Create Now

Create Now, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1996, helps transform the lives of high-risk and at-risk youth through creative arts mentoring, education, resources and opportunities.

Everyone has the opportunity to create a better future for themselves and inspire others with their creative talents. Through Create Now's creative arts mentoring programs and services, high-risk and at-risk youth and their community have the opportunity to heal and
explore their unique creative self-expression and passions.

Founder Jill Gurr felt a need to make a difference in the world. In 1994, she began a Screenwriting Workshop at Optimist Youth Homes, a boys' detention center in Eagle Rock, CA. She spent several months writing a screenplay with a group of these kids who were incarcerated for a variety of crimes. After the workshop, Jill discovered that many of the boys who were illiterate had learned how to read and write through her program, while others wanted to go back to school or enter college. One tough gang leader even had tattoos removed. Seeing the incredible impact of this program, Jill initiated a second Screenwriting Workshop at a coed detention facility and saw the same results.

Jill shared her experience with an associate, Erika Clark, and realized that there were probably many other people that wanted to make a difference by mentoring these kids. She thought she could help others find youth to mentor so that they could reach more young people. Erika called her the following week to report that Leslie Stevens, her producing professor at the American Film Institute, was so impressed by Jill's idea and passion to help these high-risk youth that he was giving her a $5,000 donation to start a nonprofit organization.

The organization, initially named Write Now!, was founded in 1996 with the mission to teach literacy through different forms of creative writing. Soon after, it became apparent that many of these kids preferred other forms of creativity, such as music and art. In 1998, the organization's official name was changed to Create Now, Inc.

Our Introduction to Art Workshop for incarcerated teenage girls at Camp Scott in Saugus, CA will culminate with an art exhibition on June 26, 2010.

Our "Create A Mural Now" workshop is in full production at Lennox Park. Sponsored by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, this mural is the community's expression of their future vision of Lennox Park.

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Through Create Now's five program areas; music, art, writing, performing arts and cultural excursions, high-risk and at-risk youth learn to express themselves in a positive manner versus the destructive ways that they have in the past. We also bring thousands of these kids to free concerts, plays and other cultural events at premiere venues throughout the region. These field trips not only educate youth while exposing them to new types of music, theater and art, but also bring them relief and joy.

Create Now programs develop vital skills and build teamwork, self-esteem and confidence. In addition, we send out regular notices about jobs, internships, scholarships, free books, computers, arts supplies and other materials to the 1,200 partners in our network, such as shelters, group homes, detention camps and other youth agencies serving hundreds of thousands of needy youth.
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Create Now’s mission is carried out through collaboration with more than 1,200 youth institutions, private facilities, shelters, after-school programs, detention and rehab centers, group homes, special education schools, gang prevention organizations and other non-profits throughout Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and San Diego Counties. This enables us to target our programs and services to the most vulnerable kids, while also raising awareness of their plight in the community.

We match volunteers with high-risk or at-risk kids in their own neighborhood, based on the youths' ages, genders, challenges and other preferences. We train our mentors, help them to customize their curriculum and give them arts supplies, musical instruments and other materials for their workshops.

Create Now utilizes the arts to teach violence prevention, positive coping alternatives, and how to see the world through an objective and tolerant lens. This is done by effectively involving youth in the creation and participation of different artistic disciplines and engaging them in a process that includes self-discovery and making constructive life choices. 

At Create Now we share a vision that everyone has the opportunity to create a better future and to inspire others. Through our creative arts mentoring programs, children and their community have the opportunity to heal and explore their unique creative self-expression.

We provide participants with projects that allow them to explore and develop their skills in literary, music, performing and visual arts and the opportunity to be matched with caring mentors who can help them reach their personal, artistic and professional goals. Through these efforts, our programs show youth how to express themselves in a positive manner versus the destructive ways that they have in the past.

Thanks to our extensive base of professional mentors, Create Now combines life-changing arts programming with cultural excursions for youth, ongoing advocacy work, and long-term mentoring. These kids often have chronic low self-esteem, which we combat with creative skills development and positive outlets. Programs vary in length and include culmination parties with gift bags for each participant, as well as field trips to art exhibits, concerts, live theater and special events, such as the Hollywood Bowl and Cirque du Soleil.

Create Now customizes our creative arts programs to meet your needs. We can develop California Board of Education Content Standards curriculum in the arts that engage your students, build their math and language skills, while history and social studies lessons are reinforced. At the same time, students develop self-esteem and confidence,

One of our most popular projects is our “Create A Mural Now” workshop, which is part of our Take Heart visual arts program. The objective is to teach youth how to work collaboratively on a group project by creating a lasting story or message. This class explores the history of murals, from cave paintings to modern wall art. Basic techniques and concepts of painting are taught, like color theory, composition, color mixing, and brushwork. Students collaborate with our artist mentors and their ideas are transformed into a wonderful mural that everyone in the community can share.

The workshop is a bridge for students to have a deeper understanding of other cultures, as well as their
own. Emphasis is placed on developing job skills such as communication and meeting a deadline, while pursuing an imaginative approach. Youth learn how to work together to complete the mural. This component is important, since it is very difficult to get troubled kids to collaborate as a team. The “Create A Mural Now” workshop helps students to bond with each other, and also their teachers and other staff.

Career paths in the arts are discussed throughout the program. A major lesson that students learn
in this class is how vandalism (“tagging”) destroys beautiful artwork. As with all of our
programs, Create Now hosts a Wrap Party for the participants, as well as a larger culmination
event that publicly celebrates the youths’ work. Each student also receives a gift bag with a
special Certificate of Completion, art supplies and other goodies. These lasting souvenirs will
always remind them of their successful experiences.

The “Create A Mural Now” workshop includes approximately 15-20 students to be chosen by the
teachers and school administrators. They will participate in 2-3 hour classes during or after school, once each week. Most workshops run for 8-10 weeks, but the schedule can be condensed or lengthened according to the schools’ needs.

Please send an email to info@createnow.org for additional information.