Mission Statement

We enrich lives through the arts.

Our mission is to transform and develop hearts and minds of at-risk youth using the arts to inspire critical self-reflection and self-improvement.

Alternative Intervention Models envisions an educational system transformed at its core to recognize the value of "heART Education": educating the hearts of youth and instilling emotional literacy through training in the arts. Education is a journey of self exploration as well as an exploration of our relationship to the world around us.

Through the process of heART education we help youth examine their purpose and relevance in life. We believe that the most powerful and most effective way to positively effect the minds of youth is to first reach them via the heart with art being the most effective tool. In a time of tremendous pain and struggle globally, it is through the study of arts and the artist that we learn our humanity and develop the skills necessary to heal our diverse communities emotionally while uniting them around shared experiences and values.

Our Core Values

Education - a lifelong process of developing individuals technically, emotionally, physically, spiritually and otherwise to reach their full potential.

Love - the most powerful force in life, the catalyst of all of our work and art.

Creativity - a character trait with which we are all born; we believe we are all called to express our unique creativity.

Respect - being aware of and valuing the diversity of other individuals, other cultures, other ways of life.

Empathy - the arts are a tool that help us understand and relate to each other; heART education teaches greater empathy.

Community - it takes a village to raise a child; we live in a global village and are responsible for modeling the best examples for the youth.

Accountability - through difficult and controversial conversations using the arts, we help each other become accountable for ourselves and each other.

Our History

Alternative Intervention Models began in 1989 with a group of seven artists under the direction of Leila Steinberg as simply a collective of individuals determined to utilize their art to create positive social change. Tupac Shakur was one of those founding members, a quintessential example of the at-risk youth Leila has always sought to mentor, and he remains an inspirational force in AIM. The core values and the undamental commitments shared among the members were art, social justice, and human development.

In 1996 AIM was incorporated as Assemblies In Motion, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in California. In 2009, AIM officially changed its name to Alternative Intervention Models to reflect twenty years of creating and implementing a sustainable model of community-based programs designed to positively intervene in the lives of at-risk youth.

The core processes and programs of AIM's heART education method has been distilled into a duplicable curriculum that has been and will continue to be distributed to national and international community partners, juvenile justice facility coordinators, high school educators, as well as others. The curriculum is specifically targeted to assist those who value access to 25 years of experience using the arts to affect lives collected and presented in a way that can be tailored to each unique community of artists and at-risk youth.

We never lose sight of the fact that we are all artists, including the diverse youth we serve;
every youth, mother, father, teacher, doctor, lawyer, judge, social worker needs to access the pure power of the arts to reach the hearts of youth, develop their minds, and influence them to make healthy life decisions.

Intervention programs that we currently operate are:

1) Artist Intervention - in our Artist intervention programs we hold assemblies at elementary schools, high school, and colleges designed for the specific audiences at these various locations based on the issues that they need to address in their communities. We also operate workshops at juvenile facilities, community centers, prisons, group homes, and other locations. Artist educators, a diverse selection of music artists perform at assemblies and at workshops, and focus on unifying members of these various communities using music to breakdown barriers and open lines of communication and freedom of self-expression.

2) Dance Intervention - Karina Smirnoff heads up our Dance Intervention program, working with youth who find dance and movement as their chosen form of artistic self-expression. This program teaches consistency, dedication, attention to detail, and healthy physical and emotional lifestyle.

3) Athletic Intervention - AIM's Athletic Intervention programs feature basketball, football and fitness training. Donovan Warren directs our Athletic Intervention program, bringing a unique form of training to at-risk youth that focuses on providing a high quality alternative option to high cost athletic after school programs.

AIM's Athletic Intervention programs help youth grow technically, emotionally, and physically while instilling values such as teamwork, strength, healthy-diet, non-violence, positive work ethic, and good sportsmanship.

4) Acting Intervention - AIM's Acting Intervention program features guest lectures and workshops from highly experienced film industry professionals that train actors/actresses as artists in every facet of the film entertainment business. Focused mostly on aspiring teenage and young adult actors/actresses, the Acting Intervention program provides mentors, skill training, and career guidance. One of the major goals is to engage these youth and help them learn to tell their narrative and their communities narrative through their work.

5) Media Intervention - AIM's Media Intervention program provides education in traditional media and new media technology, teaching youth about the resources that are accessible to them within and outside of their communities. We show youth how to effectively communicate on a local and global level using new media and a host of collaborative methods made available via the internet and related technologies.

Our Future

In the future, AIM plans to continue to expand its reach beyond its core locality in Los Angeles by initiating branches in the major metropolitan areas of the United States.

Additionally, AIM will be collaborating with foreign partners to water the seeds of heART education that have been planted in various locations around the globe, sharing Leila's curriculum and providing guidance and support. AIM also has an executive position dedicated to local and national strategic partnerships. It is through these partnerships that communities around the U.S. will reap the benefit of multiple arts & social justice organizations working in concert to provide top quality arts education alternatives to those youth who otherwise would have no access.