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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.