ConnectHER Film Festival

For 11 years now, Eloise has been the presenting sponsor of the ConnectHER Film Festival — a global platform for young filmmakers to share short films about issues that impact women and girls. This year, for the first time, the film fest’s 12th annual event was held at Paramount Theatre, a beloved and gorgeous venue for these films and performances. Filmmakers past and present came from around the world, there were celebrity presenters and performances, but the heart of the fest every year is the stories told in the films.

For the last two festivals, John Paul has gotten even more involved by sponsoring the Global Impact Award on an issue that recognizes a film that identifies inequalities and injustices affecting women and girls around the world. We are looking for films that addresses a problem while also shining a light on an innovative solution – a local leader or a community-based solution. John Paul and Eloise loved and chose this film - Grit and Glitter - from Indonesia as this year’s award winner.

In addition, every finalist filmmaker will receive $2500 to give to the projects featured in their films to help increase their impact. Thank you so much to all the filmmakers who gave us such beautiful, hopeful films to choose from and to all the other sponsors, staff and volunteers who made this event possible.

Heart for Impact Award 🖤

John Paul and Eloise were awarded Selfless Love Foundation’s Heart for Impact Award last weekend at the nonprofit’s 10th annual gala in Palm Beach, Florida that raised $4.5 million for their work. Since 2015, SLF has helped more than 500 children get adopted in Florida, housed more than 600 youth, and provided thousands of hours of life skills and leadership training for youth aging out of the system.

“John Paul and Eloise have changed thousands of lives. The families that Selfless Love has helped to create through adoption, and the youth who are succeeding against all odds are now part of their legacy. They believed in Selfless Love when it was just a dream and have worked alongside us to make that dream a reality.”

Ed Brown, co-founder of Selfless Love Foundation.

They are so honored by this award and the ability to be involved as this organization was founded and now grown to have such an incredible record. As always, John Paul was a judge at Dream Tank, a competition that inspires and supports youth impacted by foster care. Five young women finalists presented their ideas that intend to use their experiences in foster care to help others. From designing affordable homes to providing supportive housing for teen mothers, the young adults shared their professional aspirations and did SO WELL.

Antonia Fede won the competition, receiving $5,000 for her speech about providing support and resources to help inmates transition out of prison and be successful in life. “I have gained a level of confidence that I never had,” Fede said. “Here I am using my voice and the skills I learned from this organization. How to network, how to stay resilient, how to stay patient, and how to go after what I desire.”  
It was two amazing nights that raised a lot of support for foster youth, and the DeJorias felt so honored. Thanks Ed, Ashley and Tony for your kind words and support!

Giving Tuesday 2024

This year John Paul really wanted to help nonprofits close the year out strong when it comes to food access in Austin. We offered 4 matching grants of $25,000 to 4 organizations doing amazing work helping folks get access to healthy food. Click their photos to learn more and we definitely recommend giving to their campaigns!

El Buen Samaritano

Their food pantry offers emergency food assistance with nutritious food to families and individuals in Central Texas.

KEEP AUSTIN FED

They reduce hunger and help the environment by connecting surplus food with neighbors in need.

WE CAN NOW

Refugee Collective

Their farm creates livelihood opportunities for refugees and increases food access through regenerative agriculture.

Their weekly outreaches provide nutritious food and meals to the unhoused folks living on the streets of Austin.

Hands for Hope 2024

This year the DeJorias joined El Buen Samaritano’s Hands for Hope Thanksgiving Event that distributed 1000 meal kits to 1000 local families in need of support this holiday season. The estimated value of each kit was about $75! John Paul handled getting turkeys into people’s car while Eloise distributed the butter and dry goods. Other team members were on site to lend a helping hand. With a DJ, committed sponsors and volunteers, this year’s event was SO fun and memorable.

Hands for Hope kicks off El Buen’s campaign to raise funds for food access all year long. We also pledged to match donations up to $25,000, so join us and please consider giving now!

GIVE HERE

John Paul DeJoria Skills Center

On November 1, we gathered at The Other One Foundation’s (TOOF) latest addition - the John Paul DeJoria Skills Center! It was a celebration of all the partners needed to come together to provide job training and certification for unhoused folks in Austin.

Built at the Esperanza Community, a non-congregate emergency homeless shelter in East Austin run by TOOF, the John Paul DeJoria Vocational Skills Center will offer a variety of professional and vocational training services; ranging from soft skills development to certifications and job placement in HVAC, auto-mechanics, welding, plumbing, carpentry, and other trades. These are some of the fastest growing and high paying trades as identified by Texas Workforce Solutions Capital Area (WFSCA). Pilot programming will be staffed by instructors from partners like Austin Community College and ReWork Project while WFSCA sponsors the tuition of the eligible unhoused students.

With a lack of affordable housing and rental assistance, and a constantly growing homeless population, Austin homelessness service providers are having to get creative with new ways to tackle housing. Pairing safe and dignified shelter, like TOOF’s Esperanza Community, with vocational training, is a new practice that will help people experiencing homelessness develop the skills necessary to find and retain housing, employment, and community.

“As someone who has been homeless twice, I know what it’s like to need a helping hand and have been fortunate enough to have good people support me. But I also believe in the American Dream, which is how I became the owner of the world’s largest privately owned salon haircare company, and top-selling tequila brand, among many other things. That’s exactly why I am proud that JP’s Peace, Love and Happiness Foundation is supporting what TOOF is doing right here in our local community of Austin. With the opening of the Skills Center, we are providing good people with the chance at the American Dream and I’m really excited to be providing a new approach to homelessness services.” — John Paul

We are so excited for people to start classes soon! Thank you so much to all involved in making this possible!

Baby2Baby Gala 2024

It was a family affair at this year’s Baby2Baby gala — John Paul, Eloise, Alexis and Michaeline were all in attendance. Paul Mitchell is a faithful sponsor for Baby2Baby, a nonprofit that provides children living in poverty across the country with diapers, clothing and all the basic necessities that every child deserves. The star-studded event this year raised an incredible $17 MILLION for these basic needs.

Did you know?

  • Diapers are the 4th highest household expenditure (after rent, food and utilities) for low-income families.

  • Baby2Baby created its own diaper manufacturing system to produce them at 80% less than the retail cost.

  • Baby2Baby has distributed over 200 million diapers to families in need across the country.

Butterfly Ball 🦋 Award

This year is the 40th anniversary of Chrysalis in LA. In that time, they’ve helped 85,000 people with job resources and placement in and around Skid Row. John Paul was so proud to receive an award as a longtime supporter and friend of the organization.

And it was a family reunion of sorts! One of John Paul’s oldest and dearest friends, in fact the guy that gave John Paul a job when he was down and out a long time ago, surprised him by presenting the award. Thanks so much John Capra! Other friends and family joined to celebrate as well. And Bandero, John Paul’s newest tequila company, sponsored the event with Bandero and Bandero Coffee Liqueur cocktails.

John Paul spoke about his first jobs and how hard he worked when no one was looking. He talked about how success is what YOU believe you are, not what others say you are. With his lived experience of homelessness and of working hard to get where he is, we think John Paul is a wonderful inspiration and deserving recipient of this award!

Arts Grants

"Art helps every human and raises capability, consciousness and awareness. Art creates culture."

John Paul DeJoria

We decided to do a little something different as we head into the long summer months in Austin. A lot of events and fundraising slow down, but we wanted to commit to funding some nonprofits who are building and sustaining community and culture through the arts. These various organizations use art to meet the needs of their communities that work with veterans, people who have experienced trauma, people in recovery, people who have been historically underrepresented in arts and business investment.

Here are the five organizations we chose to support:

  • Center for Survivors of Torture — Their mission and goal is to facilitate healing, ease transitions, and facilitate hope in survivors of torture and trauma. Last year they served 850 clients and their families in Texas, ages 4-75 from 38 countries. Their art classes and traditional craft groups are just one of the many healing modalities they employ to foster and sustain community healing.

  • DAWA — They believe in a world where DIVERSITY is a source of strength, AWARENESS normalizes challenging the status quo, WELLNESS is a collective journey, and ACTION means equitable investment of time and resources to historically underrepresented populations.

  • Museum of Human Achievement — They are a community-driven space grounded in affordability, inclusivity and access for artists. They also help other artists seek funding and increase their impact.

  • Reklaimed — This nonprofit is centered around woodworking and visual arts in order to help individuals in addiction recovery foster community through sharing skills and being of service.

  • Art Spark Texas — This organization challenges perceptions of how people contribute by creating an arts-inspired, inclusive community of individuals with diverse abilities. Their diverse services include services for current and prior military members and family. The arts are important to veterans because, for many military personnel, the arts are a way to express what they saw, heard, and experienced during service.

As you can see, they are all very different in what they seek to do, but all amazing. So grateful for a robust community of artists in Central Texas and these organizations that keep it all going!

Regenerative Ag in Central Texas

The Refugee Collective (formerly Multicultural Refugee Coalition) has been a partner for several years now. They help welcome, train and sustain refugee families in Austin through their projects. They have a 20-acre organic farm and community garden - New Leaf Agriculture - that connects refugees to sustainable farming opportunities. We helped purchase their farm tractor awhile back and were happy to help get a new no-till-seed-drill and other implements to help them move to their carbon farm plan and regenerative agriculture model. Getting to see that baby on its inaugural run dropping seeds for a cover crop was very exciting! And it’s such a great time to be on a farm - Spring in Texas!