{"id":3022,"date":"2014-11-06T18:40:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T18:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/homeless-choir-aims-to-give-shelterless-in-long-beach-self-esteem-pride-2\/"},"modified":"2014-11-06T18:40:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T18:40:50","slug":"homeless-choir-aims-to-give-shelterless-in-long-beach-self-esteem-pride-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/homeless-choir-aims-to-give-shelterless-in-long-beach-self-esteem-pride-2","title":{"rendered":"Homeless Choir Aims to Give Shelterless in Long Beach Self-Esteem, Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Homeless\"<\/p>\n

Photo by Brian Addison.<\/em><\/p>\n

Frank McIlquham has made the world shine a little brighter through music for groups like veterans and at-risk youth. By forming choirs out of these groups, McIlquham helped them forget their troubles and escape into a world of music. Now, he’s hoping to do the same for the homeless community in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

McIlquham said that according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Long Beach is the fourth highest rated of unsheltered homeless among major cities.<\/p>\n

Choirs around the world, from the United Kingdom to Australia to other cities in the United States, have allowed homeless people to have a voice, McIlquham said.<\/p>\n

“A choir is about inclusiveness and giving people something that feels like home,” he said. “We want to give the homeless a voice to the public and be recognized to gain self-esteem and pride again. There will always be someone on the streets with a gift that needs to shine. Participants in our program build and develop character; a sense of teamwork and confidence is also achieved.”<\/p>\n

McIlquham said he started the vocal program for the homeless on October 31, and just on the first day, the group had more than 40 participants — his ideal size is between 35 and 40 men and women. He said that’s a sign of what’s to come for this choir, but, unfortunately, the program still needs funding before it can come to fruition completely.<\/p>\n

He set up an Indiegogo campaign<\/a>, which he is hoping will help raise $5,000 by December 10 to provide the participants with established musicians and vocal coaches, performance attire, musical arrangements, accompanists and teachers.<\/p>\n

The goal, McIlquham said, is to have the homeless choir perform at the Long Beach Rescue Mission Gala event at the Westin Hotel on December 10 at 5:30PM.<\/p>\n

McIlquaham said he believes this goal is attainable because it’s familiar territory for him. In 2010, he created Rock For Vets, which provided a musical outlet for veterans and garnered the attention of rockstar Gene Simmons of Kiss fame. Simmons created an episode of A&E’s Family Jewels, called “Kiss a Vet,” focusing on Rock For Vets.<\/p>\n

McIlquaham also created a choir for at-risk youth in an after school program at schools like Cabrillo High School and Jodan-Plus.<\/p>\n

“These groups reap the rewards of the small successes they experience while learning to perform as part of a band,” McIlquaham said. “Through its work in the Long Beach area, The Rock Club Rock For Vets has gained understanding and knowledge with the introduction of music as a new form of healing. Veterans and At-Risk youth both share common traits that need to develop character, provide a sense of teamwork and build self-esteem.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank McIlquham has made the world shine a little brighter through music for groups like veterans and at-risk youth. By forming choirs out of these groups, McIlquham helped them forget their troubles and escape into a world of music. Now, he’s hoping to do the same for the homeless community in Long Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":68304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-homelessness","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3022"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3022"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}