What’s Happening

Since 2006, when Lost Voices first began writing songs with troubled kids, we have seen that songwriting can be a powerful tool for healing trauma. In fact, I think it’s likely that every musician has experienced this healing on some level, working through whatever their own pain may be and finding solace in their music. 

But how, exactly, does that work?

First, creating music allows individuals to express their emotions in a unique way. When words alone fall short, songwriting provides an outlet to explore complex feelings, including those related to trauma. The act of channeling feelings into lyrics and putting them to music can become a powerful form of emotional release. (more…)

We closed out 2023 on a high note, figuratively and literally, at Vista Maria. A few of the kids made comments about how tough the holidays can be for them. That’s pretty easy to understand, since residential placement has them away from whatever familiar Holiday traditions they may have had in their lives. They also said that sharing their feelings in song made the season a little easier. Seeing their smiles and enthusiasm on stage at the end of the week was a gift. While we can’t show you those smiles, we can stage the scene for you. (more…)

Lost Voices once again received a generous grant from Eagles for Children which will help us fund upcoming programs! Lost Voices founder Mike Ball and Associate Director Gretchen Pleuss had the honor of being asked to write, record, and perform their original song, “Lighthouse” for the Eagles for Children Awards Ceremony. You can listen to it here.

Eagles for Children is a charity that pools donations from participating country clubs in Michigan whose members donate a few dollars every time any member scores an eagle. For the non-golfers, an eagle is when you score two strokes under par on a hole. In 2023, Eagles for Children raised a total of $1,337,540, all of which benefited children’s charities such as Lost Voices. Pretty incredible!

It only takes a few of us to pick them up
It only takes a moment’s time
It only takes a little love to fill their cup
To heal their bodies and their minds (more…)

Our founder was honored as a 2023 CNN Hero. Here he is making music with talented rapper J-Money, AKA Jerrell Moore. Jerrell was a teenager when he wrote this rap to express his feelings more than ten years ago in a Lost Voices program.

There is a wonderful charity in Michigan called Eagles for Children, and they have been helping Lost Voices change young lives for two years. Twenty of Michigan’s finest country clubs participate in a brilliant program in which club members donate a few dollars every time any member scores an eagle. For non-golfers, that involves scoring two strokes under par on a hole. In 2022 each eagle scored in one of the clubs raised, on average, $1,142. By the end of the year, the twenty clubs raised a total of $1,012,465! They gave Lost Voices a generous grant for this year that we used toward funding three programs with the girls at Vista Maria. 

The first program was in April. We worked with a great group of young women who were specially cleared to be filmed. This is extremely rare with our population of kids, and was accomplished so that they could be included in a 2023 CNN Heroes segment partly filmed during a creative session and their final concert. They wrote a group song, titled The System, that deals with the frustrations of being in residential placement and in the foster care system in general. The lyrics are posted below. (more…)