Covenant House provides services in 21 cities, 15 in the U.S., to homeless and runaway youth, including advocacy, health care, education, vocational preparation, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal services, recreation, transitional living programs, street and community outreach and aftercare. “I chose to work with Covenant House after a lot of research - I saw what they were doing and it was exactly what I had invisioned for helping at-risk kids – I visited the Los Angeles location and was impressed by the whole operation.”

George Lozano, Executive Director of Covenant House California said, “Having someone like Nikki associated with Covenant House is great – he’s passionate about what he does, he’s passionate about the cause, he can relate to the youth in our program and they can relate to him. He’s a great role model for these kids.”

Having experienced life as a runaway myself, I wanted to do something to help kids put in this position through no fault of their own,” said Nikki, who admitted that music was perhaps the single most important factor in saving him from that situation. “I want to raise awareness and funds for Covenant House and to create a creative arts program, starting with an emphasis on music, to enable Covenant House to help young people discover and nurture their talents like I did through music”

To that end, Nikki has established “Running Wild in the Night,” to raise funds to support Covenant House’s work in providing services to nearly 78,000 youth last year. Since being incorporated in New York City in 1972, the agency is supported almost entirely by private contributions.

“This cause is obviously near and dear to my heart,” said Nikki. “And I’m hoping that my efforts will enable even one homeless or runaway kid to achieve what I have in life. Saving the life of one kid who grows up and has a child of his or her own who could be the person who cures cancer or aids there is no way to know how far the reach can go.”