News & Update

The Los Angeles Department of Mental Health under the Transforming L.A. Initiative added a 4^th year to our contract and increased our budget to $400,000.00.

The Los Angeles County of Education (LACOE) in June extended its contract with Drumming for Your Life for four more years and even doubled the amount. This extension means more people will be helped and benefit from the programs.

Through a grant from the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), Drumming for Your Life held its main event on May 16, Creating the Community and Life You Want Drum Circle, at Grand Park, where 250 people from all walks of life came together to find common purpose. Billed as the largest drum circle in Los Angeles history, politicians and head medical officers from county departments highlighted the importance of drumming for mental health support and there was a performance by the Queen of Percussion, Sheila E. Drumming for Your Life received a Commendation from all the head politicians of L.A. County. Here’s the link to the film. Channel 5 News featured the event three times. Channel 4 News also featured the event.

Drumming for Your Life programs provided at Littlerock High School in Lancaster and iLEAD Antelope Valley Hybrid School showed dramatic increases in both fluency and comprehension scores. Its success sparked the interest of Channel 7 News, and so they came to iLEAD Antelope Valley Hybrid Charter School to film our Reading & Rhythm program for their SoCAl Strong segment.

Drumming for Your Life has reached the end of its third highly successful year through the Transforming LA Initiative, where over 1,000 adults and k-12th grade students per year benefited. Many adults suffering from dual/diagnosis and homelessness, students who have fallen behind in school, and those second language learners showed great strides in healing and increasing test scores.

Drumming for Your Life will be leading 21 Creating the Life and Community You Want Drum Circles throughout Los Angeles County during May and June's LACDMH's Take Action L.A. Click on link to find an event near you. Visit LA County Mental Health Month website for more information.

Drumming for Your Life is excited to start our Life Skills Drumming program at the Weingart Center in downtown Los Angeles. We’ll be working with high control offenders.

Through our contract with Transforming L.A. we’re working with ALMA Family Centers, Men’s and Women’s Reintegration Centers, N.E. Mental Health Wellness Center, The Center in Hollywood, Hollywood/Wilshire Public Health Center, L.A. Public Library & St. Alphonsus School

UCLA research started in September with our Life Skills Drumming program at N.E. Mental Health Wellness Center.

We welcome our newest board member Dr. Joan Bravo and facilitator Alberto Lopez to our team.

We’re starting Reading & Rhythm programs at Little Rock High School and iLEAD Antelope Valley Hybrid.

Forward Thinking Virtual Summit put on by The Network for Social Work Management – We are leading The Pulse of Mindfulness Workshop on June 14th from 1:15-2:15pm. Go to https://socialworkmanager.org for more info.

WisdoMania Festival – Mental Health Month. We are leading a Creating the Life You Want virtual workshop May 15th from 3-4pm. Go to https://www.wisdomaniafest.com/schedule.

Carlos Santana’s Arts Academy welcomes the Reading & Rhythm program to their school to work with some of their second grade students.

Transforming L.A. has renewed DFYL’s contract with DMH for the upcoming fiscal year where we’ll be working both our Reading & Rhythm and Life Skills Drumming programs throughout the Los Angeles area.

LACOE (L.A. County Office of Education) has renewed DFYL’s Reading & Rhythm program for the juvenile halls for the upcoming fiscal year where we’re working with both Title 1 and IEP students.

Mental Health Action Day - In partnership with over 450 brands, nonprofits, cultural leaders and government agencies, Drumming for Your Life Institute is proud to be a partner in the first-ever Mental Health Action Day on Thursday, May 20th when we will encourage and empower people to take the next step for #MentalHealthAction. Go to MentalHealthActionDay.org to learn more and join our effort to shift from awareness to action on mental health!” “#MentalHealthAction”

DMH and Community Partners have chosen DFYL through Transforming LA Through Partnership Initiative to work with underserved communities in SA4 with both our programs. - The LA County Department of Mental Health serves a quarter of a million patients, the largest in the nation. For nonprofits that lack infrastructure but provide impactful mental health services along with maintaining strong and authentic connections with their communities, the process for acquiring contracts to help serve LACDMH’s patients can seem almost impossible. “Working and contracting with government agencies is very difficult,” said LACDMH Director of Mental Health Jonathan Sherin, M.D., PhD. “This initiative’s main focus is to serve grassroots organizations who know their communities best to get things done.”