Photo Essay: Innovation – and a Personal Touch – Get Priority at New Charities

Benjamin Levy, who founded the Levy Dance Company in 2003, was named by Dance magazine to its “25 to watch” list. Critics have described his works as athletic and lyrical, brainy and sexy. Here, Cambria Garell, a dancer in Mr. Levy’s San Francisco troupe, strikes a pose.

Darryl Hunt, who was exonerated in February after he was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder, has founded a charity to help others who want to prove they were injustly incarcerated. He came up with the idea during the 18th years he spent in prison.

HighTechHigh-Los Angeles opened last fall in Lake Balboa, Calif., to teach youngsters the technology skills they will need in the work force. Roberta Weintraub, a formerpresident of the Los Angeles Board of Education raised $13-million for the school, which is run by a nonprofit group.

Medicine Horse, in Boulder Colo., runs numerous psychotherapy programs. Among them: a program that encourages suicidal teenage girls to take care of foals for a few hours a week. More than 40 girls, including this youngster, have completed the 10-week “HopeFoal” program, and some are now volunteers at the charity.

LARA ROSSIGNOL

Johnathan Sheffer is the artistic director and conductor of Red, a new Cleveland chamber orchestra that blends classical music with theatrical, literacy, and other art forms to attrack both seasoned symphony goers and people who do not regularly attend classical-music performances.

Admission Possible, a St. Paul group that won charity status last year, helps students from low-income families seek financial aid for college, prepare for entrance exams, and complete college application. Ninety-five percent of the 345 students who complete the twice-weekly classes now attend a four-year college.

The Chicago School of Violin Making teaches students to make and repair stringed instruments using the technique of the 17th- and 18th-century masters. Students spend three years at the school and are required to make at least three violins, one viola, and three other instruments to graduate.

Helena Houdova, a Los Angeles fashion model, founded the Sunflower Non-profit Foundation to raise money to provide tutoring and other services to needy youngsters in countries including the Czech Republic.

CATHERINE MARTINEAU

Canopy: Trees for Palo Alto, in California, won charity status in 2002. The group offers tree-care workshops, runs a tree hotline, and holds tree-planting events, all designed to protect what it calls the “urban forest.”