Boost volunteers rewarded with concert

At the end of this month, civic-minded young people from around the Los Angeles area will be attending a star-studded concert to celebrate their volunteer efforts throughout the community. Beginning in February, Sprint Nextel Corp.’s prepaid sub-brand Boost Mobile L.L.C.’s RockCorps helped organize a community-wide level of youth volunteerism ranging from revitalizing parks, updating common areas in housing complexes and working in food banks.
Korn, Rise Against, The Game, Young Jeezy and +44 will be playing March 30 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles in a sign of solidarity toward their efforts. Boost Mobile has been partnering with RockCorps since 2005 to develop a national movement that challenges its users to give back to their communities.
The telecom company’s tagline “Where You At?” has a lot more depth to it than the physical sense, said Daryl Butler, director of strategic alliances at Boost, and that’s exactly what he’s kept in mind since being asked to lead this charge. The project is a “battle cry to young people to make sure they’re doing something to give back” while “transforming young people in terms of their ownership of their communities, it’s about empowerment,” he said.
Butler said the initiative was “wholeheartedly accepted” at the Boost executive level as a “unique, revolutionary way to be a corporate citizen,” so much to the point that it asks its own employees to volunteer just the same. “We didn’t just empower young people to make a difference, we actually empowered our Boost employees,” he said. “We’re not just going to ask other people to do it; we’re going to do it ourselves.”
Young people are asked to volunteer four hours of their time to one of 48 projects in the area and in return receive a ticket to the exclusive, 3,200-seat capacity concert.
“We’re not asking kids to put up dry wall and that kind of thing,” Butler said. “The myriad projects we have young people involved in has range.”
The project has taken off since it began in 2005 in six major U.S. cities. This year, after launching in Los Angeles, Boost plans to engage young people in a dozen cities total. Boost and its partners work with city officials and leaders to help pinpoint project areas that will have the most impact and “touch young people where they live,” he said. Following Los Angeles, Boost Mobile RockCorps will move to Oakland, Calif.; Miami; Houston; Atlanta; Chicago; Baltimore; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C.
“This is a significant piece of our marketing mix,” Butler said. “The numbers really speak for themselves. We don’t have to trumpet a cause when young people are flocking to this movement.”
Artists, which in the past have included Taking Back Sunday, Panic at the Disco and Kanye West, are initially identified based on their support and alignment with the campaign, Butler said, adding they don’t just want to bring an artist on board whose sole motivation is a paycheck and exposure.
The project locations appear to be as diverse as the artists that support them, having taken place in several Los Angeles areas, including downtown, Watts, South Central, Compton, Venice, Koreatown, Echo Park and Santa Monica.