The Charge
As you know, for the past four years, I have been working diligently on the media justice project, Mother's Day Radio. This work started out as a community call for 24 hours of rest from degrading music on the radio to be replaced by 24 hours of music that respectfully represents women. It has blossomed into a multi-tiered non-profit initiative that engages high school youth, college students, artists, and community leaders in a collaborative effort that challenges sexist, racist media. One component of this project empowers youth with the tools to advocate for media justice and to utilize media resources to tell their own stories from their perspectives.
Over the past two years, over 100 interdisciplinary college students have participated in our media justice orientation. From these students, a select group of 25 college students have served as peer mentors for over 200 high school students in Los Angeles public and charter schools. I am excited to be working with partner schools, California State University-Los Angeles (CSULA) and California State University-Northridge (CSUN) again for the 2010-2011 school year. (To learn more about our Peer Mentor Program, please visit www.mothersdayradio.org.)
Today, I am asking for your help to keep this project going. On Saturday, October 16th, I will walk in the 3.5k "Walk for Hope," sponsored by Be the Cause in order to raise funds for the work of Mother's Day Radio. Will you please sponsor me as a walker with your tax deductible donation? Media and Health
This year we have expanded our Peer Mentor Program's emphasis to focus on the health risks our teens face as a result of risky sexual and violent behavior that they see modeled in media on a regular basis. Recent studies link exposure to degrading, misogynistic content in music lyrics and videos to risky sexual behavior in pre-adolescent African American girls. These girls have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases than girls with less exposure to this media. Other studies show links between media exposure and teen suicide rates, substance abuse, and violence among all youth.
In order to address these media related health issues, our mentor program trains college students to facilitate fun, engaging workshops with high school students in Los Angeles, California. These workshops teach teens to identify sexist, racist, stereotypical images in media and to understand how these images impact their socialization, behavior and health. We also help them to explore their self-image outside of the media images they are fed and teach them to make conscious, healthy decisions for their lives apart from this destructive modeling.
Your Support Makes A Difference
Mother's Day Radio is currently community run and funded. Generous supporters like you allow us to implement this program annually. This year, your help will allow us to expand to potentially 3 new partner high schools and to hire an intern to assist with program implementation. Since we are a public benefit non-profit initiative, fiscally sponsored by Art Share Los Angeles, your donation is completely tax deductible. Will you please donate to Mother's Day Radio today?
Your donation of $10, $25, $50, $100 or more will help us produce material for the training and activities the college participants use with our teens. It will also support the continuous marketing and expansion of the program and will allow us to hire an intern to assist with the administrative tasks and project coordination.
For your donation of $100-$499 you will be listed on www.mothersdayradio.org as a Donor to the Peer Mentor Project. For donations of $500 or more, you will be listed on our website and marketing material as a Program Sponsor and will have the opportunity to visit a mentor workshop session and have lunch with one of our peer mentors. If you wish to make a donation today and pledge an additional donation to be given before December 31, 2010, you will receive the same benefits. For example, you may donate $50 before October 31st and an additional $50 by December 31st, and you will be listed on our site as a Donor of the Peer Mentor Project.
If you wish to remain anonymous, you will be listed as an anonymous donor or sponsor.
Please write your tax deductible check or money order to Art Share Los Angeles and be sure to write Mother's Day Radio in the memo section. Please email Shaunelle@mothersdayradio.org with your donation amount, and mail your donation to the following address:
Mother's Day Radio c/o Art Share Los Angeles 801 E 4th Place Los Angeles, CA 90013 | 
