Create Now: Healing SoCal's Neediest Kids Through the Arts

Founded in the 1990s, Create Now is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the neediest youth in the Southern California region. Through arts mentoring and experiences, Create Now seeks to transform the lives of vulnerable kids ages 2 to 21 who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected. At the heart of the organization's work are the “forgotten children” in shelters, detention facilities, group homes, special centers, and schools, including the homeless, incarcerated, runaways, gang members, substance abusers, teen parents, children of prisoners, and victims of domestic violence.


Create Now was started by Jill Gurr, who felt a need to make a difference in the world. In 1994, she began a screenwriting workshop at a boys' detention center, spending several months writing a screenplay with 30 teenage boys who were incarcerated for different crimes. The workshop was a success, with many previously illiterate kids learning how to read and write through the program. Other boys wanted to go back to school, and a gang leader even had his loyalty tattoos removed. Gurr held a second screenwriting workshop at a coed detention facility with equal success. In 1996, impressed by Gurr's idea and passion to help, Leslie Stevens from the American Film Institute gave her a $5,000 donation to start a non-profit organization.

Create Now began as Write Now!, teaching literacy through various forms of creative writing. Today, Create Now has five program areas – writing, music, art, performing arts, and cultural excursions – to help the neediest youth express themselves in positive ways and gain life skills. The organization also brings thousands of kids to free plays, concerts, and other cultural events each year, introducing them to new types of theater, music, and art while bringing them joy and relief. Since its inception, Create Now has served more than 30,000 kids in Southern California.