--Foundation Recently Received Grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation--

(BLACK PR WIRE) -- The Jason Taylor Foundation is committed to developing programs that facilitate the personal growth and empowerment of South Florida’s children and believes strongly in fostering creativity in the arts and encouraging and strengthening literacy skills to achieve its goals. Thanks to a recent grant awarded by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge, the Jason Taylor Foundation is able to make this dream a reality and will launch Louder Than a Bomb Florida, utilizing the art of the spoken word to help provide teens from diverse backgrounds a common vehicle for written and performance-based self-expression, empowering and uniting both the youth and their respective communities.

”We are honored and excited to receive this grant from the Knight Foundation,” said Jason Taylor, the legendary football hero who founded his non-profit organization in 2004. ”We are beginning to see transformational results in the lives of young people through our poetry programs and we hope that Louder Than a Bomb Florida will leave a lasting impact in the community.”

”Every true artist would be a practitioner of their art despite anyone ever giving them a dollar, but to have organizations provide much-needed support is every artist’s dream. This grant is destined to help a generation of young artists fulfill their destinies,” Said Darius Daughtry, the Jason Taylor Foundation’s Director of bluapple Poetry Programs.

The Jason Taylor Foundation’s arts project is stellar in its own right. Dubbed the ”Super Bowl of poetry,” Louder Than a Bomb Florida will feature a friendly spoken-word competition between school-based poetry teams representing local high schools from Broward County, Miami-Dade and beyond. Knight Foundation funding will help the Foundation support the schools’ efforts by providing year-round, in-class and after-school instruction, culminating in an 11-day festival in April 2015. This exciting initiative has also garnered the support of Nova Southeastern University and the Miami Dolphins Foundation.

Since founding the bluapple Poetry Network with actor and poet Omari Hardwick in 2012, the Foundation has helped nearly 50 Broward County schools activate this program, with more than 500 participants inspiring their communities with poetry.

Louder Than A Bomb Florida is a festival featuring poetry bouts, workshops, exhibits, and ultimately the crowning of Florida’s top youth poetry team. The most critical component, however, is the year-round, meaningful instruction inside the classroom and after-school clubs, with teachers and teaching artists who create and facilitate a safe space for individual and collective expression.

About the Jason Taylor Foundation

In July 2004, Miami Dolphins legendary Defensive End, Jason Taylor, established the Jason Taylor Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) organization. The Foundation’s mission is to support and create programs that facilitate the personal growth and empowerment of South Florida’s children in need by focusing on improved health care, education and quality of life.

Since opening its doors, the Jason Taylor Foundation has impacted tens of thousands of children through innovative programming including The Jason Taylor Reading Room, Cool Gear for the School Year, the Jason Taylor Children’s Learning Center, Jason Taylor Scholars and the Omari Hardwick bluapple Poetry Network, among others. For more information on the Jason Taylor Foundation, please visit www.JasonTaylorFoundation.org or follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jasontaylorfoundation or Twitter: www.twitter.com/@jtfoundation99 or www.twitter.com/@bluapplepoetry #LTABFLA.

About Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit KnightFoundation.org.