Fuse Festival

Saturday, July 28th, 2018 from 8:00am to 10:00pm (ET)

About

FUSE FEST (Focus on Unity, Spirit and Edutainment) a community event created to help over 1,000 community members come together, fusing to be stronger, healthy and happy. This endeavor was initiated by Councilman Paul Riddick in 2013 when he requested that Teens With a Purpose create a three part summer community experience for the surrounding community. FUSE Fest is now in its fourth year, this transformative event has transitioned from a teen-led event to a teen and community led experience. FUSE Fest celebrates the heart of inner-city Norfolk, where health, safety and income disparities are greatest, through this intergenerational festival in the downtown Church Street District. • FUSE Fest aims to dismantle negative attitudes, beliefs and unhealthy practices held by and about this community, elevate spirits and foster stronger bonds between every segment of community to help increase peace, harmony and health in Norfolk through what we are calling the Life Is Living experience! • At a time when we need it most. We are living in an unprecedented period of American and Virginian history. Violent crime and homicide rates are up in our region, drug abuse is an epidemic sweeping through every sector of our society, prisons are more overcrowded then ever and many of our local schools are not reaching minimal requirements for full accreditations. Teens With a Purpose has been successfully building programs, events and relationships that address these issues for the past 20 year. Now we are inviting the greater community to help us continue our work at a time when help is needed most. • Making a safe, healthy, inclusive community! The city is growing and thriving, but not all residents have shared in this growth. While diversity is one of our City’s most distinguishing attributes, it is also one of our greatest challenges. Poverty levels are highly concentrated in some communities, and the difference is even more significant by race and age. Norfolk’s poverty level has historically been nearly double Virginia’s overall average. Poverty is not spread equally among races, with high levels of poverty among minorities. While Norfolk’s overall racial composition is approximately 47 percent white, 43 percent black, and 10 percent other, Norfolk residents experiencing poverty are most likely to be black. Fifty-eight percent of the city’s 40,000 individuals living in poverty are black, constituting 24 percent of all blacks living in Norfolk. Fuse Festival will honor and celebrate the people and their culture.
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