June 2, 2017

What If ?

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Dakar Foundationcut its teeth in building a Los Angeles County-based Digital Media Academy during our five years as a vendor at Compton Unified School District, and through our network of public/private organizations, private foundation and film production and partnership with LAUSD, we’ve arrived at the doorsteps of Kevin Hart, and a proposed umbrella Hart Beat University.


OVERVIEW:

Mentorship is the key component in bringing corporate partners such as Intel, Cisco, Oracle, At&T and Apple to the tablel for potential mentorship.  Dakar saw the vision, yet we wern’t ready for the transformative change needed to complete the task.  Nevertheless it gave us the neccessary experience that has provided us with a second bite at the apple with Kevin Hart.

TALENT DEVELOPMENT/PLACEMENT

The Hart Beat Academy Model is an ambitious initiative that aims to provide critical skills and experiences to youth in underserved areas that will allow them to take advantage of the digital shift that has transformed the technology and media sectors.

MISSION:

We will establish this by deliberately reaching out to the business and private sectors to partner with School Districts K-12 to ensure all students are college and career ready.  We champion the work of our students, faculty, and supporters, and promote their success stories to potential partners site visits.   Through our work, we seek to enhance the branding of Hart Beat School by brokering relationships with School Districts and using Hart Beat as a venue for collaboration and investment from corporate, community and individual partners to enrich the spiritual, physical, nutritional, and mental health of the students who struggle to overcome the lack of resources and hope often associated with underserved communities.
 

GOALS: 

HOW:

We have assembled an incredible team dedicated to building the initiatives and to create a sustainable pipeline of youth who can step into apprenticeships, internships and job opportunities. We are currently bringing a number of educational initiatives online, including:
Brown Bag TV – A Fab Lab/ AR/VR Maker’s Space Facility Co-located inside of Hart Beat Digital
Existing Video Production class (150 Students)- The instructional opportunity for Digital Media Production and initial users of the Brown Bag TV facility featuring Youtube Creator Playbook
Makers Academy Computer Engineering (100 Students)- They provide subject matter for the Video Production class to report on and also potentially provide technical assistance to the production team.

PROJECTED OUTCOMES:

The cumulative effect of these initiatives will be transformative. Our 5-year goal is to reach 250 kids in the program per year producing on average 67 cohorts per year (positive outcomes from the program). Of course, these outcomes will be skewed toward the outer years based on student matriculation through the subject matter, program maturity and increased partner participation.  Ultimately, we expect to produce 335 positive outcomes over the first 5 years and achieve a 25% success rate of delivering capable talent to the workplace (for paid internships or job placement).

The Way Ahead:
 
Given the mentorship work that Silicon Beach and Hollywood does in this space, we see a number of potential opportunities to collaborate:
 
Brown Bag TV: properly equipped will provide a powerful hub for collaboration and learning. Partners can help by advising us on how to best utilize a space such as Hart Beat, and extend to backpack journalism. Making Brown Bag TV a third space-incubator, not school or home, but where young people can work, learn and grow SAFELY and productively. We’re in conversations with corporations such as Intel, AT&T, Cisco, and Apple to provide input as to how to make the most of the resources we have.·
 
Thought leadership/teaching/coaching: Intel involved in every aspect of the entertainment, technology and social justice concerns. As our young people develop skills, they will certainly benefit from any insights, curriculum, and coaching related to the production (and business!) of entertainment and social media diplomacy.
Experiential learning: Given Silicon Beach’s emerging profile, exposure to the entrepreneurial spirit of this sector will prepare students tocompete for long-range existing internship programs.
Content Creation: In addition to thought leadership, we should discuss the potential for students to look-in on actual (projects) content creation.
Given the  multi-cast platform we have with Brown Bag TV and the historically compelling champion-of the-human-spirit content from inner-cities such as Compton, the San Fernando Valley, Bay Area CBO’s connected to Silicon Valley