-------
FOUNDER OF NON-PROFIT ACADEMY LIVED HOMELESS FOR TWO YEARS TO KEEP PERFORMING ARTS IN THE COMMUNITY
![]() |
Tyra Hawthorne, founder of Heartbeat Music Academy, with inner city students that are part of her program |
San Diego, CA -- Heartbeat Music & Performing Arts Academy is not just a non-profit organization to Founder & Executive Director, Tyra Hawthorne; it is a way of life to many of the inner-city youth in Southeast San Diego. Incorporated in 2014, Ms. Hawthorne has had her share of ups and downs with her non-profit.
She comments, "I took on a sector in this non-profit world that is extremely hard to get support for. We are losing funding for Performing Arts programs in our inner-city schools every day, so when I created Heartbeat it was to create the beginning of a solution to this problem."
Like many non-profit organizations that do not receive enough support to sustain, in 2016, Heartbeat Music & Performing Arts Academy was on the verge of closing its doors. She continues, "No matter what I did it was never enough. I work full time, so there was never a need for me to take a salary from the organization.