Mission

Sweet Relief Musicians fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.

Who We Are

In 1994 Sweet Relief was incorporated as a 501C3 nonprofit charity and for the past 18 years has been offering vital assistance to professional musical artists in need. Many prominent musicians, professionals and music fans have contributed enthusiastically to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Benefits have been performed in venues from Miami to Seattle, with performances donated by many established and emerging artists. Nightclubs, concert halls, radio stations, internet sites, restaurants, clothing and shoe companies, music retailers, athletes, actors, corporations, foundations  and music fans have all participated with Sweet Relief to assist struggling musicians.

Music has made all of our lives, and the events in our lives special and memorable. While fame and fortune are found by few, most musicians remain in the field for their love and passion of music. The choice an individual makes to be a professional musician is one of sacrifice. The average income across the various employment options while accounting for the part time nature of most opportunities is less than $25,000 annually. Over 65% of professional musicians do not have health insurance. Since the mid 1960’s (Post Beatles) the number of individuals choosing music as a career grew exponentially. Previous to this time most professionals were either orchestra and classical players or jazz and blues artists. The explosion of pop, rock and country career musicians over a 20 year period in the U.S. represented an artistic and cultural revolution.

While the financial hardship a musicians faces when dealing with illness or disability may be a constant, we now face a burgeoning elder population of artists with little or no resources available for such emergency situations.

Our Founder

Sweet Relief was founded by singer-songwriter Victoria Williams in 1993. Victoria, while on a career-making tour with Neil Young was forced to drop off mid-schedule after experiencing unexplained debilitating symptoms. A long and painful diagnostic process revealed she had Multiple Sclerosis.

After her diagnosis, a group of friends assembled an all-star album of Victoria’s songs, Sweet Relief, which alleviated much of her medical debt. Vic, knowing that there are many musicians like her -unable to afford medical expenses and compromised in their ability to work- donated some of her proceeds from the album to found Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.

The name of the fund derives from a song of Victoria’s, Opelousas (Sweet Relief) and the fact that we do provide sweet relief in the form of financial assistance to many musicians who would otherwise be in untenable predicaments.

To learn more, donate, or find out how you can help

Sweetrelief.org

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Over 1.5 billion pairs of shoes lay idle in American closets – Many of which can be saved from landfills by sending them to Soles4Souls.

Over 300 million children around the world are without shoes. Soles4Souls has given away over 12 million pairs of shoes throughout its 5 year history, currently delivering a pair every 7 seconds…

Soles4Souls facilitates the delivery of shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide. Shoe companies, retailers, and individuals, schools and groups can donate. The opportunities are endless.

We have distributed product to people in need in over 125 countries on 5 continents including the U.S, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Swaziland, Uganda, Iraq, Peru, Thailand, and Nepal.

It is so easy for anyone to help give hope, simply by giving away a pair of shoes. Just think about all of the old shoes you have lying around in your room right now, and imagine what a world of difference you could make for a child in need.

Soles 4 Souls is a Micro-enterprise program. A micro-enterprise program is a market-based charitable program that is designed to provide impoverished people in developing nations with the resources to start and maintain their own business. In this way, the charity focuses on long-term development, as opposed to short-term crisis relief. It is the embodiment of the old saying, “Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; give him a way to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.”

While there will always be a need to distribute shoes for crisis relief, we believe that micro-enterprise is the best hope to eliminate poverty by giving people a way of supporting themselves and their families. It allows us to utilize used shoes that are inappropriate for crisis relief – such as high-heeled shoes – and shoes that need cleaning or conditioning in order to be useful. It also provides a low cost source of shoes for the local population without undermining the local economy with a large supply of free shoes.

Click below to watch the interview with Wayne Elsey!

http://www.soles4souls.org/video/181/wayne-elsey-in-milwaukee-at-wtmj.mp4

Visit the website to learn more, donate, and get involved!

http://www.soles4souls.org/

It’s about putting you before me, your needs before mine.

This is a collaborative recylcing project with communities in Africa. It is a clothing exchange where children give their oldest piece of old clothing to the organization, and in return the organization gives the children a brand new set of clothing; shirt, school uniform, jacket, etc…
The children’s old clothing is then sent back to America and patches of the old clothing are sewn on to new shirts and sold. The profit from the shirts is then used toward the African community for books, water wells, new building materials, anything the community may need.

Purchase a shirt and help the cause here!

post by: Alexandra Tregre

Daniel Hinkle - Suchitoto, El Salvador

I want to introduce you to Daniel Hinkle, a current Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador! A graduate of Montana State University and a current graduate student at University of Denver, Hinkle began his service for the Peace Corps in February of 2010. His journey started in the United States, Washington, D.C. to be precise, where he met with his fellow Peace Corps trainees before departing to El Salvador. He then traveled to Istepeque, El Salvador where he spent 7 weeks acclimating himself to the climate, culture and community.

“Our activities in Istepeque will work as training and experience to ease us into our final host communities and work sites, where we will be working alone for two years,” said Hinkle.

Hinkle soon faced a medical challenge which proved to a be a test of his physical and mental strength. Within weeks an amoeba had invaded his body. “I found out this past Thursday that my body had become generous host to a ranch of Amoebas (hatched and eggs) and a sizable colony of Giardia living in my intestines…,” said Hinkle. He soon recovered with the help of the Peace Corps medical staff and continued on to his final volunteer site, in Northern Morazon, El Salvador, by the end of March. Here, Hinkle and one other Peace Corps volunteer have spent the majority of the past 8 months volunteering their service and time in the communities of Perquin and La Tejera, among others.

Hinkle invites SackMagazine and friends to follow his journey through El Salvador, the Peace Corps and beyond…follow his blog and be a part of the adventure! Learn of ways to volunteer your time and energy!
Follow Daniel!

post by: Alexandra Tregre