Community leader Michael Hayes is the founder and creative director of the UAI (www.urbanartsinstitute.com), a free youth program offering dance, drama, video and music classes and mentoring to at-risk youth in the under-served African-American communities of Asheville.

Meeting for three hours a day, five nights a week, and requiring participants to maintain good grades, the UAI gives young people an opportunity to collaborate, mentor one another, and be part of meaningful performance experiences that weave this community together through art, creativity and the joy of self expression.

The UAI is a program of the arts-based, social service non-profit Arts 2 People (www.arts2people.org), which functions as a catalyst and incubator for multiple creative community programs in the city of Asheville, North Carolina.

Unfortunately, the UAI has been displaced from their former classroom and rehearsal space and currently has no place to meet for regular classes, mentoring, or rehearsal. Students from the UAI come from some of the most under-served communities in Asheville and the after school and Summer Enrichment classes at the UAI provide them with the focus they need to achieve their dreams.

Without a space, the young people who need this program and the creative outlet that it provides struggle to maintain the supportive and positive forward movement that it instills in them. Please help us raise another $10,000 by supporting this campaign.

Funds received will go towards a lease for a permanent space, completion of any up-fit necessary to make the space workable with a dance studio, music studio, audio-visual editing studio, performance space, and any equipment necessary.

Please help provide these students with the best potential opportunity to both express themselves creatively and learn a set of skills that will empower them to become community leaders and active participants in creating a better society.

Visit the indiegogo campaign here to support the UAI and help us achieve our goal.

(Image provided by Economic Development Coalition.)

Looking for more happenings in the area? Check out asheville.com's comprehensive visitor center.