Get Rid Of That Old Car, Donate It!...

We are pleased to announce that you can now donate your old car, truck, RV or boat to the Hearts Of Fire Project quickly and painlessly. Our partner, the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, takes care of the entire process for you. From pickup to processing your donation receipt, the Vehicle Donation Processing Center handles it all. To see how it works, visit our Donate Vehicles page on our web site. Its quick, its easy...

TV Interview, KEYT-TV Santa Barbara...

On May 1, I got a call from Beth Farnsworth at KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara. They wanted to come to my house in Ojai to do a story about the Hearts Of Fire Project. Of course, I was really excited and invited her over to my place. To prepare for the interview, I created a quick art gallery of some of the art. Although not an ideal viewing area, my office served the purpose. Enjoy the video!

New Homeless, The Fall From Grace...

A tragedy is unfolding in Santa Barbara. Flames are scorching the earth, laying waste to the mansions in the hills above the city. People are now homeless who may never have thought about being homeless. Although most have resources, family and friends to help, they are tasting what it feels like to be without a home. On the streets below the burning hills there are hundreds of people who were homeless before the fire...

Great Performance & Event, May 2, Santa Barba...

Wow! What a great performance by Ellen Snortland in her Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, “Now That She’s Gone.” Bob Ballard & Ellen Snortland Everyone loved the play and the art work we displayed.  Rather than just write about an experience that is difficult to describe, I thought I’d just post some great photos taken at the event. The show is about to begin We showed some of the art work collected...

Homeless R Us...

The fallout from the failure of our consumer culture is here. All of us, any of us can be homeless as this video so aptly illustrates. In the video, you can see that everyone attributes their homelessness, their dire straights, to the lack of a job. The problem is no job so of course the solution is find a job – create resumes, send emails, etc., etc. What happens when there are NO JOBS? Our “free market”...

Slumdog Millionaires Story Misses Point...

I saw a story today about the continuing poverty of the child stars of Slumdog Millionaires http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30468825/.  According to MSNBC, “two months ago, Rubina Ali the child star of the hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire” was worrying about what to wear to the Oscars. Now she has come home to a very different problem: How to get the fetid water out of her family’s one-room shack. Rubina...

Sharing The Vision...

Bob Ballard Sometimes, I wonder why I do this, why I am still working to expand and develop the Hearts Of Fire Project. A couple of years have passed since I started the project and I sometimes question my progress and my motivation. Today, as with most days, I woke up not wanting to get out of bed. Then I remembered my commitment, my vision for what is possible for people. I remembered that I am standing for the Beauty...

The Front Line...

I have come across more and more people, groups and organizations who are committed to helping homeless people. Many of these groups are activists, committed to confronting the inhumanity of our culture, a culture that values fancy cars and new technology more than human beings. This is not a deliberate or a callous disregard of others, it is simply a result of the consumer conditioning we have been immersed in since...

New Web Site Just About Ready!...

Bob Ballard We are ready to go LIVE folks! Yes! After weeks of work by myself and others, we are going to launch the new site! Yeah! As you will immediately notice, this site is far easier to navigate and looks much cleaner than the old site. We even have a new domain name, www.heartsoffireproject.org Also, you will be able to interact with me here, which I am really excited about. I can’t wait to add even more...