Everybody Dance Now!

The Problem

In Santa Barbara, 1,800 youth are considered at-risk to join a gang, and the average age of gang entry is 14. Around the country, 40 million children do not have safe activities to or a supervised place to go to after school. Furthermore, 17% of 12-19 year olds in the U.S. are considered obese. Low self-esteem exacerbates many problems that youth face and makes them particularly vulnerable to peer pressure. Everybody Dance Now! provides free, consistent dance programs after school where youth can express themselves, be surrounded by friends and positive role models, have positive alternatives to negative behaviors, and thrive.

Plan of Action

We are working to empower many more young people to start EDN! chapters where they live. We continually welcome applications for new chapters, and we run ongoing training programs for chapter leaders. We are also working to establish EDN! National as a sustainable, long-lasting, and far-reaching organization that can provide quality support to young people who wish to create and sustain their own EDN! chapters. We welcome any help, support, and feedback from you on how we can do this!