Washington and Lee University
The most significant breakthrough in independent funding and after school philosophy/practice in the last 30 years, All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance-based model. Since its founding in 1981, ASP has existed entirely independent of government funding, and has grown from a small community program to a national leader in the fields of after school and inner-city youth development through the support of thousands of volunteers and supporters. Each year, the ASP reaches 10,000 inner-city children in New York, Newark, New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago.
ASP programs take place outside of school, and provide free opportunities to poor and minority young people. These opportunities include: performing in and producing talent shows, participating in leadership training and placement in paid internships at leading corporations, and a free theatre training school taught by professional actors and directors. ASP actively promotes supplementary education and the idea that life is a performance!
Through its hands-on, grassroots approach to community organizing, fundraising, and outreach, ASP has built a successful non-profit entirely independent of government funding. This grassroots approach to fundraising is continued every summer by a group of college students who participate in the Get Organized and Lead Summer Internship.