Your support amplifies youth stories 📢
Some highlights on how our community support amplifies youth stories and empowers young people to achieve their personal and academic goals.
🏆 YC Writers Sweep the Youth Media Category in the 2022 Media for a Just Society Awards
We are incredibly proud to share that YC writers were selected for all three finalist spots in the Youth Media category for the 2022 Media for a Just Society Awards. Plus, one finalist in the Book category is YC alumna, Victoria Law. We’d like to extend a huge congratulations to Amaru Howard for winning this year’s award! Please read the stories below:
“Not Allowed to Be a Kid,” by Amaru Howard
“Breaking Free of My Mom To Be My Real Self,” by Miles Dale
“When I Lived in a Shelter, I Still Kept My Head Held High,” by Sirsy Galarza
About: The Media for a Just Society Awards program is the only national recognition of media whose work furthers public understanding of adult justice, juvenile justice, child welfare, and adult protection issues. You can see a full listing of last year’s finalists here.
✍🏽 42nd Annual Summer Writing Workshop
For six weeks in July and August, our summer writing program brought together a group of twelve teen writers to discuss, learn, and write about the meaning of home. Eleven stories were produced during the workshop, with six reprints combined in The Nation, The Imprint, and Chalkbeat!
Read some of the reprints below:
“My Name Is Boluwatife Ogunbodede” by Boluwatife Ogunbodede
“Adjusting to My Adoptive Family“ by George Romero
“A teacher made me watch the video of Tamir Rice’s killing. What happened next still haunts me.” by Kayla Ruano-Lumpris
And as always, read all the stories on our website.
Stay Tuned! A Month of Gratitude
The theme for this November’s social media is GRATITUDE for our alumni and all who make the writing program possible. Please follow us on our social media channels to see spotlights of our alumni and learn more about the transformational impact of YC’s writing program.
Other News:
Represent Updates
One of our returning Represent writers, Faith Ornstein, is drafting a service journalism piece with us to inform other youth in foster care about College Choice, the new financial assistance initiative set up by ACS and the NYC Mayor to help foster youth offset the cost of tuition. Here’s a snippet:
“I had questions. The main one: Is College Choice as good as it sounds? Will students in foster care really be able to “attend the school of their choice, regardless of cost,” as Mayor Adams said? To get answers, I spoke with two college financial aid experts at the foster care agency Graham Windham: Pilar Larencuent, Director of Graham Support, Lead, Achieve, and Model (SLAM), who oversees coaching and educational opportunities for foster youth, and Gwen Vargas, a post-secondary services supervisor.”
Longtime Partner, Huo Family Foundation Spotlights YC Alumna Angelina Darrisaw
Youth Communication is incredibly grateful to the Huo Family Foundation for their continued support and for highlighting YC alumna Angelina and the great work she does as the Founder of C-Suite Coach. Angelina continues to be a role model and great inspiration for our current writers. See below for a snippet from the interview. Read the full article here.
“There is a universal need for kids to experience connection and see themselves in the stories they read. With Youth Communication, there are many layers that exist in their stories that go a long way to ensure this need is met.”
To learn more about different ways you can make an impact at Youth Communication, email [email protected].