mentoring program for these wonderful youth.

As students attend Fresh Camp a few years in a row, they can become eligible for our paid intership program called, "Fresh Force." Only the most committed and passionate will make this workforce development team. These older students become camp counselors and junior producers to pass on the artistic craft and community change culture we have established. By providing these, much needed, summer jobs we not only fill a community need, we give Fresh Camp students opportunities to excel in leadership by "graduating" to the Fresh Force team. 

Student Lyrics + Parent Quotes

“I see people in this neighborhood trying to make it a better place, working harder and stronger so that one day Buckeye can one day win this race, if you wanna be part of it come down to the meeting place, come on down to the meeting place. . . . We [are in] Buckeye, havin fun, trying to make the neighborhood better for everyone” - students from the 2017 Buckeye Fresh Camp

“Though the lead light (gun violence) may be strong, we, we, can carry on. Lock arms and hold on, we’ll calm the storm. In the eyes of a soldier while the world’s getting colder. Ugh!” - Dylan Palmer aka T.A.L.D. (That Artistic Loving Dude), Lead Light

“Dairy Queen...McDonald's...Burger King. It ain’t as healthy as it all seems. Look, fast food, it ain’t the business. Go eat something that will help your fitness.” - Khalid

“During the 2 weeks Devin was at the Buckeye Fresh Camp we noticed a positive change in him immediately! Devin can be very shy, layed back, even stubborn at times but is very caring type of kid. No one gets to see that side of him due to him being so shy! But he completely opened up during his time at the camp! Everyday he came home with something new and exciting to tell us whether it was about him gardening or rapping! He also collaborated on a song and and made beats on a laptop with his new friends. It was about the potholes in the city of Cleveland and that was so exciting for him! For our son to perform in front of a crowd, it was mind blowing for our family to watch! Sending Devin to Fresh Camp was one of the best decisions we could have made this summer. Thank you to all the camp mentors and a big thanks to Doc and Lee! See you next summer.” - Melissa Philpott

We begin registration March. In June and July we run a one week preparation camp for camp counselors, then three 2-week Fresh Camps in Glenville, Buckeye and East Cleveland.

Throughout July and August we release each Fresh Camp's CD's and help the students perform at farmers' markets and community events throughout Cleveland to spread their message. Stay in touch with our Facebook page to stay up to date on our concert dates. 

See "Why We Do It" above.