The LA LA Peace Project is a movement that is sending a powerful message throughout the world that spotlights the cruelty of violence and the destruction plaguing our communities. The LA LA Peace Project is the brainchild of well-known producer Rick Gianatos. Rick along with his passionate and talented team of Artists including Pam Vincent, Jim, Gilstrap, Joyce Vincent, Scherrie Payne, Jessica Williams, Cynthia Manley David Crooks and the Altair All-Star Choir have created a monumental video including the LA LA Peace Song,” written by the famous Johnny Bristol.
The powerful video is set to go viral. It shows how tragically lives have been lost due to violence and the trauma victims of those who are still suffering are affected along with the LA LA song giving a voice to these chains of events, raises awareness and shares hope. The lyrics of the song provide the answer to address violence in our communities…PEACE. The purchase of the song will help people to get one step closer to bringing about the PEACE.
Rick Gianatos chose West Baltimore, Maryland organization, LIGHT Health & Wellness to benefit from this project. CEO of LIGHT Health & Wellness, Debbie Jacobs Rock was a national disco recording artist, performing under the name Debbie Jacobs in the late 70’s, one of my biggest hit songs “Don’t You Want My Love” which did very well on the charts. The dance circuit and gave her the opportunity to perform in wonderful disco clubs across the country. During that time, she began to witness the start of an epidemic and saw the devastation of AIDS (HIV) in the gay community. Jessica Williams (one of the LA LA Peace singers) and so many other famous singers became her mentors. They traveled the club circuit together and after they finished their shows they would do benefit shows to raise funds for community-based organizations in that city that were providing critical services to those impacted by this disease.
“I love children because in them I see the infinite human potential. When I found out how HIV was impacting the African-American community, I returned back to Baltimore and started the first day and respite program for children and families impacted by HIV. It was named The Baltimore Pediatric HIV Program,” says Debbie.
“We are grateful to Rick for choosing LIGHT Health & Wellness to benefit from this project. This support will allow us to continue providing much-needed quality childcare, mental health, substance abuse, and workforce development services,” says Debbie.
Today, LIGHT Health & Wellness located in West Baltimore provides services for working parents including a safe and nurturing environment for their babies to be educated, training for new skills to advance their careers, and addressing mental health needs by helping them to deal with any life-altering traumatic events.
“The Baltimore neighborhoods get negative press because of the spike in violent crimes in recent years, but looking through the positive lens, we have awesome partnerships with our national and local leaders, churches, schools and other community-based organizations that do great work,” says Debbie.
Involvement with the LA LA Peace project is a great start to begin thinking about how to support efforts in ending the violence. “If we each, collectively, really commit to peace, we can turn the tide on the epidemic of violence in a way that the world has never seen,” says Debbie.
Each month the LIGHT Health & Wellness organization shares an e-newsletter. Last month it paid homage to Dr. Martin Luther King.
Fifty years ago, this month, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Despair plagued our communities, many were discouraged, hope was lost, and a darkness engulfed the hearts of many who did not know how life would go on moving forward. His death left a void, but the work he began did not die with him. In fact, his legacy of fighting for equity, eradicating discrimination, and instilling in his people, the importance of education. The focus on creating a better life for ourselves and our children continues to live on in our communities. The need for us to commit to this focus grows stronger and deeper with each passing year. For some, fifty years is a lifetime; yet his work still remains unfinished.
Let us persevere. We must renew ourselves, become positioned for growth that demonstrates our commitment to LIGHT’s values and the clients for whom we are their voice. We must continue, through actions, small and great, to fulfill his dream. When each one of us makes an effort through the smallest of changes, we can create a huge collective impact.
We need to feed our strong desire to positively affect the areas in our community where our presence is needed…to make a difference by the LIGHT that we shine.
During LIGHT’s almost 20-years of history, they’ve had the opportunity to provide services to more than 20,000 individuals. Helping people achieve a number of positive outcomes and overcome challenges. Here is an example. A mom and dad with 4 children, a set of triplets (3 years old) and one (6) year old sought help from LIGHT. The dad lost his job and they were faced with trying to pay for childcare for (3) toddlers on the single income of the mom. Through foundation funding, LIGHT was able to enroll the three children in their child care center without any charge to the parents, while dad sought employment so that they could get back on their feet.
In making its way from West to East, the La La Peace Project will become a movement, spreading the love and peace that our country so desperately needs in each city and state across the country.
“We hope that the La La Peace Project will become a movement, spreading the love and peace that our country so desperately needs in each city and state across the country,” says, Debbie Rock.
http://rgpentertainmentgroupinc.com/
Instinct Culture 