Want to Show Your Kids How to Connect? Teach Them How to Rap Greenlight Giving
go to original March 3, 2013

Founder of the youth outreach program, Daniel Manning, shares how music has helped him connect better with mentors and peers. His program is designed to help other youth tell their stories with music. (Mitch Eakins)

Words2Life began simply as a way for a father and his foster son to communicate. “When a 12-year-old kid moves into your house and he has a lot to learn – and doesn’t want to listen – you have to find a different way to talk to each other,” says Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and founder of Greenlight Giving, about his foster son, Daniel.  After watching Daniel doing freestyle rap with his friends, Keith realized that music would be the best way to start the conversation and bridge their two worlds.

What started as a way to connect with Daniel soon grew into a program with 15 kids from the foster care system. “We were impressed with the results, so we said let’s not make this a one-time thing – let’s make this a curriculum and share it with as many kids as possible,” says Keith.

Giving kids the opportunity to build self-esteem and feel pride – not shame – about their life stories through the poetry of rap proved transformational. A Words2Life 20-week program now being introduced at two inner-city Los Angeles county schools is empowering more at-risk youth to find their voices, using relationship management skills to move them in positive directions and lead more powerful lives.

“There is nothing that Daniel is today that wasn’t already inside him – and that’s true of all of these kids," says Keith. "They never get a shot unless you can strip away the insecurity, anger, fear and victimization that they grew up with. If you do that, the real elements of these kids really get out there. What you end up seeing is inspiring.”

To support the Words2Life project, please donate.

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