Campaign Updates and Hurricane Relief

All of us at Critical Role and the Critical Role Foundation immensely thank you for your support in our mission to Leave the World Better Than We Found It. It is an honor to partner with such amazing non-profit organizations that positively impact so many lives across the world. Today, we’re excited to share progress updates from two of our more recent fundraising campaigns with our friends at 826LA and Shanti Bhavan, both of which are doing incredible work for students both near and far. 

826LA Writers’ Room at Venice High School

In April of 2021, we launched a collaborative fundraising campaign with the amazing 826LA to build the Critical Role Writers’ Room at Venice High School. With all of your enthusiasm, not only did we reach our goal within 2 months, but we are also proud to say we were able to launch this program in the spring semester of the 2021-2022 school year. 

“We are so grateful to have Critical Role as a long-time partner. The foundation, as well as Critical Role’s incredible fan base, understand how important creativity is in the lives of young people. We’re excited for all the opportunities this new school year will bring.” -Jamie Balboa, Executive Director, 826LA

826LA began with a rollout of engagement of the English Department faculty in February 2022 and during this presentation, a plan of projects for the academic year was designed. The very first project to launch was an in-depth Personal Statement Workshop for the juniors preparing for college applications at Venice High School. We are happy to report that this workshop session served 35 students with three more sessions scheduled to follow up on the success of the first workshop. 

Over the summer, although the Writers’ Room is typically on hiatus, 826LA offered the Venice High School students a great opportunity: a multi-module novel-writing workshop with New York Times Best-Selling author, Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Blood and Bone).

In addition, 826LA has been working with the current school staff and has hired a new coordinator of the Writers’ Room, Evan Bonavita, from Los Angeles Film School, bringing with her an immense amount of creative experience with high school students.

What’s next?

Plans for the 2022-2023 school year have been created to continue long-lasting support for our student writers. With a goal of engaging 550 Venice High School Students, those plans include: 

• College Center collaboration: Personal Statement Workshops for juniors and seniors 
• Personal Statement Support with 12th Grade English teachers 
• Student participation in 13th Annual Great LA Personal Statement Weekend 
• National Novel Month Collaboration with Get Lit Club
• Student participation in 11th Annual Scholarship Day
• Venice HS 2021 student publication Book Release & Celebration
• Cross-Department collaboration for Student publication 

None of this would be possible without the amazing support you all provided–thank you!

Shanti Bhavan Girls’ Dormitory

Critical Role Foundation’s collaboration with Shanti Bhavan in India has made tremendous progress in constructing a brand new girls’ dormitory for these well-deserving students. They began the year assessing the land on campus where the future dormitory would be built. After identifying this land plot and successfully completing a land survey, they began the necessary groundwork in order to prepare for the construction of the foundation, irrigation, and plumbing. 

Within a couple of months, they could focus on completing the completion of the foundation trenches, which allow for retaining walls and underground utilities. The foundation was poured in March 2022 and received approval to begin the next phases of construction. 

In the second quarter of the year, after the foundation was laid, the ground floor was built and weight-bearing walls and concrete pillars were installed, the stairwell and the exterior walls of the second floor were also completed.

Next Steps:

The next parts of the construction will include wind-proofing the dorm’s exterior, installing windows, and building interior rooms on both the ground and second floors. Plans are already put in place to continue working on the plumbing and electrical moving closer towards its completion. 

Hurricane Relief 

Photo credit to World Central Kitchen/WCK.org

Our hearts are with the people and families devastated by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Fiona. In an effort to offer relief to those affected, we have donated $30,000 from our emergency fund to World Central Kitchen, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing meals to those in need during times of crises. We know the amazing people over at WCK are continuing to work diligently to provide hunger relief and we are honored to be able to make a contribution.      

Again, thank you so much for your continued support of the Critical Role Foundation. Every donation and merchandise purchase helps to support our mission to Leave the World Better Than We Found It. All donations are being split between our 7 amazing partner organizations–including Shanti Bhavan and 826LA. To learn more about the Critical Role Foundation, visit us here.