Outreach For Art Goes Techie

Congressman Adam Schiff of the 29th Congressional District, a long time advocate of arts, culture and education welcomed a group of arts and culture community leaders from diverse ethnicities and organizations who share the same passion and mission to provide services to children, whether it is arts and culture, education, health, etc.

Pasadena, CA (PRWEB) May 27, 2006 -- Congressman Adam Schiff of the 29th Congressional District, a long time advocate of arts, culture and education welcomed a group of arts and culture community leaders from diverse ethnicities and organizations such as the FilAm Kiwanis of Glendale (Marlene Cagatao, President), Walker & Associates, LLC (Grace Walker, CEO), Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition & Festival (Armen Ter-tatevosian, Founder), Vahan Mirakian Foundation (Marika Mirakian, President) and Filipino American Business Association Group (Mike Catala, Member).

This eclectic mix of the most unlikely to partner have a collaborative working relationship. They share the same passion and mission to provide services to children, whether it is arts and culture, education, health, etc.

The Congressman presented these community leaders with certificates of service recognizing their community outreach work benefiting children. The group shared their upcoming projects with Congressman Schiff. He was impressed with their creative zeal to make things happen in spite of the drastic reductions in art and culture budgets nationally, educational budget cuts, and the intense competition for public and private grants. This group has come together in a “cross collaborative” effort to share resources, such as mailing lists, advisory board members and exchanging marketing opportunities as a means to enhance the growth and development of all the individual endeavors. Marlene Cagatao says, “Technology enables efficient information sharing that is much more accessible with little or minimal cost incurred.” The Internet allows non-profits instantaneous communications, news dissemination, advocacy campaigns, and file sharing. Other features include online donations and event registrations that make funding just a click away. All of this adds to the endless creative funding possibilities.

Schiff complimented the group and shared how he was inspired to see community-based organizations coalesce to accomplish their goals in a more powerful way. He also lauded the group’s proactive and creative way of networking and sharing resources and encouraged other non-profit organizations to adopt this model to better impact the community they serve.

Such a partnership of arts, culture, education and other non profits establish collaboration that has the potential to capture the attention of sponsors who find that the marriage of the organizations’ targeted audience fulfill their broader base interests and under one umbrella, can fund their programs. Arts and culture is a perfect mix with education as is health as one such wonderful combination.

These groups have empowered themselves by taking charge of their community outreach efforts by seeking new and alternative funding rather than sitting back and waiting for the government to come to their aid.

Recognizing their creative resourcefulness, Schiff's office extended his commitment to assist the group’s efforts.

As the architects of this collaboration, Walker & Associates, LLC (www.gwalker.org) is excited about the possibilities and looks forward to working with other organizations as well.

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