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Tune In, Grow Strong, Make Media |
| You can hear the beats sounding loud from the open windows of passing cars in downtown Oakland. You may catch snatches of a radio host interviewing the guest of the hour. Walking past Youth Radio's sleek four-story office building, you may not know that inside young people from 15 to 21 are working at newsroom desks and in soundproof studios to send voices and music into their community and the larger world. | |
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Youth and Health: Public Discussions, Private Decisions |
| Of all the topics of interest to young people, perhaps health is the most personal. Engaging in sexual activity or substance abuse are choices one makes privately—so are decisions regarding body weight, nutrition, and depression. Youth activism on behalf of health is low. Studies find that only 8.5 percent of young adults ages 16-24 volunteer on health issues, versus 31 percent on educational issues and 31 percent on religious matters. | |
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Fresh Takes on a Flat World |
| "I never knew how much you can say with an image," says Seattle youth photographer Yvonne. Fresh Takes on a Flat World brings together a rich sample of the photographic art created by youth worldwide as part of WKCD's partnership with Adobe Youth Voices. The collection juxtaposes photographs by students in far-flung sites and circumstances. We all may discover something new, as the youth did who made these photographs. | |
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New Beginnings: High Rocks Camp for Girls |
| It’s 7:30 on a cloudless July morning, deep in the mountains of West Virginia. An outdoor breakfast spread, from granola to fresh melon, greets twenty teenage girls as they emerge from their tents. A half hour later the girls, all second-year campers at a remarkable program called High Rocks, fan out through the woods to a morning of drama studies, media lab, carpentry, and horseback riding—joining a community that will nurture them for life. |  |
Youth Voice in Local Government: A Win for All |
| It sounds revolutionary: creating a formal, substantive role for youth in local policy-making and planning. But for fourteen years, the city government in Hampton, Virginia has done just that—earning Hampton a spot on America's Promise list of 100 BEST Cities for Young People. Its Youth Commission has its own tax-payer supported budget and pushes for youth-friendly policy changes. The city planning department includes paid high school students who work alongside adult planners. Neighborhood advisory groups give young people the chance to try out leadership and activism on a small scale. | |
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Hope and Challenges: Growing Up in New South Africa |
| "Long time ago, South Africa wasn’t having peace," explained Thabiso, 13. "Many people were fighting, black and white were fighting for peace. And they couldn’t get peace. Now, we are free to have peace, us youngsters. Because our grandmothers, our mothers were fighting for us to be free." Fourteen youth living in two shelters in Pretoria, S. Africa share their stories as they make their way in the shadows of apartheid and poverty. |
