While it’s been four months to the day since tragedy struck at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival last November, the rapper is continuing to do what he can to help those affected.
On Tuesday, Scott announced the launch of his latest endeavor, Project Heal; a multi-tier, community-based initiative “dedicated to addressing challenges facing today’s youth, especially those from marginalized and at-risk communities.”
Per the official website, this latest initiative comes in conjunction with Scott’s Cactus Jack Foundation, and seeks to unite various initiatives ranging from “academic 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.” 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 “always honor the victims of the Astroworld tragedy who remain in my heart forever.”
“Over the past few months I’ve 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,” Scott captioned in a post.
He continued:
While it’s 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 I’ve 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 can’t wait to introduce the rest of the technology and ideas we’ve been working on. See you all so soon.
If you’re keeping score, this marks the second initiative that Scott is spearheading. Back in December, he announced he’d be partnering with the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) to lead the charge in finding and creating “new technologies and innovations” for better safety guidelines at concerts and festivals. And though it appears the “Out West” 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 year’s Coachella lineup and Dior “indefinitely postponing” their previously announced capsule collection, as previously reported by The Root, Congress has also decided to open a bipartisan investigation into the Astroworld tragedy.
“The whole idea for why I brought this festival to the city was to show that Houston was something different and show that there’s all different kinds of lives, different kinds of energy,” Scott explained in his first interview following the event. “And 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.”