Tag: partnerships

This is Our Generation: Sierra Leonean Youth Views through Film


Independent media and artistic expression are crucial cornerstones upon which devastated countries can build a peaceful future. Around the world, youth programs focusing on the arts provide a platform for communication that helps young people from varied backgrounds to understand and appreciate each other. These programs help unlock the inherent creativity of young minds—giving them confidence in their own talents and their contributions to the localities they inhabit.
A program called “WeOwnTV” has been nurturing a new generation of young media makers in the war torn West African country of Sierra Leone. WeOwnTV (which means “Our Own TV” in the local language of Krio) is a free media education program founded on the guiding principles that no one is more qualified to tell Sierra Leone’s story than Sierra Leoneans themselves; and, that media can help an underrepresented group, especially youth, define their generation.
WeOwnTV represents what is possible when a team of dedicated young leaders witness the role media can play in building communities and transforming lives, combined with support of grassroots organizers, youth media organizations, and committed funders. Smart partnerships and hard work continue to make a lasting difference in the lives of the Sierra Leonean youth who, every day, expand the reach and impact of our youth-centered organization.
Planting the WeOwnTV Seed
In 2002, two first time filmmakers Banker White—a multidisciplinary artist from the Bay Area—and Zach Niles began working on the award-winning documentary “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars.” Banker and Zach spent nearly four years traveling back and forth to the region while producing the film, adding the necessary depth and humanity that lacked in foreign media representation of the country’s decade long civil war. The transformative experience created a long-standing relationship with the people and provided a space for Sierra Leoneans to tell their own story.
While Banker and Zach witnessed the impact of their film on the Sierra Leoneans whose stories were told by the film, musician Alhaji Jeffery Kamara (a.k.a. Black Nature)—the young star of the film—was deeply influenced by the opportunity to tell his story to the world. As Black Nature traveled around the globe with the film and the band doing interviews, he was forced to dig deeper into his past and become accustomed to answering very personal and painful questions about the loss of his family and his experiences as a refugee. He witnessed the inspiring effect that his story had on audiences.

When Black Nature began to understand the healing and confidence that can result from honest self-expression, he started brainstorming with Banker on various ways to help other Sierra Leoneans have similar cathartic experiences. Black Nature had taken to film very quickly and adeptly during the production of the documentary film—his open interview style uncovered honesty and depth that Banker and Zach, as foreigners, could never have matched.
Drawing from this experience, it was clear that with the support of their team, Banker, Zach and Black Nature would move forward in building a program that would put cameras and storytelling skills into the hands of Sierra Leonean youth.

Backstory of Sierra Leone:
What most people in the West know about Sierra Leone is wrapped up in international media reports and Hollywood interpretations of the country’s darkest hour—a 10-year civil war (1991-2001) that was marked by extreme violence against civilians, struggle for control of the country’s diamond mines (the infamous blood diamonds), and forced recruitment of child soldiers. The war claimed more than 50,000 civilian lives, and the number of persons raped, mutilated or tortured is much higher. Women and girls suffered uniquely throughout the conflict, and children were singled out for unconscionable abuses. The scars of the war run deep and are reflected not only in the way the outside world sees the country, but in the way many Sierra Leoneans have come to view themselves. By giving young people the tools to explore their world and express themselves, WeOwnTV enables them to share their stories and creative voice with the world—and reawaken their imaginations to the possibility of positive change.

Our Own TV: Global Support Helps Sierra Leoneans Tell their Own Story
In 2008, with a grant from Creative Capital, “WeOwnTV” launched a three-year filmmaking collaboration. The team expanded to include Sierra Leonean media makers and community leaders—Lansana Mansaray (a.k.a. Barmmy Boy) and Arthur Pratt, in addition to involving humanitarian partners, including the IRC (International Rescue Committee).

In addition, the San Francisco-based Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) made a significant difference in the future of WeOwnTV through its support for the program. Impressed by the vision feuling WeOwnTV, BAVC offered a fiscal sponsorship agreement and a Media Maker Award of in-kind technical support. Moreover, BAVC welcomed Black Nature (who was living in the Bay Area at the time) into the Elements Program—a digital media-training program for at-risk young people that provides 150 hours of industry-standard training in media production as well as an additional 150 hours of job skills development. Black Nature quickly excelled in the program and was honored as BAVC member of the month during his graduation. Following this training, Black Nature traveled back with WeOwnTV team as a mentor for the first workshop in Sierra Leone, and has been an instrumental ambassador of the program ever since.
Video: “A Workshop Changes Everything”

Providing Creative Space for a Future to Be Realized
In August 2010, with the support of individual donors and a foundational grant from Freedom to Create, WeOwnTV: Sierra Leone Media Center was affixed to the side of a newly refurbished building in the heart of Freetown. Along with a team of volunteers and alumni students, Banker and Arthur had officially opened the media center’s doors, conducting mentor-training classes for returning students.

The center now offers classes in computer skills, film and television production, social networking, journalism and scriptwriting. The WeOwnTV student filmmakers have access to production and post-production equipment and studio space in order to produce their own films, television journalism, music videos, commercials and public service announcements.

The goal of WeOwnTV is to not only use the very personal aspects of artistic self-expression for individual growth but to have WeOwnTV graduates be a part of a new media industry in Sierra Leone—creating jobs and opportunities to legitimate youth dreams of success. Whether or not the graduates continue on in the field of media production, the WeOwnTV team hopes that each student takes away a renewed sense of self and understanding of the possibilities for the future.
Lessons Learned: Leveling the Playing Field and Building a Sustainable Program
1. Grounding courses in self-expression skills rather than media production skills created an inclusive and fun environment for participants.
Because so few young people in Sierra Leone had prior experience with new media technologies, early workshops focused on storytelling and creativity rather than technical skill. Creativity, at its root, is a form of self-expression, and through a series of improvisational exercises the workshop asked the students to simply “play” with a camera in their hand, starting them down a road they’d never been encouraged to take before. This sense of play, with no right or wrong ways of doing things, eliminated the fear inherent to the learning process and allowed students to learn technology through direct experience and trust their instincts as they interacted with the world around them in new ways.
From this foundation of trust, WeOwnTV then incorporated a variety of group creative exercises focused on encouraging collaboration, mutual understanding and appreciation of each other’s ideas. Basic technical skills were constantly being built upon, but the open environment created at the outset of the workshop was crucial in helping the budding filmmakers to progressively expand on their ideas and explore new methods of expressing themselves in their work.
Video: “Creativity Flowing from Day One”

2. Approaching the workshops as teacher trainings and designing a replicable curriculum increased the self-reliance of participants and long-term sustainability of the program.
At the end of the month-long workshop, students had produced an impressive array of personal video diaries, short documentaries, and a series of short-narrative films based on collective experiences. The workshop graduates surpassed all expectations with their personal growth, their initial skill level, and it became clear that these graduates were well suited to become mentors and instructors for other young Sierra Leonean filmmakers. Drawing on the WeOwnTV staff and students’ firsthand experience of the workshop, the team has begun to develop a new, easily replicable, curriculum that can be marketed to other organizations working around Sierra Leone and Africa.
The “training trainers” approach of developing local leaders aims to build on a spirit of self-reliance as more young men and women are given the opportunity to explore their own creativity. The ongoing free education will continue to be supported by the US-based team; however, the goal is to move the center quickly to a level of sustainability where instructors will start earning a salary (supporting the daily activities of the center) and graduates will gain project income through freelance work administered by the production arm of the organization, WeOwnTV Productions.
Video: “To Create Our Own Space”

Changing the Media Culture
As in many African countries, there is ample political rhetoric to suggest a focus on what is universally called “youth voice” but the reality as experienced in Sierra Leone is that these voices are never given priority by the entrenched powers.
Outlets for alternative television and film are extremely limited despite an active and fairly free press in Sierra Leone, with numerous daily and weekly independent news publications. There is only one nationally-run television station—the state-owned, Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC)—and the film industry is rife with piracy, consisting mostly of Nigerian or U.S. produced films.
Particularly in post-conflict nations like Sierra Leone, youth media has the opportunity to transform the national media dialogue and therefore transform the future of the nation. It is only through the determination of young artists and the influence of the country’s diaspora that young people are beginning to use the tools of modern media to communicate among each other and to the outside world. With this as inspiration, WeOwnTV hopes to grow this organic interest in new media into an industry that gives a legitimate outlet to the voices of Sierra Leone’s youth.
www.weowntv.org
Appreciating the independent, unfiltered voices that have the opportunity to be amplified through film, Paula Cavagnaro is a committed contributor—as a supporter and consultant—to independent film festivals and international film projects. Paula is a creative marketing and public relations professional with more than 15 years marketing experience established on a well-rounded background managing complicated marketing programs including promotional launches, event production, artist development and aggressive public relations campaigns.
Zach Niles is the co-director and producer of the award-winning documentary Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars. He is the associate producer of the film Peepers and for the television series Live at the Fillmore. Zach recently served as acting director for Ciné Institute, a film school in Jacmel Haiti. He also manages the band Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars and works producing and promoting music tours by artists such as Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, George Michael and Madonna.
Emilie Reiser is a technology educator in New York City, working with youth in public schools and community-based organizations to develop creative media projects. Most recently, as director of programs at Vision Education, she led professional development workshops for educators, taught multi-media student programs and developed curriculum for innovative uses of creative technology in the classroom. Emilie has also worked teaching creative media production with youth internationally in Africa, Brazil and Haiti.
Banker White is a multi-disciplinary artist based in the Bay Area. In a perpetual state of creation and collaboration, recent work in film-video and the fine arts has been awarded and supported by Creative Capital, Freedom to Create, the California Council for Humanities and the Bay Area Video Coalition. Banker co-directed and produced the award-winning documentary Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars. He is a graduate of Middlebury College (BA 1996) and California College of the Arts (MFA 2000).

Marketing and Advertising Youth Media: A Shift in Thinking

The youth media field needs a shift in thinking when it comes to funding, partnerships, and skill development. Rather than scramble for shrinking dollars and failing partnerships, we need to build partnerships that generate more dollars and have a bigger effect on both young people and our field.
Few youth media organizations have tapped into advertising and marketing firms as a way to leverage our collective expertise in the field. We know that the youth market is worth about $175 billion a year. But we forget that we work intimately with this market and can serve as mediators for young people to take the lead in mass marketing, learning business skills along the way.
About True Star
As a growing youth media organization that provides a creative outlet in the form of literary and professional development programs, the True Star Foundation has learned how to create partnerships that open doors to funding opportunities, increase visibility for youth media, and improves opportunities for young people to learn about the business of media.
The True Star Foundation’s core programming model is True Star Magazine, a teen- produced publication that began in the fall of 2004 as a four-page newsletter with one journalism program and 17 students. Currently, the magazine offers eight programs with 150 stipend paid student apprentices and seven adult instructors, who, collectively, create a 44-page quarterly publication.
Sales and marketing is an important component to our program that helps youth journalists develop business and leadership skills. The concept of having to market one’s media encourages students to think broadly of how a non-profit functions and how to get their work distributed, advertised, and widely disseminated.
At True Star (TS) we position ourselves as the experts on the youth market, stressing to marketers that we can reach youth in a way that no other media property can. We are marketers’ consultants as to how to reach youth with programs that are inviting, honoring, respectful, and culturally relevant and that connect with the urban youth market emotionally and intellectually.
Marketing: A Shift in Thinking
We acknowledge that fundraising and selling are two very different skills for youth media non-profits. Many organizations do not have the skill set or competency; however, we believe a huge piece of solidifying the youth media sector will come from the ability to integrate marketers into the field in a socially responsible way. Organizations might think about hiring someone with a media business background or add someone with that competency on their board.
Of course, marketers’ main goal is to increase sales and tap into the $175 billion youth market. However, if they can also be socially responsible and create goodwill, then your organization becomes a “sweetheart” buy for a marketer.
Typically, TS helps marketers reach their goals through focus groups, email blast, advertising pages, youth contests and our students acting as brand ambassadors. We become consultants to our partners, using our expertise to advise them on their marketing strategies. By building other youth media partners into the fold, we make the package of expertise even more attractive. United, youth media can guide marketers to create goodwill for themselves and their associates.
Case Study: Chicago Public Schools
While meeting with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Office for Extended Learning, it was brought to our attention that the enrollment numbers for a federally funded tutoring program were significantly low. The main goal of this office was to increase its enrollment numbers for this tutoring program. After hearing this, we could have stayed the course with the TS agenda, i.e., getting this department to give us funding/resources for our after school programs. However, we shifted gears and asked them to discuss the enrollment issues more.
After a thorough understanding of their issues, we suggested that TS could increase the enrollment for the tutoring program by doing the following:
• teen-to-teen marketing using the TS street team
• creative services, including “teen friendly” marketing materials
• marketing via advertising pages in TS magazine
• executing a focus group with teens to assess how to effectively market the tutoring program
• booking a nationally recognized celebrity to endorse the program.
As a result, TS received a contract to provide the aforementioned services. With our expertise and ability to reach the market, student participation in the tutoring program increased by 85%. Creating value creates a buzz, and many other departments in CPS began to look to us to provide various services based on our success.
Case Study: Walgreens
True Star Foundation has partnered with Walgreens for the last two years on its HIV/AIDS initiative. Again, prior to meeting with Walgreen’s public relations agency, TS had an idea of what a partnership would look like. After hearing that Walgreen’s passion point with the urban community was HIV/AIDS, TS pitched an “Expression Against HIV/AIDS Art & Literacy Contest.” This contest asked youth to put an artistic spin on how they would combat HIV/AIDS in the urban community.
TS would conduct all marketing, implementation and execution for this program with Walgreens—the sole sponsor. This contest has been very successful and Walgreens is looking to grow the partnership into other areas.
When meeting with marketers such as Walgreens it is very important to understand their passion point for the youth market. Passion points can vary. For example, banking partners value financial literacy; consumer goods companies value nutrition; and telecommunications value entrepreneurship. However, marketers often shift platforms they are interested in supporting as rapid as every quarter of each year. In order to package youth media, we must combine our collective skills and expertise.
Methods and Models for Approaching Potential Partnerships
The following are suggestions from TS that might encourage the field to develop relationships with advertising and marketing platforms.
Contribute to your client. In our personal lives we would call this friendship; in the professional world we call it “relationship building,” and the same rules apply.
• Learn about the organization’s politics, culture, and passion points
• Listen to the partner’s needs and goals with interest and concern
• Volunteer for some of their initiatives
• Use your media outlet to cover things that are important to the partner
• Does your organization have a newsletter to send? Are you hosting an event? Use every opportunity with potential partners to communicate what you do and who you serve
Example: Once we realized that Walgreen’s passion was HIV/AIDS, TS became a member of the HIV/AIDS coalition that Walgreens supported, and we volunteered at events unrelated to TS. By being an active member of the coalition, TS created additional relationships with the Department of Health, Chicago Public Schools, and the local radio station, all while building a stronger relationship with the Walgreens corporation.
Be strategic. Look for opportunities to add value. Go in with a clear message about what return the partner is going to get. How can you assist the organization to reach its goals, and vice versa?
• If you’re working with a school, build your program model into the curriculum
• Look for areas where the organization has poor performance and position your organization to provide a needed service
• Use your expertise to customize a media property for the partner
• Understand your competitive advantage and point of difference
Example: TS has recognized that the Chicago Public School (CPS) system has out-of-date marketing and educational materials that do not resonate with the youth of today. TS has positioned itself as an expert in custom designing materials for CPS. In turn, TS received a contract to custom design a student workbook for the CPS department Graduation Pathways.
Empower youth. No one can sell the value of your organization and media product better than the youth you serve.
• Partners, especially marketers and advertisers, need to be educated on what youth media is and what it can do. Young people have an uncanny ability to persuade and influence a potential partner.
• Train young people to pitch advertising and partnerships.
• Pitching and articulating the value of your organization can be a great opportunity for young people to learn about the business of media.
Example: TS youth have pitched advertising to Walgreens, Black Entertainment Television (BET), Nike, Boost Mobile, Burrell, Starcom, General Mills, McDonald’s, and others. Our youth have also presented to funders Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and the Polk Bros. Foundation, to name a few. Having youth pitch advertising has been one of the most successful strategies TS has implemented. By empowering young people to articulate the value of the organization, the media you produce and its impact on society, you will touch a chord with most potential partners. You don’t just tell them the value—you let them witness the value first hand.
Adopt a collaborative spirit. Youth media organizations often find themselves in a competitive mindset, grappling with other organizations for students or resources. But by using the model of a joint venture, youth media organizations can work together to partner with a greater variety of organizations and create a bigger effect.
• Youth media organizations working with youth media organizations
• YMO working with CBO
• Using another’s specialty to meet the needs of each organization
Example: TS recently partnered with Free Spirit Media to produce a Hoops High page in the publication. Hoops High is a program of Free Spirit media in which students announce, direct, and operate cameras to make their own sports show. TS was having a challenge developing sports related content for the magazine. By partnering with Hoops High we receive sports content and they have another vehicle to market their TV show and programs. TS in return will receive advertising via their on air programming.
Example: TS recently partnered with the Economic Awareness Council (EAC) to produce financial and business content for TS Magazine. EAC is a non profit organization whose mission is to prepare students and families for the economic and financial decisions they will make both today and tomorrow. EAC was able to bring their sponsor HSBC – North America into the partnership to sponsor TS’s Teen Biz section, ultimately helping to underwrite our cost of printing. EAC students produce financial and business related content for TS magazine.
Next Steps
Partnerships with the advertising and marketing sectors are essential to grow the viability of the youth media field. To be sure, most small organizations have large shoes to fill, making it very likely that you do not have every skill or competencies needed at a moment’s notice. But by creating on-going partnerships you can have a good network of experts available to you.
Furthermore, if more youth media organizations worked to build expertise with marketers, it is possible that the field could create a youth media advertising agency in the near future. This agency could aggregate the audiences of multiple youth organizations to create more value for a potential marketer and for the field as a whole. It is in our best interest to invest in new partnerships and advertising revenue to sustain the field and bring forth our collective skills and knowledge to our important work.
DeAnna McLeary is the co-executive director & co-founder of True Star Foundation and True Star Magazine. She has an extensive background in marketing and advertising sales as a former account executive for Essence Communication Partners. McLeary cultivates relationships with ad agencies and consults clients on their marketing needs to creatively design solution packages. McLeary graduated magna cum laude from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), earning a bachelor’s of science and a master’s in business administration with a concentration in both marketing and finance.
Na-Tae’ Thompson is the co-executive director & co-founder of True Star Foundation and True Star Magazine. She has previously worked for Vibe Magazine, House of Blues Chicago, GMR Marketing, Chancellor Marketing Group and Universal MazJac Enterprises. Her diverse client list ranges from Miller Lite to Roc-a-Fella Records,from from Chicago’s Power 92 radio station to Luster Hair Products—a result from developing sponsorship proposals, conducting research and analysis, and organizing events. Thompson holds a master’s degree in arts and youth community development and a bachelor’s in marketing from Columbia College Chicago.
www.truestarfoundation.org

A Change in Focus: Youth Media Shapes Community

Youth Media programs are, by nature, uniquely poised to be effective vehicles of youth self-expression, protest and social change. But how effective is this programming in the long-term if we do not make an effort to use these tools to make change in the communities where our students live?
Many times, youth experience great change in youth media programs; however, outside the media-making space, young people often have to squeeze their newly enlarged vision of the world back into the small, often stifling or dangerous spaces of their neighborhoods or schools. Youth media organizations can help make this transition easier by working with families, community partners, and schools to improve young people’s lives and decrease city-wide violence. Partnering with key stakeholders must become a key component of youth media programs in order to contribute to the continued growth and long-term sustenance of the young people we serve.
Of course, what with increasing budgetary constraints and overworked staffs, running a youth media program is difficult enough without thinking about expanding our reach to service entire communities and families. But while the challenges are many, they are not insurmountable. One of the first steps we can take is to incorporate a broader, more holistic vision of our students’ lives—one that incorporates family and community resources—into our program structure and goals.
Young Chicago Authors (YCA)
I am currently the director of publishing for Young Chicago Authors, and have worked with the organization to develop and promote its publishing initiatives for 5 years. For over 18 years, Young Chicago Authors has cultivated voice and vision in youth ages 13-19 by teaching creative writing and performance. YCA began simply as a space where young people could come to write and be a part of a community of writers. Freedom of expression and the nurturing of a safe community space remain core values of the organization.
Contrary to popular belief, writers do not write in isolation. Writers thrive when they are exposed to diverse experiences and perspectives. YCA celebrates the fact that its students come to the organization from all over the city of the Chicago, and with them bring a multitude of experiences, needs, and interests. YCA also believes in writing and creative expression as a means of creating change in individuals and communities. YCA actively seeks to nurture the rich diversity of its community and support the growth of young writers.
One of the primary ways that YCA does this is to encourage a lifelong relationship with the organization. Staff members and teaching artists for the organization reach out to and make concerted efforts to maintain mentorship relationships with both current students and YCA alumni. YCA also encourages its alums to teach and mentor current students by providing employment opportunities to graduates of the program. This allows older students, many of whom are pursuing careers in education and social service, to gain valuable teaching experience, and allows younger students to see that it is possible to make a living as both a creative artist and an educator. This also instills in all of our students the value of giving back to a community that nurtured them.
Whenever possible, YCA also seeks to involve parents in our programming. We invite parents and families to all of our events, and we have asked parents to serve on our Board of Directors. YCA also, on occasion, offers writing classes for parents, giving them a creative outlet that mirrors that of their children, and that, hopefully, encourages families to share with one another.
YCA has also recently been making an effort to establish relationships with local elected officials to develop youth-centered media and writing programming that meets the needs of their communities. For example, YCA is currently working with a group of aldermen to develop a series of student-produced Public Service Announcements to promote safe spaces in some of Chicago’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods. Students will conduct research and interview community members to gather information about their neighborhoods. This project will enable students to become visible agents of change in their neighborhoods and encourage community members to work together to combat violence. These governmental ties also open the door for YCA to become involved in discussions about—and perhaps the creation of new—educational policy that will ensure that children in all neighborhoods have access to safe, creative spaces.
Suggestions for the Field
Involve key stakeholders despite a small budget: Involving key stakeholders in the community—parents, elected officials and business owners—can be done with no or minimal cost. Incorporating community members as an integral part of existing youth media programming, as well as creating new community-based projects and collaborations, not only can enrich the program, but also help youth understand that they have access to a network of concerned and supportive people in their own communities. Youth and community members need to recognize that they are all part of an intricately woven community tapestry.
Build non-youth media specific partnerships: Establishing partnerships with local community organizations and law enforcement and family service agencies will strengthen youth media’s overall impact. Establishing personal relationships between youth in the community and these agencies makes it harder for children to be treated as “faceless” entities in the community and could reduce the tension and stereotyping that often exist among these groups.
In addition, youth media practitioners must learn from existing organizations and service providers in the local communities where we work. As young people document and disseminate information about existing neighborhood initiatives, they can initiate collaborations and projects to uncover and address needs that are not being met. We need to nurture and provide these opportunities, including employment, for youth to become leaders in their communities.
Suggest community-youth media projects: When youth engage in projects like recording local CAP meetings and interviewing residents to get a better sense of needs of the community, they are using media to build bridges between these agencies and constituencies, which benefits both the community and the field. In this context, youth are seen by the community as valuable contributors, and young people, in turn, can begin to recognize the valuable resources available to them in their own neighborhoods. Youth media programs must investigate community resources to better supply young people with life-tools they need.
Dedicate resources for at-risk youth: Many young people who enter youth media programs express that they have complicated family situations and require safety within the community. Although I would not suggest that youth media organizations should, or have the capacity to be social service providers, I do want to acknowledge that beyond our programs, students live lives that require support and attention. Building relationships with local agencies could provide youth media organizations an opportunity to know what services are available and to direct students to resources they might need beyond our programs—such as housing, counseling and shelter.
The Effects of a Holistic Approach
Those of us who are youth media practitioners and supporters have witnessed first-hand the “magic” that happens when young people come together to work towards a common goal-compiling a magazine, creating a film or collective work of art. Barriers and gaps around race, geography, affiliations, and interests that exist outside of the meeting place fade away and the alchemy of transformation begins. Young people begin to teach and learn from one another and, in the process, discover and uncover new layers of themselves. However, if this transformation is not supported beyond the time and space of a particular program, the “magic” that is created can all too easily fade away.
By incorporating a holistic approach to youth media programming, one that actively encourages and creates opportunities for youth to engage with their communities, young people will learn more about their communities and be able to use that information to effect change, whether through policy, advocacy, media communication or artistic reflection. Youth media producers will also increase their sense of visibility and power, thereby improving self-esteem and self-efficacy.
In addition, focusing on youth media that reaches an adult audience will help communities see young people not as a threat or a drain on resources, but as active, engaged community members.
Youth media programs must play a significant role in helping youth, families, and neighborhoods identify and assign value to the resources that they have. This may lead to increased understanding, need and support—both financial as well as participatory—of youth media programming, thereby creating more opportunities for youth media organizations.
This shift in perception not only has the potential to transform small, daily interactions and one-on-one relationships, but also to improve the overall tone of a neighborhood or community. Young people and adults come to perceive that they’re in the work together, and they take greater responsibility for improving their physical space, the policies that affect them, and their social interactions. Youth media programs must incorporate into their programming a vision that includes not just individual youth, but also the communities and families and institutions where young people are educated, work, and live in order to sustain and encourage continued growth among youth media producers.
Natasha Tarpley is the director of publishing at Young Chicago Authors. A former Fortune Magazine Reporter, she is also the award-winning author of several bestselling books for children and adults.
Resources
See the “Neighborhood-Based” approach of the Harlem Children’s Zone (www.hcz.org), a New York City nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty through the provision of comprehensive neighborhood based educational and community programs for children and families.
The Knowledge Works Foundation, based in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, is a foundation committed to “reinventing the relationships between school districts and community, demonstrating the power of a school created and sustained by a village.” Learn more about their community-centered model and policy initiatives at www.kwfdn.org/schools_communities.

Corporate Social Responsibility: A New Funding Opportunity for Youth Media


In my fifteen years as an audio engineer for a major media organization and as a volunteer educator for youth media programs, I have seen both sides of the relationship between corporations and community based organizations (CBOs). In a down-turned economy, equitable partnering can be a tall order; however, with some basic knowledge of the landscape, good strategic planning, and a clear assessment of what both sides have to gain, CBOs can end up with much more by partnering with corporations than they might achieve from a grant application.
Moreover, community-based youth media programs have a major advantage when it comes to corporate partnerships: documentation. Not only is documentation a natural outcome of every project we do, but having a documentarian or documentation team filming a project, interviewing participants, and editing the package is great training in itself.
Corporate Social Responsibility: A Win-Win for Corporations and Youth Media
Youth media organizations seeking partnerships with corporations can take advantage of the movement in business toward Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Practiced by many larger corporations, CSR was designed to “meet or exceed the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business” (Wikipedia’s definition). CSR became better known throughout the 80’s and 90’s with the concept of the “Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit.” In terms of money, socially responsible investment has risen over 324% from $639 Billion in 1995 to over $2.71 Trillion in 2007 (1).
For youth media organizations, this investment represents corporations as an untapped source of funding. For corporations, demonstrating a commitment to youth media can be a creative new way to achieve their goals: gain customer loyalty, enhance their brand value, differentiate their reputation, and better attract and retain employees.
Moreover, since young people specifically are a target for most CSR initiatives, youth media can introduce corporations to the work force’s next generation, while giving young people a chance to be part of a professional experience. The company will not necessarily recruit employees directly from the program, but it is an easy way for young people to become aware of potential career paths and have some exposure to the necessary skills they will need to acquire.
Once youth media establishes a relationship with a corporation, it is often easy to arrange job shadowing, speakers, and mentoring—great ways to build relationships from the ground up and opportunities that carry great value on both ends.
Here are a few questions that CSR departments look for when selecting new partners:
• How efficient is the organization?
• Are they quick responders when communicating?
• How does the staff present themselves?
• Is there a prior relationship with the company?
• What relationships exist with other companies? (proven successes)
• What personal relationships exist?
• Does this fit a current corporate cause?
• What can the organization do for the company, in terms of finances, volunteerism, and recognition (for instance, if Company X funds a radio show, do they get a ‘sponsored by’ message on every broadcast?)
• Are any groups of employees already volunteering? Is a higher level employee active on their board?
Corporate Volunteering: Creating a Link between Youth Media Organizations and Corporations
In general, CSR departments are highly selective as they partner with an organization. Instead of immediately pursuing a grant request, youth media organizations may find it worthwhile to start small and explore Corporate Volunteerism.
Teambuilding. Companies are much more likely to offer financial contributions to organizations that can show a history of employee involvement, especially in terms of teams. For instance, a youth media organization may engage a team to enhance a company’s website, make a promotional video, or interview company founders. All of these examples provide a solid benefit to the company and can easily be reflected in its performance reviews and/or year-end goals.
Youth media organizations may find that a great question to dig into with the company’s CSR office is what volunteer teambuilding opportunities have been successful in the past, and what projects may be good targets that fit both the organization’s and the company’s needs. Youth media organizations in particular provide great models of team work through their peer-to-peer support and peer-to-adult mentorships. These models can be applied to employee-involvement events.
Micro-volunteering. Youth media organizations might also make use of micro-volunteering: volunteering done in very small, manageable pieces.
For instance, one great micro-volunteering opportunity for a youth media organization might be to create a web application that empowers people to identify and collectively micro-fund small community projects (similar to www.kiva.org (2)).
Users can describe community cleanup or citizen reporting efforts, obtain microgrants to fund them, perform the services, and post the results. On the end-user side, donors can sort through project proposals, pick one they like, and with a few clicks collaboratively micro-fund the project.
Tied to a blog, the application could also afford users, funders, and the entire community to see the results in pictures, words, and even video.
In general, corporate volunteer projects should include at least some of the following criteria:
• Is youth media related
• Creates jobs and/or community service hours for participants
• Builds funds and resources for the youth media organization
• Gains publicity for both the youth media organization and the corporation
• Helps to train package producers (people who prepare the finished media piece)
It is my experience that when community-based organizations re-engage the corporation for another project or for funding, they can point out that the initial project was well-organized with clear objectives, provided a fun way for employees to bond, and required minimal time and preparation.
Be Open to New, Equitable Relationships
Achieving equitable relationships between community-based youth media organizations and corporations requires both sides to make sure they get the resources they need, achieve the desired results, and provide a major benefit to the organizations’ dynamics, especially in terms of skill development and teambuilding. Hopefully these approaches can open up some new relationships that will benefit the youth media field for many years to come.
Selah Abrams is a broadcast production engineer at Turner Studios in Atlanta, GA and a leader of NextGen Business Resource Group, that evolves the businesses in new and diverse directions. Selah is very active in the new media and social media fields, including entertainment, journalism, and community-based organizing, and recently won the inaugural CNN MyHero award for A Guiding Hand, a male mentoring program with participants from the Fulton County, GA juvenile court. In the mid-90’s, Selah co-founded Uprising!, a CBO based in the West End of Atlanta that trained homeless men to rehab and occupy abandoned houses, and ran a network of community gardens that provided food to the community.
Footnotes
(1) Social Investment Forum’s 2007 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends
in the United States http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/pubs/documents/FINALExecSummary_2007_SIF_Trends_wlinks.pdf.
(2) Kiva Microfunds is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries which in turn lend the money to small businesses. Modeling after this site is recommended due to the clean, intuitive, appealing design and quick transactional process.

Building the Local Youth Media Community

Public presentations of youth media have the potential to broaden perspectives, challenge assumptions, build community, and reward young people for their efforts. Yet it can be difficult to engage new local audiences of individuals who may not be familiar with youth media. Young people hope to engage new youth, adult allies, and local stakeholders who have the potential to become advocates for their concerns. As youth media often seeks to strengthen community relationships, youth media screenings tend to revolve around smaller community events and partnerships where the audience is already invested in the subject matter. Branching out to the broader, local community requires new strategies, taking risks and building partnerships outside of the youth media field.
For many youth media orgs that work with video, one of the key objectives is to widely distribute youth generated content. Many have opted to distribute on-line or through youth media networks. We have found that focusing on our local city as a source of increasing the audience, distribution and diversity of stakeholders in youth media has been fruitful. As a result, our youth media shop has become an important aspect of the community as we develop relationships with cultural institutions, colleges, and businesses to strengthen and expand the field.
Creating a Strategy
Wide Angle Youth Media is a nonprofit that provides youth in Baltimore, MD with practical media education, leadership development, and video production skills to become self-aware, engaged citizens in their community. More than 300 youth participate in workshops at their schools or in our after-school programs each year. Students produce their own media, including documentary and narrative videos, digital photography, and audio recordings, selecting a message and intended audience for each piece. The cycle of research, learning and production naturally progresses to presentation—for the process to complete, young people must have an opportunity to share their work with their intended target audience.
Our organization has historically found it easier to reach an audience outside of our local jurisdiction. Through partnerships with Listen Up! Youth Media Network, Free Speech TV, the National Alliance for Media, Art, and Culture, MNN Youth Channel and the St. Paul Neighborhood Network, we have been able to share our work with communities across the country. In recent years, we have also had successful experiences sharing our videos through online publishing channels: YouTube, Facebook, and our websites.
However, as of 2004, we realized that only a fraction of the Baltimore community had the opportunity to experience our work in live events. This was due in part to the fact that the youth media field is more established through national networks, and that online and broadcast distribution can have many possible niche markets. This challenge is probably shared by other groups outside of cities with a well-established youth media community (such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco), where there are less resources dedicated to supporting youth voice in the public sphere.
Wide Angle averaged 8 public presentations per year from 2001-2004, with each event serving roughly 50 people [1]. The individuals that attend our various screenings across the city create a small yet committed base of about 250 individuals. Our Baltimore-based audience includes youth producers and their families, Wide Angle board members, older adults engaged in community advocacy, local artists and independent filmmakers. Each audience member had already a personal, direct connection to the organization or young videomakers.
While these audience members are very valuable to us, both youth producers and staff observed that we were too often “preaching to the choir”—showing the same work to the same people. So we started to challenge the confines of our local outreach and found that each time we partnered, say, with a local college, our audience grew and diversified. We realized that there was great potential for us to play an important role in Baltimore and that we had the resources to create an environment that united youth media artists with new audiences, crossing community and cultural boundaries. We saw this challenge as an opportunity, and created a mission to:
• Provide a space to share youth media with a diverse local audience;
• Increase opportunities for youth media creation and presentation;
• Create an environment in which young people’s stories, challenges, and talents are appreciated and internalized.
In an attempt to create broad appeal and hundreds of artists to our city and to youth producers, we crafted the Who Are You? Youth Media Festival. We hope our lessons learned serve as a model for community collaboration, engaging arts institutions, business, nonprofits and schools in working together, and bringing the concerns and stories of youth to new audiences.
About the Who Are You? Youth Media Festival
The Who Are You? Youth Media Festival was developed in 2004, by Youth Media Advocacy Coalition (a network of youth media practitioners and supporters, administered by Wide Angle from 2002-2005) members and youth from many local youth-serving nonprofits, including the Baltimore Algebra Project, Baltimore Youth Congress, CENTERSTAGE’s Encounter Program, Critical Exposure, Kids on the Hill, Safe and Sound Campaign’s Youth Ambassadors, Uniquely Spoken, Youth As Resources, Youthlight, and Wide Angle Youth Media. The festival was designed to be an annual event open to any Baltimore young person in 5th-12th grades. The festival’s recurring theme would be identity. The team felt that this was a theme broad enough for participation by all youth, an opportunity for conversations of diversity, and a guarantee that the typical marginalization of youth identity would be challenged.
This partnership of local youth serving organizations exponentially increased our outreach and promotion—from one organization to more than 12 groups and 30 schools, each with their own students, families, neighbors, and areas of the city from which to expand participation. This group was the origin of our Youth Festival Committee—a team of high school students who design, curate, promote, and host the festival each year. By giving young people the power and support to design the mechanism of display the festival is at its foundation advocating for young people’s stories, identities, and perspectives.
It was quickly determined that “youth media” would have to expand beyond video since at the time, there were less than 10 known Baltimore area organizations and four schools with video capabilities. Many of the partnering organizations used other media, including photography, fine art, poetry, and performance. These art forms became the categories accepted into the festival. With two-dimensional art as a key element, the festival could incorporate a gallery exhibition, which instantly increased the duration of the event from one weekend to several weeks, adding an entirely new element to youth media.
What became known as “Gallery Talks,” each week professional artists and educators would lead facilitated discussions for specific audiences, such as college students, art teachers, academics, and the philanthropic and business community. Each “Talk” focused on youth issues and concerns. For example, our 2008 Gallery Talk, “Make Art or Die,” explored the significance of creative self-expression for youth, and the importance of art education, similarly, “Legacy Builders: How Youth Media Can Change the City” introduced youth media to philanthropic and business leaders, who may currently support other methods of youth development and leadership.
Outcomes
As of 2008, we have had three successful festivals (we shifted the event from fall to spring after 2005, skipping 2006). Our 2007 festival ran three weeks, and was viewed by more than 8,000 people. Our 2008 festival lasted five weeks, and was experienced by more than 11,000. Our live performance day reaches over 400 individuals, and each gallery talk has an average of 40 participants. Through audience surveys, external evaluations, and participant comments, we have seen the impact of the festival on the audience, the curatorial team, and the participants in the festival.
Participation in the festival ranges in intensity and impact. Many youth participants return the following year to be on the Festival Committee to have a larger role in creating the festival. For audience-members who attend our Gallery Talks the experience can be quite personal, as they speak with youth producers, and participate in discussions about youth media, and its connection to issues such as mental health, self-awareness, education and civic engagement. The audience for the live performance day has a less intimate experience, but a multi-sensory one, as they view the gallery exhibit, experience “spontaneous” performances within the gallery space, interact with youth producers and volunteers, and then convene for a more formal, high-energy performance in the theater. Audience members are encouraged to participate in some performances, are interviewed in the gallery, and write their own evaluations of the event. Lastly, theatergoers who experience the festival on their way to another theater performance, see drawings and photographs, read quotes and signs on the walls, and have their own opportunity to vote on their favorite piece.
In order to reach new audiences and artists, we are continuing to develop new partnerships, building on common interests in youth development, the arts, and education. In 2007 Goucher College became our Presenting Sponsor, providing financial support, faculty Gallery Speakers, student interns, and a bridge to the college community for our youth. Corporate sponsors have expanded our reach to the business community and provided graphic design, food for events, and financial support. The investment of these institutions and businesses has allowed us to increase our outreach and technical support to schools and after-school programs, increasing our community scope.
More than a third of survey respondents who attended the festival each year have not previously been exposed to youth media. More than two-thirds of our most recent respondents were new to the youth media festival.

Our youth audience is a steady 40%, indicating that the event has youth support, while also welcoming an adult audience. Teachers in particular, have expressed their satisfaction with the experience. One student teacher attending Loyola College shared her thoughts of the 2007 Festival, “It made me realize how important it is to know where your students are coming from, especially when teaching media literacy in the classroom” [3].
Finally, our desire to build an audience of youth who can use this experience as motivation for their own goals is being achieved. “This festival helped me to see that there are people who actually care about what I think as a young person in Baltimore,” wrote a youth attending our 2005 festival.2 Youth who are audience members often tell me they will submit work the next year, and youth who were performing in the festival often consider joining our Festival Committee. In some cases, youth are approached by audience members to commission work, show their work in another event, enroll in a program, or be interviewed, extending their experience beyond the festival.
Youth programs have begun to use the festival as a curriculum tool, building projects into the festival format. Thus the festival acts not only as a civic forum for the recognition of youth voice and youth media, but also works to introduce themes of civic engagement and the need to value youth perspectives into other programs that serve Baltimore’s youth. One community arts educator whose youth had a project in the festival commented, “The festival served as a motivating factor to finish the video and offered a public space for it to be seen. The audience was huge and the space was great. It felt very professional and it really lifted up their voices in a way that I really haven’t seen other places do for kids’ artwork” [5].
Finding Relevance in Your Community
At its core, youth media is about advocacy—young people speaking out for themselves, challenging the stereotypes and limited expectations of the larger society—but to effectively advocate it is essential to build a constituency, a community of support. By creating an event that serves a broad range of youth and their respective concerns, and making tactical choices to build a diverse audience, Wide Angle Youth Media aims to build a broader local appreciation for the power of youth media, support the efforts of schools and community groups, and create an avenue for youth media distribution that will expand over time and become a valued cultural and community resource.
It is my hope that youth media programs in other regions and communities begin to develop their own festivals, looking to their own “natural resources.” Wide Angle is fortunate to exist in a city with a strong after-school community, many excellent higher education institutions, a history of community philanthropy, and a rich performing arts heritage.
Look around your community. Who are the people and institutions that already support youth media? Can they play a bigger role? Are there venues that need to increase their community audiences, or have vacant days and times? What is the big draw for young people in your town—are there other events that they will not only attend, but pay to attend? Seeing where individuals invest is an important key to creating an event that both attracts and responds to the community.
Next Steps
The Who Are You? Youth Media Festival is a model for other communities to engage across school, neighborhood boundaries, and the local city community to provide opportunities for young people to engage and grow. It is critical that local stakeholders dialogue about the ways to debunk the misrepresentation of young people and the importance of the arts for youth.
Finding local partners who can bring diverse resources and audiences to festivals have expanded our audience, inviting youth, businesspeople, educators, and the general public to experience youth media and discover its relevance and significance for their own lives. By doing so, youth media acts as a link to join the local community, building the strength of Baltimore and placing young people on the map. Youth media organizations across the U.S. do not have to rely on distributing media on national networks or on-line resources. They can step onto the street and find that the local community is a ripe terrain for youth media visibility and engagement, as well as honest artistic discourse.
Gin Ferrara is the Executive Director of Wide Angle Youth Media, a Baltimore nonprofit dedicated to helping young people develop leadership skills, using media as the catalyst for self-exploration, personal growth, and community engagement. She is also an educator, writer, technophile, and knitter.
References
[1] Audience Data Collected by Wide Angle Youth Media 2001-2008.
[2] Baltimore Youth Media Festival Evaluation Report, Deborah Edleman, DrPH, Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health, 2006.
[3] “EVERYBODY HAS A STORY TO TELL”- Advocacy and Evaluation of The Who Are You? Youth Media Festival, Esha Janssens-Sannon, MA in Community Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2007.
[4] The 3rd Annual Who Are You? Youth Media Festival Audience Survey, Wide Angle Youth Media, 2008.
[5] Interviews with Youth Festival Committee Members, Wide Angle Youth Media, 2008.