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Mission & Philosophy of Project: Think Different:
Project: Think Different (PTD) is a non-profit media organization established in March 2002. Our mission is to create a renaissance in music, film and video media education that increases engagement in civic dialogue and action among disenfranchised communities, to ensure equity and fairness. Our programs provide education, incentives and access to socially conscious and socially responsible messages in the media arts while at the same time providing content and forums that inspire and enroll the broader public in action for change. We use the media arts as an organizing tool to reach disenfranchised young people and enable them to “think differently†and think big about their ability to create positive change in their lives, communities, and society at large. We believe that effective problem-solving begins at the local level with people who identify a common concern and understand that they have the power to bring about lasting change. By educating and empowering everyday people to create compelling solution-oriented messages in music, film and video, Project: Think Different is shifting the current media landscape while increasing public awareness of community issues, and the perspectives and priorities of many disadvantaged and underserved populations.
Youth Media Institute/Programs Overview
The Youth Media Institute programs consist of initiatives that cultivate the leadership of diverse young people to use the media arts to amplify underrepresented issues so that all may have a voice in building their community. Through education, employment opportunities, job skills training in the media arts, youth co-facilitation of workshops for other youth, and mentoring, Project: Think Different actively cultivates a new generation of media professionals that will challenge the status quo, diversify content, and ensure that citizens receive the information they need to make informed decisions. Current programming within the Youth Media Institute includes the Media Watch Team, the Media Action Series and the Media Matters Conference/Media Careers Summer Internship Program.
Media Action Series
The Media Action Series is an interactive eight session training, co-facilitated by youth (Media Watch Team), that addresses the media’s role in creating a culture of violence, racism, sexism, and commercialism while educating, empowering and organizing youth to take action on the subjects of media literacy, accountability, access and policy. The Media Action Series is specifically designed to serve lower income youth of color ages 11 to 18, from Boston’s neighborhoods of Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, East Boston and South Boston. The Pilot Series was implemented at three sites with over 100 participants.
Media Watch Team
As a component of the Media Action Series, PTD has hired a team of young people, ages 16-19, for a part-time paid work opportunity. Our Media Watch Team consists of 10 teens from the neighborhoods of focus above, who work to develop curricula for the Media Action Series, and serve as co-facilitators for the series in schools and after school programs.
Voices of Tomorrow…Today! Campaign
This campaign, headed by the Media Watch Team, is dedicated to increasing the diversity of youth voices in Boston’s mainstream media and holding media outlets accountable for biased and negative images of Boston’s young people and their communities. They are taking action through letter writing campaigns, providing workshops and resources to other Boston youth, and meeting with media makers and public officials. In addition, they will be working during the summer of 2007 on a marketing campaign addressing the root causes of the recent violence that has been inescapable for young people in our city. The aim is to make civic engagement, peace, empowerment, and achievement as valued in youth culture as the consistently negative messages that young people are consistently faced with in current mainstream Hip Hop and pop-culture media.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE SPIRITO. PHOTO CONCEPTS BY MARC BOUCHER
Media Matters Conference / Media Careers Summer Internship Program
Project: Think Different co-sponsors the annual Media Matters Conference with the Boston Globe, UMASS Boston, and Write Boston. This conference is attended by over 500 high school students and teachers and equips them with a working knowledge of various aspects of media careers.
This summer, we are launching the first Media Careers Summer Internship Program. We are hiring 20 Boston teens (who have interests in media careers such as broadcasting, journalism, digital media, graphic design, and video production) and partnering them with mentors/industry leaders in media arts internships throughout the City of Boston. Using funding from the City of Boston’s Boston Youth Fund, we will be able to pay these young people for their time at internship sites that will provide them with important skills in the field that they are interested in pursuing as a career. Media Careers Summer Interns will spend about two thirds of their paid time (16 hours) at their sites, and approximately 1/3 of their time (8 hours) working with young people in other Project: Think Different programming to share their experiences and to also mentor younger teens.
emPOWERMENT Records
(www.empowermentrecords.com)
(www.myspace.com/empowermentrecords)
In 2006, the Empowerment CD Program released its first full-length album, EmPOWERment: The Power to Break You Free. The album brought together young, local artists to create a commercial-quality, multi-genre compilation that uses music to inspire people to think about their ability to create lasting, progressive, social change. Songs off of the Empowerment CD discuss issues of unemployment, poverty, abuse, freedom, and education. Through funding from the City of Boston, we were able, as a part of the CD pre-production process, to engage over 100 young people in two media literacy workshops specifically focused on music and marketing. As we begin planning for a second CD, we are excited about the prospect of engaging our Media Watch Team and their peers as curators for these socially responsible music messages.
FEATURING:
Soulfege featuring Bounty Killer
Iyeoka Okoawo
The Foundation
Audible Mainframe
AfroDZak
Lyrical
Sofia Snow
Lauren Flaherty
amomg others...