Youth Radio was awarded this month with an Empowerment Grant from the Motorola Mobility Foundation. The Foundation awarded these grants to non-profit organizations that leverage technology to help build stronger communities. This funding will help support Youth Radio's Digital Media Workforce Program, which provides underserved Bay Area youth with intensive training in media production and technology to prepare them for meaningful careers in the tech and media industries and post-secondary education attainment. Click here to see a list of Empowerment Grant winners and their video entries.
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Teaching Channel Features Youth Radio's Training Programs
Luis Flores is one of several peer teachers featured in the video.
Youth Radio is featured in the Teaching Channel's Amazing Classrooms series. The Teaching Channel is "a video showcase of inspiring and effective schools." The feature on Youth Radio is slated to air on PBS this winter, and can be viewed on the Teaching Channel site. Clickhere to watch.
Follow-up to Trafficked Series Airs On NPR
High heels hang from a window in an empty alley behind the National Lodge motel. The Oakland city attorney has filed suit against the motel, arguing that it knowingly facilitates child sex trafficking.
"California Community Takes Action Against Sex Trafficking," a follow-up to Youth Radio's Peabody award-winning Trafficked series, was a top story on NPR.org this month. The story aired onAll Things Considered, where it received more than 800 shares on Facebook, and was published onThe Huffington Post. The story reports how parents and advocates in one East Oakland, California, neighborhood have stepped up their activism in response to pimps targeting their middle school-aged daughters. Sex trafficking has been a problem in the San Antonio neighborhood since several motels moved into the community decades ago attracting pimps.
Youth Radio Graduate Wins Video Competition
A scene from Myles' winning submission.
Myles Bess, a Youth Radio graduate, won second place in a short film competition sponsored by the Center for Architecture + Design. The theme of the competition was "What does architecture mean to you?" Myles' submission centered around a young man rushing to work in downtown Oakland. Watch his submission "RUSH" here.
Youth Radio Welcomes New Staff Members
Ramona Rubin, MPH, recently joined Youth Radio as the Database Administrator and Evaluation Specialist, where she coordinates data collection and analysis across the organization. Her previous experience includes working as an internal program evaluator for the Native American Health Center and researching holistic health and well-being with Michigan Integrative Medicine. Her extensive experience as a strategic researcher and data analyst specializing in program evaluation are helping to move Youth Radio towards becoming more data-driven.
Having helped launch the Mobile Action Lab as its first youth participant, Asha Richardson is now coming on staff as the App Lab Associate Producer. She'll work with our team of students, interns, and project associates on all aspects of the Lab: collaborating with our professional design and development partners to produce apps for release in the iTunes and Android markets; helping to coordinate our speaker series, where we create videos of digital innovators demo'ing projects at Youth Radio's studios; and facilitating our App Inventor workshops, where young people create apps using an open-source tool housed at MIT Media Labs. Asha also frequently presents our work at professional conferences and community convenings and builds our social media identity.
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families Visit Youth Radio
Members of the Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families (GCYF) visited Youth Radio this month as part of the off-site portion of the GCYF Annual Conference. Participants were taken on youth-led tours of the building, which ended with a meet and greet session catered by Youth Radio Eats. GCYF is a membership association of grantmaking institutions.
Having helped launch the Mobile Action Lab as its first youth participant, Asha Richardson is now coming on staff as the App Lab Associate Producer. She'll work with our team of students, interns, and project associates on all aspects of the Lab: collaborating with our professional design and development partners to produce apps for release in the iTunes and Android markets; helping to coordinate our speaker series, where we create videos of digital innovators demo'ing projects at Youth Radio's studios; and facilitating our App Inventor workshops, where young people create apps using an open-source tool housed at MIT Media Labs. Asha also frequently presents our work at professional conferences and community convenings and builds our social media identity.