Transmission Project

Girls Get Digital trains women in the use of media; program participants create multimedia resources for local nonprofits and other clients. GGD was able to see the fruits of our labor during our pilot year. As in the first half of her year with the program, Kathy was the keystone of our success, though additionally exciting was watching Kathy truly come into her own in her coordination of the program.

A strong curriculum was created in our pilot year. This is under constant review and reconstruction, but curriculum work (including reflection on what worked and what should be changed) in the first year has created a strong foundation for that.

The GGD application and program evaluation documentation was created prior to the first session and has needed very little revision since. Documentation for the rest of the program was created on as-need basis, and has largely followed guidelines by our summer session funder, which provided a standard set of consents, incident reports, etc.

Kathy did a great job conducting outreach in schools, through local social service organizations and in clubs for participant recruitment. Kathy also did great work with a volunteer and the Multimedia Instructor to identify field trip sites.

Kathy’s excellent research and writing skills were a huge asset to the program and resulted in our funding by AfterSchool Matters (for the summer and now the fall GGD sessions) and for our very first foundation funding.

Kathy developed and circulated press releases. The newsletter was tabled for the time being, and is now being developed by our current VISTA staff.

Initial work on identifying local program and online resources for program participants was completed. In a city as populated and large as Chicago, an exhaustive resource library is a Herculean task. Kathy assisted with the foundations for this library and the task is being carried on with staff at this time.

Tony successfully created a project plan, lesson plans, program write-ups and evaluations for programs in the past year. These programs provide valuable skills to students in the following areas. Photoshop- design and tools, , Movie making, Robotics, Music Making, Diversity training, Literacy enrichment, Web Design, Graphic Design/Arts and the Techathalon (a state wide event). The Americorp Vista participated in outreach and recruitment with several community groups. He secured several donations for fundraising efforts through community relations he developed. During the past year, he visited the Young Champions program and urged them to participate in after school programs at the club site, greatly increasing the size and reach of our programs.

Shaneka served as the lead in hosting several major youth centered events, including the Intel regional teen summit and the college tour. Recently Shaneka has worked in areas of project and grant development and assisted in managing several major programs and helping with the outreach and marketing of our programs.

In her Second service year Shaneka continues to work closely with the teenage youth and is currently hosting a Girls program for teens ages 13 to 18. The youth are currently involved in forming their own T-shirt corporation from the ground up. Shaneka has helped the youth write business plans, design images for print, and worked towards building an entrepreneurial mindset in the youth. Shaneka continues to develop technology related programs that have youth learning Photo Manipulation using Adobe Photoshop, Animation using Macromedia Flash, Video Production using Sony Vegas and other programs that engage the youth.

Ray spent the year coming up with ideas for the workshops, creating the materials necessary to lead the workshops, and organizing the instructors of the workshops. Workshop topics included digital storytelling, silent movie-making, audio dubbing, and 3D imaging. Ray learned how create (and advertise) workshops that are appealing to teens and eventually had regular attendance at them. Students in our program earn a free computer system to take home. Our policy states that if they attend 5 workshops, they’ll earn enough extra credit to earn a year of free internet access at home. While nearly all of our students earn the home computer, many students weren’t able to take advantage of the free internet since they weren’t getting the opportunity to attend workshops. With Ray’s help, a great number of students were able to attend the workshops that are required in order to earn home internet. While having a home computer is valuable to our students, without internet they remain at a disadvantage when it comes to completing homework and projects for school.

Now that Ray’s term has ended we are happy to have a whole library of workshop ideas and materials at the ready. Because everything has already been developed, it is much easier for us to recruit volunteers to lead our workshops, since it no longer requires a significant time commitment on their part. We are pleased that we were able to, and will be able to continue to, offer so many workshops to our students and that they may earn internet access at home.

Richard assisted the education department with youth outreach curriculum development efforts, developing innovative ways to expose community youth to digital audio and video technology. He developed interest surveys for school and community info. gathering and assisted with the implementation of an open house for CMC Wealthy neighborhood residents. Richard was a member of the SMART Festival planning team, an international student media arts festival organized and hosted by GRCMC..

A particular story that stands out is the use of audio resources and curriculum developed by Richard: There was a young man named Patrick who was 14 years of age and lived across the street from Media Center with his Mom and 6 brothers and sisters. He would drop by the media center often after school. He learned a variety of video production skills and produced a few short studio productions for air on community television, but nothing seemed to really stick with him. One day we asked him to produce and record a rap that could be used for promotion of the Mollie youth program. You could see the excitement in his eyes at that suggestion. In a matter of weeks he had the rap written out and beats to use with it created on the computer. Using the tools and resources Richard had collected and organized, we were able to both find a passion for this young man and help promote our programs and organization.

Laura’s year with the Mobile Learning Lab for Information Education (MoLLIE) was characterized by a continued maturing of the of the project, both in its partnerships with area schools and its facility with linking MoLLIE efforts to the area mandated curriculum. Relationships that were begun with area teachers in our first two years of operation continued and thrived. Those teachers that utilized MoLLIe in the first year actively promoted the MoLLIE project to their colleagues leading in turn, to an expanded clientele of teachers in a broader selection of schools.

Further relationships developed that Laura was crucial to: In conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice “Project Safe Neighborhoods” (PSN) program, Laura facilitated the efforts of local youths at neighborhood associations and community centers in writing, shooting, performing, and editing their own Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on the subject of gun violence prevention. Another partnership that developed this year in which Laura played a key role was a six month project with Wedgwood Christian Services of West Michigan. Similar to PSN, the Wedgwood project involved providing at-risk teens with the tools, training, and means of transmission to create their own mini documentaries and PSAs focusing on substance abuse prevention. Laura demonstrated a particular facility in getting young women to open up and tell their personal stories in a manner that they might not with male trainer/technicians.

Laura’s final, and perhaps most lasting project, done in conjunction with VISTA volunteer Nate Diedrich, has been the production of an eight-episode instructional module series on the MoLLIE method of video production.

Laura Craig went on to work full-time at Portland Community Media in Portland, Oregon, where she supervised the work of Digital Arts Corps Member Nickey Robare.

Nate’s year with the Mobile Learning Lab for Information Education ( MoLLIE) was characterized by a continued maturing of the of the project, both in its partnerships with area schools and its facility with linking MoLLIE efforts to the area mandated curriculum. Relationships that were begun with area teachers in our first two years of operation continued and thrived. Those teachers that utilized MoLLIE in the first year actively promoted the MoLLIE project to their colleagues leading, in turn, to an expanded clientele of teachers in a broader selection of schools.

Further relationships developed that Nate was crucial to. In conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program, Nate facilitated the efforts of local youths at neighborhood associations and community centers in writing, shooting, performing, and editing their own Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on the subject of gun violence prevention. Another partnership that developed this year in which Nate played a key role was a six-month project with Wedgwood Christian Services of West Michigan. Similar to PSN, the Wedgwood project involved providing at-risk teens with the tools, training, and means of transmission to create their own mini documentaries and PSAs focusing on substance abuse prevention.

Nate’s last and perhaps most lasting project, done in conjunction with VISTA volunteer Laura Craig-Bennett, has been the production of an eight episode instructional module series on the MoLLIE method of video production.

David has assisted TSN Coordinator with the procurement, development, distribution and evaluation of instructional materials for member sites.

David has met with eligible sites independently and jointly with TSN coordinator as well as helped procure and disseminate information between sites and the TSN coordinator. Because of David’s technical background and ability to grasp the complete picture he has resolved many problems and questions before they could become issues. Once the financial issues are resolved, David will independently visit the Centers receiving equipment to ensure that its installation is complete and satisfies the Center’s requirements. As a result of the David’s assistance the current round of hardware and furniture upgrades is ahead of last years pace.

David is serving as the Project Manager for the re-design of the website). Davis is coordinating the translation of a portion of the website into Spanish and is keeping the content of the web site up to date. David frequently provides help desk support to members using the site.

David is currently serving as a fifth-grade group leader for the Kinetic City program. Kinetic City is a science-based program aligned with Boston Public School standards for grades 3-6 designed to be offered in out-of school time. David along with key staff from member sites will be trained to both run the program and sites as well as on how to train others to lead the program. David will provide important feedback as we pilot this train-the-trainer program being developed jointly with MIT’s Kavli Institute.

• David has developed and is maintaining two databases for managing the information needed for reporting to our funders—Boston Connects, Inc. and the Timothy Smith Fund. These databases track information for 40 sites, hundreds of classes, and thousands of students.

• David completed a series of classes at BNN TV’s Multimedia Center and used these new skills to video the recent Girls Get Connected Conference. It is anticipated that he will turn this into a CD or DVD which can be used for publicity for upcoming conferences. David will also use these skills to create a CD or DVD of success stories of individuCenter activities.

She is currently helping to organize, write, and format BNN’s quarterly newsletter, our most important piece of literature sent to our members. The newsletter introduces new equipment in our facilities, editing and production tips, and production class schedules. BNN has been unable to produce a newsletter since last winter, due to lack of staff and time, so Alli’s assistance in this is especially crucial. Once the newsletter is completed it will be mailed to approximately 500 members and BNN typically receives a positive response from a large number of recipients.

Another example of Alli’s reach to the community is BNN’s Neighborhood Network News Program Highlights which Alli has been in charge of for the past six months. The Program Highlights require Alli to be in close contact to all of our producers and to contact various shows on a weekly basis. The Highlights also require her to send out a bulk mailing each month encouraging producers to contact her and let her know about their show, so that BNN can assist them in reaching as many people in the community as possible.

Not only is Alli reaching out to community members, but during the next six months a lot of her attention will go to reaching out to community organizations. BNN provides non-profit organizations in the Greater Boston area a chance to produce a PSA highlighting their organization’s cause. Alli will be responsible for the production and editing of these PSA’s, and she will assist BNN’s Education/Outreach department in contacting the organizations through phone calls, mailings and most importantly a “Get Your Message Out” seminar.

Over the last six months Alli has been a vital part in increasing BNN’s reach to the Boston community. She has kept daily communication with many of our producers and the productions that she has assisted on have gotten her out into the community and aided BNN in delivering community messages.

Due to budget cuts, Dirk has also taken on most of the responsibilities in terms of coordinating our video project. He has undergone training from our Multimeida Coordinator and will now be working with a group of teens so that they can eventually facilitate most of the project’s work.