ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION FOR AT-RISK YOUTH

AWOL INFORMATION

INCORPORATION INFORMATION

State of Georgia IncorporationSeptember 2004

Federally recognized 501 (c) 3June 2004

BOARDMEMBERS

Christopher Middleton Board Chairman

Inez Johnson Treasurer

Denise Cooper Secretary

Dr. David A. Sanders Parliamentarian

J. Craig Gordon

Tony JordanEx Officio

DaVena JordanEx Officio

FINANCIALINFORMATION

Financial Management Firm: Camco Financial, LLCCharles Mills, Principal

Fiscal Year: January-December

IRS 990-Available online:www.guidestar.com

Audited Financial Statements Available online: www.awolinc.org

MISSION STATEMENT

VISION STATEMENT

ABOUT AWOL

Our mission is to promote and provide self-awareness through the use of Poetry, Hip-Hop and Life.

AWOL All Walks of Life, Inc. exist to provide youth with authentic and engaging high quality arts education in an environment that encourages respect, creativity, education and most of all non-violence. AWOL is committed to the holistic development of youth with an emphasis on parental and community involvement.

The mission of the organization is to promote and provide self-awareness through the use of Poetry, Hip Hop, and Life. This mission is accomplished by providing youth with a safe after-school and evening arts-based educational programs. The organization’s main goal is to successfully develop youth in an environment that encourages respect, education, creativity and most of all non-violence. Using the elements of hip hop as a means to promote self-expression and self-respect, AWOL strives to provide troubled youth with an outlet for their creative energy and frustration, empowering them to overcome peer pressure and to make better decisions in their daily lives. While hip hop has a negative connotation in many communities because of the art form’s portrayal in mass media, AWOL believes in its potential, when applied positively, as a force for social change that allows students to examine social issues and messages while working to achieve a level of “critical consciousness.” By allowing youth to explore their own potential using Hip Hop as a medium, young people can utilize it as a tool of communication, social change and self-awareness.

What began as a casual gathering of poets, musicians and emcees at Savannah State University in 1997 was incorporated as a non-profit group in September of 2004, a way for Founder/CVO Tony “Polo” Jordan, an emcee and probation officer, to compromise between his love of hip hop and his experiences helping troubled kids. Juxtaposing hip hop culture and positive youth development though various artistic mediums, the organization has become one of Savannah’s premier youth serving organizations. With a mission “to promote and provide self-awareness through the use of poetry, hip hop and life,” the organization hosts a number of events including: a weekly television show called the Chop Shop,

PROGRAMS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

MUSIC EDUCATION

FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHY

THEATER AND PERFORMING ARTS

The goal of AWOL’s Information Technology Training Class is to enable youth to enter the world of Information Technology and enhance their abilities, employability and self-sufficiency. The primary objective of is to provide computer training, skills and knowledge to youth living in the Savannah community, with a particular focus on Juvenile Offenders. In concert with the IT training will be Project Mean Green, which will recycle computer technology and provide low and no-cost computing to individuals and not-for-profit organizations in the community. Any computer equipment, working or not, can be donated to Goon Squad. Our youth IT workers, lead by a team of Savannah’s most savvy IT professionals, will repair and reuse what computers we can, redirecting tons of machines out of landfills and into the hands of people who need them. After being refurbished, the computers are given to low income families and non-profit organizations lacking technology access.

Taught through a combination of classroom style workshops and hands-on training in AWOL’s production lab and recording studio, The P.R.O.J.E.C.T.S (The Positive Re-Education Of Juveniles Everywhere Concerning the Streets) gives students an opportunity to develop their talents while gaining first hand experience in multiple aspects of the music industry, as an artists (song writing, producing, recording) and a business person (public relations, licensing, marketing). The 22-week program is designed to expand the musical literacy and personal awareness of students using lessons about music history, music theory and creative writing that feeds into a collaborative environment where students work together to write, produce, record and market an album comprised of the best student work from the class.

The film and video production class, titled “My Block”, is a summer-long program that provides students with an introduction to the various aspects of film production and photography, including camera operation, editing, script-writing, direction and basic engineering for lighting and sound. Working as a team, students are engaged in pre-production planning, scripting and story boarding, as well as production and direction of music videos and short films, with possible advancement to producing and editing segments for AWOL’s weekly television show, The Chop Shop. In the post-production stage, students gain first-hand experience using industry standard tools and technology, including PhotoShop, Avid Express, Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and ProTools. The class is project-based, with students taking turns working in different roles – such as camera operator or lighting technician – while working to complete music videos or issue-based short films

Act Up!, AWOL’s Theater & Performing Arts education program has become one of the community’s most popular theater programs with hundreds of youth served since 2005. Starting as a Hip-Hop History play put on by 50 local teens, debuted in 2006 to 4 sold out shows and dozens of positive reviews. This program provides youth with an opportunity to perform in front of audiences, learn and use professional theater etiquette and learn professional acting techniques to better prepare them for the world of performance. Theater offers several connections to the school day learning such as script writing for literacy development and performance skills which enhance oral communication and public speaking skills. With a curriculum based in the National Arts Education Standards for engaging and authentic arts based education, youth are enrolled in months of hands-on training and theater workshops. Youth learn skills in character development and study with the major goal of the program being to maximize the connection between Theater and the real world in three major ways; using working professional artists as class instructors, providing workshops that prepare students for professional auditions and exposing students to stage management along with technical and artistic production techniques. Each year a select number of youth are selected to participate in the Act Up! Theater Troupe which travels to competitions and theater festival around the world each summer.

TONY JORDAN

DAVENA JORDAN

BIOGRAPHIES

Tony Jordan is the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of AWOL All Walks of Life, Inc. a small non-profit youth development agency based in Savannah, GA. Tony founded the organization in 1997 as a student as Savannah State University. What first began as just a group of friends and like-minded individuals that all shared a love for Hip-Hop culture, grew into one of Savannah’s leading spoken word and Hip-Hop based arts organizations. After leaving school, Tony worked for 10 years with at-risk youth in mental health facilities and throughout the juvenile justice system. Frustrated by what he saw, and reminded of his own troubled childhood, Tony decided to focus AWOL’s mission on providing arts and education for local youth. Growing up, Tony’s father was absent from his life and after his brother was brutally gunned down in the streets of Washington, DC, his mother sent him to live with family members in South Carolina where he continued to get into trouble. Tony was expelled from the local high school, and forced to attend and graduate from an alternative school. With the memories of his childhood haunting him, Tony wanted to do more. In 2003, alongside his wife, DaVena, who serves as the agency’s Executive Director, AWOL became incorporated as Savannah’s first federally recognized spoken word and Hip-Hop based youth development agency. AWOL provides youth with arts and technology based training programs during the hours most relevant to them, after school and at night, when they are statistically most likely to get in trouble. AWOL has provided services to over 300 youth and encountered thousands of proud parents and community members through youth art shows, theater productions and other events. AWOL has be featured in dozens of local magazines and featured in two national publications, Edutopia, an education journal, and Black Enterprise magazine. In recognition of his work and the success of the organization as a whole, Tony has received The Comcast Leadership Award through the City Year program, and was also named to Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40 in 2008.

DaVena Jordan, (AKA-”BOSS LADY”) is truly the fuel that keeps AWOL running. Servings as the organizations Executive Director since 2003, DaVena has written and managed well over a half a million dollars in public and private contracts in support of the mission of providing youth with a safe space. DaVena is a Savannah native and A.E. Beach High school graduate and was selected as Ms.Beach 1995 before graduating from Savannah’s beloved historically black high school. She was also selected as Ms. Freshmen 1995 during her freshmen year of college at Savannah State University before leaving to pursue her military career in the United States Air Force as an Aeromedical Evacuation Technician stationed at Charleston Air Force Base.

DaVena is also a 2003 graduate of Armstrong Atlantic State University’s Health Science program. While searching for an internship before graduation, DaVena happened upon one of Savannah’s premier non-profit agencies, Union Mission, Inc. She was fortunate enough to land a job working for the agency prior to graduation as an HIV/AIDS Outreach Worker for the Phoenix Project as an Outreach Coordinator under a Department of Human Resources HIV/AIDS prevention grant. As a part of her graduation project, she decided to do a theatrical production for teens about the HIV/AIDS awareness, subsequently named Hold Up. It was through this process that she was able to marry her love for Art with her knowledge of public health. The play was an instant hit with youth of the community and was even funded by the Pfizer Foundation for 3 years.

Upon leaving Union Mission, Inc. in 2005, DaVena embarked on a new public health mission using the same tool, art as a way to reach at-risk youth and steer them on to a better path in life. She decided to make a full time commitment with husband and AWOL CVO & Founder Tony “Polo” Jordan to AWOL All Walks of Life, Inc.

DaVena now has over 7 years of experience in non-profit management to include grant writing, project management, program development, implementation and evaluation. Since becoming incorporated in 2004, AWOL under Jordan’s leadership has encountered over 5,000 youth and community members through various programs and services. Jordan was responsible for growing the agencies budget by nearly 500% in its first full year of operation and has since secured and successfully managed well over a half a million dollars in public and private grants/contract as well as established community partnerships and shared space agreement saving the organization over 1 million dollars over the last 5 years. DaVena is a relentless advocate for youth, who are so often a “voiceless” populations with little control over the development of policies and legislation that can have resounding effects on them.

PRESS AND AWARDS

Georgia Music MagazineRegional Publication12,000+Readers

The South MagazineLocal Bi-Monthly Publication80,000+ Readers

EdutopiaNational Print/Online Education Publication1 million+ Readers

Black EnterpriseNational Black Business Publication-4 million+ Readers

REGIONALAWARDS

2007Georgia Congressional Black Caucus “Unsung Hero” Award

2007Georgia Trend Magazine: Top 40 Georgia Leaders under 40

LOCAL AWARDS

2007Don Mendoza Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to Youth

2009Omega Psi Phi Citizens of the Year Award

2010Martin L. King Jr. Humanitarians of the Year Award

NATIONALAWARDS

2008City Year Comcast Leadership Award

PUBLICATION STATS

03/01/06 Georgia Music Magazine “The Hip Hop History Play”

06/01/07The South Magazine“Stars of the South: Tony and DaVena Jordan”

02/25/09Edutopia“AWOL Helps Troubled Students Make the Grade”

5/1/2009Black Enterprise“AWOL features in the Black Enterprise”

WEBSITE

MAILING

SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTACT

TONY JORDANFounder & Chief Visionary Office

DAVENA JORDANExecutive Director

Wireless: 912-704-3812

Office: 912-303-4987

Fax: 912-525-3160

Skype: davena.jordan

Email: djordan@awolinc.org

Wireless: 912-704-3893

Office: 912-303-4987

Fax: 912-525-3160

Skype: tonyjordan35

Email: tjordan@awolinc.org

www.awolinc.org

AWOL All Walks of Life, P.O. Box 15846Savannah, GA 31416

Twitter:@awolinc@awolincceo

Youtube:www.youtube.com/helpawol

Myspace:www.myspace.com/awolinc

Facebook:AWOL All Walks of Life, Inc.