USHER FIX

 
Usher is adding another element for the second run of his successful ‘OMG Tour’. Through his New Look Foundation, the R&B superstar will embark on a Powered by Service tour, which will hit five affiliated communities.

The 31-year-old will make double stops in New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia, covering both his professional and philanthropic work. “Music is what brings us together as one world and I’m excited to see this generation use its voice to be powered by service,” Usher said in a statement to the BoomBox. “Our youth leaders have been doing an incredible job throughout the country and around the world. We are excited to bring this successful model to these five great cities.”

As a founding chairman of his New Look Foundation, the superstar has worked with youth around the country, under the four leadership pillars laid out by the organization: talent, education, career and service. Each stop on the Powered by Service tour will provide approximately 50 local youth with leadership training and the opportunity for the youth leaders to meet the ‘OMG’ singer.

The Foundation is partnering with local schools and community organizations in implementing the tour, which includes training sessions to empower youth leaders with valuable tools including personal branding, how to develop their talents and how to apply for one of Usher’s New Look Foundation’s community grants. Additionally, students will also have the opportunity to attend New Look’s World Leadership Conference in Atlanta July 20 through 22.

The Powered By Service tour kicks off Sunday, May 8th in New York City.

 

 
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- The Sun

Usher fought back tears as he looked out across the grand arena and surveyed the sea of expectant faces waiting for him to give the best performance of his life.

Ahead of him was a routine he had never rehearsed before.

The R&B superstar had swapped his usual adoring audience for powerful US Congress politicians who could help him further his dream of empowering children from impoverished backgrounds.

And by his side was not the usual rap megastar but teenager James Harris, a former gang member who had been transformed into a community leader by Usher and his charity.

According to Usher, it was this moment just two years ago that changed his life and inspired him to become one of the music industry’s most generous philanthropists.

The 33-year-old singer says: “I had witnessed the change in James and it was incredible. He had gone from running drugs and guns to being interested in civic duty.

“Now here we both were addressing the Government on how to help motivate youth. Knowing where we both started from, I almost cried and it made me think: ‘I want to empower more people in this way.’”

While millions of fans know Usher Raymond IV as a multiple Grammy award winning icon once described by James Brown as ‘the Godson of Soul’, few in the UK are aware of his charity – the New Look Foundation.

First launched in the US in 1999, New Look aims to mentor disadvantaged young people to become global and community leaders. Teens learn about business, music industry and community service opportunities during seminars and camps.

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Between sold-out shows at the O2, Usher met 30 teenagers at Fulham’s Brunswick Club for Young People to discuss the problems they face.

He now hopes to establish a permanent London base for his New Look Foundation to mentor teenagers from impoverished areas.

Usher brought three of his New Look mentors – once-troubled youngsters who came through his program and now help others – to the charity club on Saturday for a workshop which included team-building sessions and motivational talks.

He told the Standard: “This is one of many workshops I hope to hold and an opportunity to introduce the kids here to our program. We spoke about teenage pregnancy, gang violence, incarceration, isolation – and one very specific thing was knife crime. It’s something the kids kept bringing up and obviously it’s a huge issue here.

“The program is about finding the root of the issue and addressing that, and hopefully motivating change. We would love to set up a permanent presence here in London. I really hope London is receptive, as this really does work. I think that us giving youth the responsibility and the chance to have a voice makes a difference.”

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Millions of music fans know Usher (Usher Raymond IV) as a phenomenal performer who has captivated the music scene for 15 years. With five Grammy Awards, eight Soul Train Music Awards and 17 Billboard Music Awards, Usher was recently nominated for five American Music Awards and continues to dominate the music landscape.

But behind the fame and fortune, there is another side to Usher that often gets lost in the spotlight.

Usher’s New Look

Entrepreneur, philanthropist and youth leader are not the labels that come to mind for legions of fans that religiously follow Usher, buy his music, attend his concerts and keep up with events in his life through entertainment media.

But Usher’s New Look Foundation is where he is reaching youth and changing lives. Employing a process of authentic engagement with youth in the inner cities of several major U.S. cities, the 11-year-old New Look Foundation introduces a foreign concept to teens caught up in the perception of insurmountable challenges of life: a pathway to success through social entrepreneurship and leadership.

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The United States Tennis Association has formed a community partnership with Usher — more formally known as Usher Raymond IV.

USTA Serves, the organization’s philanthropic entity, and Usher’s New Look Foundation are teaming up to help guide thousands of American youth in using their athletic and creative talents to become leaders in their local communities. The partnership will utilize both tennis and service opportunities to work with youth across the country.

“I’m very excited about this new partnership, which extends the outreach of USTA Serves by working with one of the most dynamic organizations in the country,” said Deborah Slaner Larkin, executive director, USTA Serves. “Working with the New Look Foundation provides USTA Serves the opportunity to reach even more youth, and continue using tennis and education to help build leaders in communities across the country.”

Usher’s Foundation provides the training and tools that allow young leaders to create and implement service projects within their own communities. Using leadership as a common thread, New Look and USTA are combining efforts to expand service opportunities across the country. New Look will work with the USTA’s 555 National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) chapters — which reach 225,000 children — and other qualified tennis and education programs to expand young people’s leadership capabilities and opportunities.

“We are excited to continue our work with the USTA and look forward to a long term partnership,” said Shawn H. Wilson, president of New Look Foundation. “We have a common mission, to enrich young people, and together both organizations can make this goal a reality.”

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USHER’S NEW LOOK FOUNDATION KICKS OFF THE WORLD LEADERSHIP AWARDS BY TRAINING 600 YOUTH DURING POWERED BY SERVICE DAY ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 5TH.

ATLANTA, GA, August XX, 2010 – With the support of the Ford Motor Company’s “Driving Skills for Life,” Usher’s New Look Foundation will train upwards of 600 youth from around the world during its Powered By Service Day. The themes for the half-day workshops are:  Safe Driving Skills, Health and Fitness, the Environment and Haiti Relief.  This special program takes place in advance of the Foundation’s World Leadership Awards on Friday, August 6th, chaired by Usher Raymond IV honoring President Bill Clinton and seven other individuals committed to youth engagement and service. 

The four service projects include:

• “Ford Driving Skills for Life” at the Georgia World Congress Center – Ford Motor Company will feature its award-winning teen safe driving program, “Ford Driving Skills for Life.”  The hands-on program will give more than 100 teens the opportunity to drive with professional drivers, learning new skills in four key areas which research shows are critical for young drivers: vehicle handling, distractions, hazard recognition and speed and space management. For more information, visit www.drivingskillsforlife.com.

• Health and Fitness at the McGhee Tennis Center – In conjunction with the USTA, New Look youth leaders and the McGhee Tennis staff will provide an introduction to health and fitness basics.  Older youth will be paired with younger for peer leadership and mentoring while exploring fitness activities.

• Environmental Justice and Awareness at the Georgia Aquarium – New Look’s Powered By Service youth grantees and Aquarium staff will introduce New Look youth leaders to environmental awareness, conservation and ways to get involved.

• Haiti Relief Amazin Summer Challenge at the Lenox Mall – World Vision staff and New Look alumni will brief participants on the “Amazin Summer Challenge” as well as New Look’s Haiti relief campaign and mobile clinic donation.  Activities will consist of packaging orphan packs and writing messages of hope to send with the mobile clinic.

“We share Usher’s commitment to make a difference with youth, which is why we are partnering with New Look Foundation to bring Ford Driving Skills for Life to the Powered By Service Day,” said Jim Vella, president of Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services.  “Auto crashes claim the lives of too many teens, and our program is designed to give new drivers the skills they need.”

Following the service stops, New Look will be hosting a Service Training and a Media Roundtable Panel at Spelman College.  The training is intended to teach young people how to implement and execute their own service projects.
The panel will take place in the Cosby Auditorium of Spelman College and will be moderated by CNN’s Dr. Steve Perry.  The panel will include conversations about youth leadership, service, the importance of education and the mission of the World Leadership Awards.

Panelists include:

• Dr. Michael Lomax, President of United Negro College Fund
• Hital Muraj, Cisco Networking Academy in East Africa
• Adam Braun, Executive Director, Pencils for Promise
• Chantia Robinson, New Look Foundation alumna (Atlanta)
• James Harris, New Look Foundation alumnus and the only youth member of the New Look Board of Directors (Kansas)
• Carmen Seay, New Look Foundation alumna (Detroit)

Usher & Don Lemon (CNN)

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Usher broke through in a big way globally in 2004-05 with his fourth studio album “Confessions,” which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, according to Shawn Wilson, president of the New Look Foundation.

Mr. Wilson told GlobalAtlanta during a conference call from New York that Usher’s enormous success with that album pushed the rhythm and blues prodigy to start thinking even more seriously about public service.

Although the New Look Foundation was established by Usher in 1999, it has become increasingly active and globally conscious. “The music industry has a global mindset,” Mr. Wilson said. “Music and the music business are by their very nature global.”

Usher performs around the world. His first performance in China was held in mid-July in Beijing at the Wukesong Arena, during which he joined Taiwanese star Wang Leehom, with whom he sang a song in Mandarin.

Also on the conference call were John Rice, who lives in Atlanta and is vice chairman of GE and CEO of GE Technology Infrastructure, and his wife, Cammie.

As a most senior official of one of the U.S.’s preeminent global companies, Mr. Rice has signed on with the leaders of other global companies, some based in Atlanta, to support the World Leadership Awards of the New Look Foundation, which will honor individuals who have contributed to youth leadership and service, as well as corporations and organizations.

Former President Clinton will join Mr. Rice along with members of the foundation’s prestigious board of directors at the award ceremony to be held the evening of Friday, Aug. 6, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.

Mr. Wilson said that the foundation wanted to honor Mr. Clinton because he “picked up the ball from President Kennedy” in his concern about providing opportunities of America’s youth through organizations such as the Peace Corps. The domestic version of the Peace Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), officially launched by President Lyndon Johnson, was incorporated into the AmeriCorps during the Clinton administration.

Mrs. Rice has been instrumental in rallying Atlanta’s corporate leaders into joining the foundation’s board due to her concern about the lack of educational and employment opportunities available for inner-city youth.

She said that her commitment to the organization stemmed from one of the foundation’s Leadership Academy programs she attended at Emory University.

Mrs. Rice had experienced an armed burglary of her home during which her life was threatened. The incident focused her attention on the plight of inner-city youth ever since, even though the perpetrators have been apprehended and imprisoned.

During the Leadership Academy program, she heard participants who sought educational and employment opportunities without success before becoming involved in the program. The foundation currently is setting up academies in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Wis., and New York.

“My view is simple,” Mr. Rice said during the conference call. “Concentrating on youth is really important. They are the future, even if it sounds a bit trite. We have a bleak future if they don’t have educational prospects and social responsibility.”

Mr. Wilson said that since 1999 the program has reached more than 8,700 youth across the nation with its two-year leadership courses that introduce the students to business principles, the importance of education and community involvement.

He added that the foundation also is increasing its global reach to help its participants prepare for future careers.

He also said that even though Usher came to Atlanta when he was 11 years old, grew up and launched his musical career here, Atlanta was not necessarily the first choice for the awards celebration.

“It was not an automatic choice. It could have been in New York or Los Angeles, but Atlanta is a growing city, a global city and it can help feed that image. And, we know, Atlanta can do an international event of this significance.”

The awards evening also is to feature performances by Usher and other artists including pop star Justin Bieber.

Joining Usher and Mr. Clinton on the host committee are Ingrid Saunders Jones, senior vice president of global community connections at the Coca-Cola Co. and chairperson of the Coca-Cola Foundation;

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and his wife, Mary; former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and his wife, Colleen; former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin;

U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia’s 5th District; Phil Kent, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System Inc.; Roger Penske, CEO of Penske Automative Group, and his wife, Kathy, and Laura Turner Seydel, chair of The Captain Planet Foundation and a member of many other civic organizations.

Tickets for the World Leadership Awards ceremony are available through Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or at Ticketmaster.com at a cost of $35, $65 and $100.

Tickets are also available at the Bank of North Georgia Box Office at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, 30339.

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