Youth Set The Stage

Youth Set The Stage (YSTS) a collaboration of nine local organizations dedicated to amplifying youth voices through media and art. In a series of youth-driven programming, Youth Set The Stage will build a strong network of youth media organizations throughout Philadelphia. The inaugural YSTS event occurred in June 2019 at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, bringing together live music, performance, video, networking and youth voice in a youth-led showcase of those working for social change in our neighborhoods and beyond. The YSTS network will engage youth mediamakers and provide tools and platforms for them to showcase audiovisual representations of the voices and perspectives of Philadelphia youth.

Grants Awarded to Youth Set The Stage

$46,000 - Awarded July 2020

Focus areas
Youth
Representation in Media
Community-Centered Journalism
Description

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support a series of online and youth-driven programming throughout the 2020-2021 school year. Youth Set The Stage will build a strong network of organizations working in youth media throughout Philadelphia, regularly engage youth media content creators and provide platforms to showcase and present the voices and current perspectives of these Philadelphia youth, creating an audiovisual capsule of the current moment. In the process of the year-long cross-collaborations, YSTS will build an accessible toolkit for instructors working with students remotely.

$75,000 - Awarded July 2021

Focus areas
Youth
Representation in Media
Community-Centered Journalism
Description

This one-year grant will support the ongoing building of a strong network of organizations working in youth media throughout Philadelphia, engage youth media content creators, provide platforms to showcase the voices and perspectives of these Philadelphia youth, and provide young media makers with professional development opportunities that will include training, mentoring and paid work experiences. This project will build upon the year-long Youth Set the Stage cross-collaboration begun in 2020 among nine youth media organizations across the city through the pioneering support of Independence Public Media Foundation’s Community Voices Fund.

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