News & Updates
August 2024 | Newsletter overview
SECOND ANNUAL SPRING BENEFIT SUCCESS
On May 30th, Youth Communication brought its community together for our second annual Spring Benefit! The room was filled with 200 education partners, board members, and friends who helped us surpass our fundraising goal and raise over $235,000!
A giant THANK YOU again to our benefit host committee, board of directors, and sponsors who made this evening possible! Funds raised will support our year-round writing program and youth story centered curriculum and professional development for educators and other youth-serving adults.
We honored acclaimed and award-winning writer and YC alumnae Edwidge Danticat with the Distinguished Alumni Award, the inspirational Orubba Almansouri with the Rising Star Alumni Award, and celebrated our long-time partnership with Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation by awarding them the Education Partnership Award. The program was as heart-warming and inspiring as it was because of our incredible YC Ambassadors and alumni emcees.
View: Spring Benefit Photo Album
Check out the short videos highlighting Edwidge and Orubba, as well as a special publication of their stories from their time as YC writers, “Courage to Become”.
Former YC writer Veronica Chambers reflects on the impact that YC Alum Edwidge Danticat had on her and future generations of writers.
Former YC writer Orubba Almansouri shares her journey breaking down cultural barriers to receive an education.
Read the stories that Edwidge and Orubba wrote as teen writers for Youth Communication.
YC FOUNDER KEITH HEFNER FEATURED IN “UNHEARD: THE MISSING VOICES OF STUDENT JOURNALISM”
Youth Journalism Coalition advocates for increased access to high school newspapers in NYC public schools. They recently produced a documentary, in partnership with Reel Works, including an interview with YC’s Founder Keith Hefner.Watch the interview in Unheard: The Missing Voices of Student Journalism.
ROSE PERNA HIGHLIGHTED IN CENTER FOR NYC AFFAIRS & ‘SEEKING SHELTER’ BOOKLET
YC teen writer Rose Perna’s housing story was republished by the Center for New York City Affairs and sent to their list of 12,000 people. Rose was also a speaker on our YC writer and alumni panel at our second annual Spring Benefit.
NATHALI FELIZ, KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT ACS’S FOSTER CARE AWARENESS EVENt
Represent alum Nathali Feliz was keynote speaker at the plenary session for ACS’s foster care awareness event in May. She spoke about her experiences with the school system as a youth in foster care and now as a parent to a youth with special needs. She had specific feedback for social workers around building trust with youth and about advocating for them in the school system.
overdrive partnership
In association with OverDrive, we have produced and launched a series of over 15 ebook anthologies – with more coming quarterly – of our stories for school and public library markets. OverDrive’s Libby app is the largest provider of ebooks to schools and libraries in the English-speaking world. This partnership will increase access to YC stories globally to millions of readers!
YC SECURES LARGE-SCALE CONTRACT WITH NYCPS
YC recently secured a large-scale contRact with NYC Public School (NYCPS) Office of Student Pathways, bringing YC’s professional development and SEL curricula into schools to help better prepare students for their post-secondary plans. As an approved NYCPS vendor, this is YC’s largest contract with NYCPS to date – marking a sizable step in building our impact in NYC schools. Over 85 schools were represented across +35 professional development training cohorts. This fall, thousands of NYC public school students will receive our curriculum as a result of this partnership.
SUPPORTING YOUTH IN SHELTERS THROUGH THE ‘EVERY CHILD AND FAMILY IS KNOWN INITIATIVE‘
In partnership with fourteen city agencies, including NYCPS Office of Safety and Youth Development and NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), YC participated in the Every Child and Family Is Known (ECFIK) initiative to support youth and their families experiencing housing instability. As part of this initiative, YC published a collection of stories: “Seeking Shelter: NYC Teens Write About Surviving Homelessness and Finding Help.”
The NYC Children’s Cabinet launched its ECFIK pilot program pairing 1,500 students living in shelters in the Bronx with caring adults to build one-on-one supportive relationships to nurture success. The initiative includes training for caring adults, workshops on emotional health and trauma-informed practices, and collaboration with various city agencies and community-based organizations.
If you are interested in receiving this booklet and/or training, please email: [email protected]
national alliance for children’s grief (NACG) Symposium
In June, YC was honored to present a workshop at the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG) symposium in Denver. This event brought together a diverse group of professionals from various geographic regions and backgrounds to discuss cultural responsiveness in work to support children and teens who are grieving.
YC’s workshop, titled “Communal is Personal: Helping Grieving Youth Process Public Violence & Death,” received rave reviews and left a lasting impact on attendees. This workshop featured YC teen writer Kayla Ruana-Lumpris’s powerful true story “Not Your Lesson.”
We are grateful to the New York Life Foundation support that made this possible.
This workshop highlighted a section of YC’s 6-part “Bereavement and Belonging” workshop series, a New York Life-sponsored training series for educators. This professional development series is centered around stories YC teens wrote the past two years. All the writers had experienced significant loss in their lives – whether through experiences in the foster care system or through a death of a friend or family member.
We are grateful to the New York Life Foundation support that made this possible.
If you are interested in bringing our 6-part “Bereavement and Belonging” workshop series to your organization or school, please email: [email protected]
PUSH ME FORWARD: SUPPORTING YOUTH IN CARE WEBINAR
In collaboration with Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), Youth Communication held a webinar for teachers or counselors working with youth in foster care. Participants learned how to best support young people using their strengths as a springboard for personal and academic success. They also read YC teen-written story, “Don’t Push Me Out, Push Me Forward” by Selena Garcia and participated in group work to gain strategies about giving young people the support they need from educators and caring adults in their lives.
sel day: Tapping into migrant teens’ sel strengths
Through the reading of a true, teen-written story, “Leaving El Salvador Forever” by U.S., participants gathered strategies that focused on bolstering SEL skills and strengths in this webinar held on March 8th. With an incredible turnout of over 50 people across the country, we discussed how we might challenge and broaden our mindset around migrant youth and explored learning strategies to take strengths-based approaches to SEL with this growing population.
SPRING stories ROUNDUP
This past spring YC’s year-round writing program published the following incredible stories and more. See below for a handful of these impactful stories and stay tuned for more stories from our 45th Annual Summer Writing Workshop, happening now:
▶ “The Film That Changed My Life” by Imogen Russell explores the film Carol that helps her make sense of her identity, desires, and waiting.
▶“Moving Forward On My Own” by Arna Asad is about accepting mixed feelings towards her abusive father.
▶“Adapting to Having a Better Future” by Saphir Wenzi is about her experience as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the struggles she faced while pursuing an education.
▶“With Help, I Made My Home” is a Represent story about navigating friendships, bullying, and public housing.
▶“The Price of Soda” by Alice Wong about trying to have a semblance of a childhood under desperate circumstances.
▶“Something Good Out of Something Bad” by Janay Collins about the challenges of living with sickle cell disease.
▶“Wrestling with Stereotypes” by Ushoshi Das about embracing a “men’s” sport (wrestling) as a young South Asian woman and encourages others to do the same.
▶“Housing Stability Changed My Life” by Rose Perna is about her experience moving from shelter to shelter, and the transformational impact stable housing and a couple of caring people had on her life.
Testimonial about YC’s Writing Program: “When you move so often, you sometimes get stuck in survival mode and just react to things. You stop thinking about who you are and who you want to be. That’s when bad decisions can happen – like they did for me. I’ve thought a lot about how I want to be and how I want to make good decisions that don’t hurt myself or others.
I hope that readers will read my story and understand how hard it can be to think about these things when you’re in survival mode and how important it is to find a way to do it anyway. I also hope that others reading this story will know they aren’t alone and that you can find people, like my editor and boyfriend, who will be there for you and support you in being who you want to be.” Rose Perna, YC Writer
Development Associate: joanne narrido
Joanne joined YC as Development Associate in March 2024. She brings over 10 years of experience in art non-profits and higher education. Joanne’s passion is creating sustainable pathways for equitable access to resources for marginalized communities. Joanne has an M.A. in arts administration from Baruch College (CUNY) and a B.A. in sociology from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is currently pursuing a fundraising certification in the Heyman Program at NYU.
BOARD MEMBER: Bisrat Mekbeb
Bisrat “Bis” joined YC’s Board of Directors in April 2024. He brings a wealth of HR knowledge and experience, and a lot of enthusiasm for our mission!
Bis is VP, HR Business Partner at Global Atlantic Financial Group. Prior to Global Atlantic, he was Lead Manager HR Business Partner at Equitable where he spent 20+ years serving in various roles with increasing responsibilities. Through his long standing community engagement, he is a committed youth and mental health advocate. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Harlem Dowling and volunteers as a trained listener at Caring Contact.
OPEN MIC NIGHT
Join us on November 21st (6:00-8:00 PM) at the Center for Fiction for our second Open Mic Night of 2024!
Register to Perform | Register to Attend
INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING?
Join our Board of Directors or YC Ambassadors Leadership Committee! If you are interested in supporting Youth Communication in a leadership capacity, please email, [email protected].