History

A successful entrepreneur in Los Angeles, Marcia de Paula (bio), founded the Bravo Youth Foundation in 2006 after several trips to the Sertão, the northeastern backlands of Brazil. These trips took place over the years as Marcia and her husband Lucas da Silva, who is from the Brazilian Sertão, visited remote and isolated communities to see what they could do to help. This region is characterized by severe droughts, poverty and lack of opportunities. As Marcia recalls, “I remember seeing children and teenagers with very sad looks on their faces and I felt I needed to do something to change that.”

Marcia and her husband started donating part of their business’ profits to create a community center in the region of Bravo, a community with 6,000 inhabitants, to provide children and youth with recreational and social services. The Bravo Youth Foundation, which was named after this small village, is the founding supporter of the Associação Criança Bravo (Bravo Children Association) since its inception. Bravo provided general start-up and capacity building funding to build a community center with six activity rooms, a soccer field, and a performance stage. Learn more about the Bravo Children Association. (website in Portuguese)

Building on the success of the Bravo Children Association project, the Bravo Youth Foundation expanded its fundraising activities in Los Angeles to reach out to individual donors, corporations, and foundations interested in advancing its vision and mission. In 2009, with a new and energized board of directors and volunteers the foundation established a stronger presence in Los Angeles with the opening of a new office in Venice.