Since high school, UCLA freshman Noah Lizerbram has found a way to combine his passion for music and desire to help others. This week he’s bringing that spirit of service through music to campus.
On Friday, Youthjamz, the organization he co-created with his sister, will host “Kickback for a Cause”— a battle-of-the-bands at UCLA's Sunset Village Recreation Amphitheater. The event will raise money for Moshi Youth Village, a facility in the Kilimanjaro region of Africa that provides disadvantaged young adults with education, job training and counseling to help them become self-sufficient and empowered adults.
Lizerbram and his sister, Jenna, started Youthjamz during his freshman year of high school in San Diego after she came back from a concert where she learned about a poverty relief organization that helps kids in India.
As teens themselves, Lizerbram and Jenna wanted to help other kids who may not have the opportunities that they’ve had. Their plan was to use benefit concerts to raise funds for kids living in poverty across the world, all under the motto of "youth helping youth through music."
“I know how much music can do for people. It can really uplift you when you’re at your lowest and that’s what we want to do,” said Lizerbram, who has played instruments his whole life — first the drums, now he's learning the guitar. “We want to give these kids hope by sharing the feeling of creating something, to help them realize that they can make something for themselves.”
Music is central to the Youthjamz mission. The benefit concerts raise money for specific organizations, which then use the funds to start music education programs in their communities. The money raised from Friday’s concert will help Moshi Youth Village start a music program. Lizerbram hopes to inspire other young adults by example, to show that they too can accomplish amazing things.
Youthjamz’s first music program was created for Rising Star Outreach, an organization that runs a colony for kids in India who have leprosy and are ostracized from the rest of society. Rising Star provides the children with shelter, food, water and an education.
"Rising Star gives these kids a chance," said Lizerbram, a pre-global studies major who traveled to India to personally help implement the music program. Youthjamz brought 300 instruments with them to India, taught music lessons, hired a full-time music teacher and provided money to buy traditional Indian instruments. Said Lizerbram of the children: "They're considered the lowest social class of the low and typically wouldn't be able to escape that, or even go to school."
One of Lizerbram’s most rewarding experiences in India was teaching drums to a boy named Deepin Raj. “I was giving everyone else bongo lessons on the hand drums and he comes up to me and he was like, ‘I don’t want to do this,’” Lizerbram recalled. “He said, ‘Put me on the big drums.’ So I took him and gave him private lessons and after about an hour of working with him he was able to hold a steady beat.”
Youthjamz has also created a music program closer to home. Casa de Amparo, a shelter for abused children in San Diego, now has a collection of instruments that residents can play, along with a part-time teacher.
"We thought the best way to inspire local youth would be to service kids in our own community," Lizerbram said. "We found that even in our own hometowns, where we least expected it, there were kids living in extremely disadvantaged situations. It really hit me that — although it's important to work with international causes — it's equally important to touch on issues here at home."
In addition to the music, Friday’s event will feature prize drawings that people can enter by making a credit card donation.
Staging a concert as a battle-of-the-bands will be new for Youthjamz, Lizerbram said. Previously, people paid to go the shows. But Friday’s event is free, so the fundraising won't come from ticket prices. Instead, the competing bands are only be able compete if they raised enough money through an online funding platform. The bands will be awarded points by panel of judges, and extra points will be awarded to the band that brings the most audience members. The winner of the battle gets to open for the main act of the larger Youthjamz concert this fall. These concerts have hosted the likes of Cassadee Pope, winner of the third season of "The Voice," and The Maine, a popular pop-punk band.
The process of organizing a concert while at a university rather than in high school has been different for Lizerbram. Used to cold-calling potential sponsors and searching for places to advertise, he said that he is excited to hold the concert somewhere with a built-in audience. As an official UCLA organization, he was allowed to pass out flyers on Bruinwalk and speak at school meetings. It also doesn't hurt to be holding the concert in Los Angeles, one of the biggest hubs of the music scene and nearly always sunny and warm — perfect for outdoor concerts.
“UCLA is the best place to be doing this. And in some ways," he said, "I think Youthjamz was always meant to be a college organization."
Lizerbram has also had to consult with many offices — from ASUCLA to the fire marshal to the coordinators of different on-campus venues. Though it’s been a lot of work, he said it hasn’t been hard to find time to fit Youthjamz into his life as a college student.
“It’s more fitting other things around Youthjamz,” Lizerbram said. “It’s kind of like a reward at the end of the day — once I’ve done all my other activities I get to do some Youthjamz work. That’s the thing I love about UCLA — everyone’s so involved and so passionate.”
Lizerbram has a far-reaching plan for Youthjamz. After establishing a chapter at UCLA, he wants to bring Youthjamz to multiple college campuses. “Now that I’ve seen the potential of working with a school like UCLA, it’s given me higher hopes for what we can turn Youthjamz into.”
