Now, this is how you give back. Vic Mensa, a Chicago native, is paying it forward with his latest charity effort that seeks to help children move past the trauma of the Windy City.
SaveMoneySaveLife is a new nonprofit founded by Vic that seeks to provide funding that better trains first responders in Chicago. The foundation also aims to give underprivileged children with the opportunity to rise above social struggles.
This Saturday in DC, we #MarchForOurLives We are excited to announce @IAMJHUD @ArianaGrande @ddlovato @common & @VicMensa will perform in support of our efforts to end gun violence in America. https://t.co/qe5NGU2QEY
— March For Our Lives ☮️🟧 (@AMarch4OurLives) March 18, 2018
“I’ve been doing social justice work for some time, just out of my own resources and out of my own pocket, just because it’s important to me,” Vic Mensa told Billboard during a recent interview. “Oftentimes, people ask me, ‘What is the main cause of the unrest in Chicago?’ And I point to the lack of investment in the community. To everything being sapped from the community. To young men being snatched up and generations of fathers being imprisoned. And drugs being pumped into the community. And guns being pumped into the community. But there’s still no positive constructive resources being put into the community.”
https://twitter.com/VicMensa/status/975141608365740032
SaveMoneySaveLife hopes to change things. “The amount of trauma that the kids in these neighborhoods are dealing with is almost unprecedented, in what we consider to be first-world society,” Mensa said of the inspiration behind the nonprofit.
“These murders are affecting everyone, every single person in the community. And this violence and this police brutality and the drugs. Almost everybody I know has seen someone they love killed in front of them. But it’s very rare that they get an opportunity to talk to somebody about the trauma and to work through it.” The rapper added, “I want to be a young black man owning and inspiring ownership and investing in my own community,” Mensa said of the inspiration behind the nonprofit.
You can learn more about Vic Mensa’s SaveMoneySaveLife foundation at the organization’s website.
