While itโs been four months to the day since tragedy struck at Travis Scottโs Astroworld music festival last November, the rapper is continuing to do what he can to help those affected.
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On Tuesday, Scott announced the launch of his latest endeavor, Project Heal; a multi-tier, community-based initiative โdedicated to addressing challenges facing todayโs youth, especially those from marginalized and at-risk communities.โ
Per the official website, this latest initiative comes in conjunction with Scottโs Cactus Jack Foundation, and seeks to unite various initiatives ranging from โacademic scholarships, free mental health resources, a creative design center and a first-ever, tech-driven solution for event safety. These efforts, independently and collectively, aim to solve challenges and overcome issues impacting the youth community.โ Scott is also kicking off Project Heal by donating $5 million with $1 million going towards HBCU scholarships (looking at you, Waymon Webster Scholarship Fund), as noted by Complex.
The Jackboys rapper later took to Instagram to share the news, explaining that he will โalways honor the victims of the Astroworld tragedy who remain in my heart forever.โ
โOver the past few months Iโve been taking the time and space to grieve, reflect and do my part to heal my community. Most importantly, I want to use my resources and platform moving forward towards actionable change. This will be a lifelong journey for me and my family,โ Scott captioned in a post.
He continued:
While itโs easy for corporations and institutions to stay in the shadows, I feel as a leader in my community, I need to step up in times of need. My team and I created Project HEAL to take much needed action towards supporting real solutions that make all events the safest spaces they can possibly be. I will always honor the victims of the Astroworld tragedy who remain in my heart forever.
Giving back and creating opportunities for the youth is something Iโve always done and will continue to do as long as I have the chance. This program will be a catalyst to real change and I canโt wait to introduce the rest of the technology and ideas weโve been working on. See you all so soon.
If youโre keeping score, this marks the second initiative that Scott is spearheading. Back in December, he announced heโd be partnering with the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) to lead the charge in finding and creating โnew technologies and innovationsโ for better safety guidelines at concerts and festivals. And though it appears the โOut Westโ rapper is taking responsibility for the horrific event, the fall out has continued to play out on both an entertainment and national front.
In addition to being dropped from this yearโs Coachella lineup and Dior โindefinitely postponingโ their previously announced capsule collection, as previously reported by The Root, Congress has also decided to open a bipartisan investigation into the Astroworld tragedy.
โThe whole idea for why I brought this festival to the city was to show that Houston was something different and show that thereโs all different kinds of lives, different kinds of energy,โ Scott explained in his first interview following the event. โAnd just bring that morale to the city, to just bring that energy to the city. I definitely want to figure out how could we fix this in the future [and] what could we do to change these things.โ
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