Recognized as one of America's leading health care providers, Kaiser Permanente has added an award-winning educational technology to their toolbox of community supports. This year, Kaiser is providing full-year subscriptions to Rhymes With Reason for 179 middle school students in Vallejo, California. These students will gain access to Rhymes With Reason's full suite of common-core aligned academic vocabulary modules and will have the opportunity to pilot a brand new 'Health & Wellness' playlist.

The custom playlist is being developed as a pilot project to coexist alongside Kaiser Permanente's annual Empower Youth Summit. This module will provide a comprehensive education for students on wellness terms and concepts associated with physical and mental health, with 100 terms, over 300 exercises, and related assessments. Backed by Rhymes With Reason's proven, culturally relevant model, each term is delivered within gamified lessons featuring the lyrics of this generation of students' favorite musical artists. Four middle schools from Vallejo City Unified School District have been selected to participate.

Rhymes with Reason is a Black-owned educational technology program utilized in over 200 schools across the country and has partnered and collaborated with high profile organizations including Chance the Rapper’s SocialWorks, The City of Detroit’s Grow Detroit Young Talent and San Diego’s Founders First Capital Partners CDC.

The program's culturally-relevant, music-powered approach to closing the vocabulary and reading gap serves as a refreshing learning experience for youth in grades 2 through 12.

Vacaville Reporter

"Eighth grade is a pivotal year for young adults. Between growing, learning and unwanted acne, it can often be difficult for new teenagers to navigate life and plan ahead.

To help with that, Kaiser Permanente hosted its fourth annual Empower Youth Summit at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on Tuesday. The annual event aims to inspire Vallejo’s eighth graders — about 575 of them — to learn about “overcoming obstacles, developing leadership skills, mental health and wellness, career development, peer pressure, bullying and goal setting.”

...The guests included Apple Software Engineer Austin Flores, TikTok Communications Specialist Elena Saavedra, Salesforce Lead Solution Engineer Frances, Rhymes with Reason’s Austin Martin, Patrick Willis, and rapper-producer Doug E. Fresh."

Vallejo middle schools students were awarded prizes throughout the day at the Empower Youth Summit. Here, an eighth grade winner poses with Beats by Dre headphones and Rhymes With Reason founder & CEO Austin Martin.

The Empower Youth Summit was held at the Six Flags amusement park in Vallejo, California. After the presentations concluded, students were invited to enjoy the rides and other park attractions.

Among the presenters at Kaiser Permanente's 4th annual Empower Youth Summit was hip-hop legend Doug E. Fresh. Here, he poses with middle school students from Vallejo City Schools Unified School District.

Vallejo middle school students received backpacks and gifts during the Summit, presented by Kaiser Permanente.