PHILLIP LEONARD
Name: Phillip Leonard
Age: 28
Home: Northridge
Profession: Develops programs and writes grant proposals for the nonprofit organization Los Angeles Community Services in Inglewood while completing graduate work in management, educational leadership and policy studies at Cal State Northridge.
Latest accomplishment: Co-founded TOOLSHED, a nonprofit organization that offers arts, athletics and other programs to local youth. Leonard said his experience with the arts “kept me out of trouble as a teenager, gave me a lot of confidence and a sense of self-worth and was a great emotional outlet.”
Goals for 2001: Leonard plans to raise money for his ambitious program, which reflects his belief that the arts and athletics can help keep at-risk youth out of trouble and that prevention is better than intervention. He hopes to find a permanent home for TOOLSHED, which meets twice a week in the annex of the Valley Institute of Visual Art (VIVA) Gallery in Northridge, and expand the program to include more activities, including martial arts . Leonard said he wants to provide youth with the benefits he received from early exposure to the arts.
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