Our Programs
Topic-based sessions, carried by live art.
Our HeArt Education curriculum manifests as topic-based sessions where our team of trained facilitators leads a series of exercises and dialogue, complemented by live artistic displays and performances. Whether for a special event or a semester-long series, our programming uses a window of 45–120 minutes and is tailored to the needs and desires of the target audience.
Assembly Model
One-off sessions
Our team introduces the concept of Emotional Literacy to a whole school, facility, or event at once — an entry point into the work.
Workshop Series Model
Continued development
Consistent meetings that allow groups to focus on a variety of topics over time, building depth session by session.
Program 01
HeArt Sessions
HeArt Sessions are topic-based workshops that implement the HeArt Education curriculum. The Arts — language, performing, and visual — are used as the primary means to develop Emotional Literacy.
We define Emotional Literacy as the ability to understand emotions in self and others, the ability to empathize with those emotions, and the ability to express emotions productively. We believe the by-product of emotional literacy and development improves the condition of a person's life — moving it from pain to promise, and from challenges to possibilities.
All Artist Facilitators working under AIM 4 The Heart have completed our heArt Education training. HeArt Sessions adapt easily to community centers, schools, juvenile halls, prisons, group homes, and recovery centers, and hybrid workshops can adapt to the individual concerns of a facility through topic selection.
Ongoing community sessions
Los Angeles
A recurring session at a private location in LA. Contact us for details and to reserve a spot.
Long Beach
Our ongoing community-based HeArt Session, hosted at the Homeland Cultural Center.
Program 02
Music is Medicine Assemblies
We provide 60–90 minute assemblies for schools, juvenile halls, youth facilities, and special events. Assemblies are driven by the heArt Education emotional literacy curriculum, which acknowledges a number of the factors that impact an individual's emotional health.
Each assembly engages youth participants through keynote speakers and performing artists — part of or affiliated with our organization — who have been empowered to overcome adversity, gangs, violence, poverty, and pain through the use of their artistry.
Our assemblies are an introduction to the work we do and to the HeArt Education curriculum, and adapt easily to both small and large group settings: schools, juvenile halls, youth facilities, conferences, and special events.
Program 03
The Mic Sessions
An artist development workshop series that uses a nuanced understanding of Emotional Literacy, performance, and behavioral science to help artists grow their voices.
It began in Leila Steinberg's living room. Since then, sessions have been held in legendary music studios, top agencies in Entertainment and Business, and on sacred lands with traditionally marginalized groups.
Voices developed in the space
Tupac Shakur · Omari Hardwick · DeSean Jackson · H.E.R. · Earl Sweatshirt · Fana Hues · and generations of artists, athletes & entertainers.
Program 04
heArt Education Facilitator Training
Our International Facilitator Training model is a hybrid between HeArt Sessions and our facilitator training, empowering the transition to developing a HeArt Sessions workshop in the host country.
A team of AIM Artists and heArt Education Facilitators scaffolds that transition — training during the day and hosting HeArt Sessions in the evening. This hybrid model allows new facilitators to take over the workshop by the end of the training, with the support of experienced heArt Education facilitators.
The training package includes
- 3-day heArt Education training
- heArt Education Manual
- Opportunity to observe a HeArt Sessions workshop
- Follow-up phone & email support for one year
- Zoom support
- Completion certificate
- Opportunity to intern as a facilitator for AIM 4 The Heart
Community Collaboration
Showcase performances.
AIM 4 The Heart has collaborated on special events across Southern California and beyond, bringing artists and communities together around shared values.
Be a part of AIM
Watering seeds already planted around the globe.
AIM collaborates 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. reap the benefit of multiple arts and social justice organizations working in concert, providing top quality arts education alternatives to youth who would otherwise have no access.
Support the work
Fund a session in a room that can't otherwise afford one.
Many of the schools, communities, and facilities we serve are underfunded — and need this work the most.