The Crossing is a non-for-profit environmental education camp that provides young people with the opportunity to see sustainability in action. The Crossing relies on donations, grants and many hours of volunteer time to
deliver programs like The Big Yellow Taxi.
Inspired by songs like Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, The Crossing needs your help to deliver a songwriting camp for disadvantaged young Australians. The Big Yellow Taxi Project aims to inspire remote
and isolated youth of the far south coast of New South Wales, to share and express ideas through music and song, about sustainable and healthy living.
Young people from this area are often prevented from engaging in recreational activities and feeling part of the community due to issues such as a lack of social and recreational activities, lack of
public and private transport, cost and long distances they have to travel to access extracurricular activities like professional music training.
With money raised from your support, the program will begin with promotional in-school sessions followed by a three day camp at The Crossing venue. With funds raised we will be able to subsidise the
cost for students to attend the camp and be able to invite local professional musicians and environmental educators to engage young people in sustainability and song writing.
Through voluntary effort over the last six years, The Crossing has established a youth music venue at The Cobargo Folk Festival, building from 3 acts to 30 youth acts in 2012.
Daniel Champagne, Australia's most exciting young guitarist grew up in this disadvantaged region and made his first public performance at The Crossing Youth Tent. He also wrote his first song at a
songwriting camp. As Daniel says, “…help the youth voice of the future of Australian music. Songwriting is a great chance for young people to express how they feel about what's right and what's good and what needs fixing before it’s too late. Just like the
song says 'You don't know what you've got till it's gone'”.
By hosting a songwriting camp, The Crossing can provide other young people like Daniel with the inspiration to express their ideas about sustainable and healthy living. At the camp local professional
musicians will encourage and mentor participants to write a song that reflects their ideas and feelings about sustainable living and healthy futures, which they can perform at the dedicated youth venue at their local Folk Festival in February 2013.
This campaign is striving to generate a renewed youth energy and voice in folk music and to build an Australian folk culture that celebrates and encourages young musicians to perform at folk festivals.
The Crossing hopes to inspire other not-for-profit environmental education camps further afield that support similar initiatives, especially for disadvantaged youth.
If The Crossing can demonstrate the success of this program it will seek to fund an annual songwriting and music program, so that pathways for the next generation of storytellers can engage, connect
and empower people through music towards a sustainable future.
