Youth Channel Development/Education Department Assistant

Organization: 
Media Bridges Cincinnati
VISTA Name: 
Elizabeth Goussetis
Program Start: 
7/2008
Program End: 
7/2009
Project Description: 

Media Bridges Youth Channel (MBYC) is a project-based learning experience focused towards the youth through a mentor-based initiative.

In the course of his/her duties the Youth Channel Development/Education Assistant will provide development assistance in the areas of volunteers, grant writing, event/class coordination and fund development with the additional specific charge of developing the resources, policies, procedures and outreach to launch Media Bridge’s Youth Channel efforts.

Assist the Media Bridges education department in providing video technical skills to the public.

Assist at the Media Bridges Master Control Center, assuring the smooth application of the implementation of the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Project Outcome: 

Elizabeth has assisted the education department in all of the stated areas, and has built a solid framework for a sustainable youth channel program. She launched the Youth Media Club, a new program which has attracted new youth to Media Bridges. She produced several videos with elementary school students as part of a 20-week outreach class at a local public school, which initiated an ongoing partnership with the school. She applied for a $1,000 grant to fund our summer camp program. She recruited two high school interns through a media internship program for minority high school students. She also established Media Bridges as a partner organization for a media career exploration program for high school students sponsored by an association of journalism professionals. She developed a youth policies and procedures handbook for Media Bridges, opening the door to more youth involvement in the future. She expanded the youth channel from a four hour block of programming per week, with an additional youth block timeslot for college student productions. She structured the youth page on the new web site, manages the content of the page providing information about the youth program to the public, and has also developed social networking outreach through Twitter, and avenues for video distribution through youtube, vimeo, ListenUp, and local youth filmmaking site IndieViz.

Establishing a youth leadership board was part of our original plan for the youth channel, but that was not completed. The initial lack of youth involved with the organization made that difficult and also unrealistic at this time. Elizabeth has been able to recruit youth participants, which will pave the way for a youth leadership board in the future. There has not been a full-scale volunteer management system put into place for the youth program. Although Elizabeth recruited volunteers and worked with staff to improve volunteer procedures, the Media Bridges volunteer management system is in the process of restructuring, so a youth volunteer management system was put on hold until a better structure is implemented by the operations department. In the meantime, Elizabeth has worked to create opportunities for youth volunteers and has streamlined youth volunteers into the overall volunteer process

Although it was not originally included in the project proposal, Elizabeth created, designed and maintained a youth section on the Media Bridges Web site, created social network outreach (Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook) and established additional distribution methods for youth-produced videos online, through video-sharing sites. At the beginning of her service year, the Media Bridges Web site had no information regarding youth programs and was not being updated because we were in the middle of a redesign. When the new site went live, Elizabeth became active in overall site maintenance, specifically in creating the youth section

Impact Quote: 

There are significantly more youth in the building, on a regular basis, than there have ever been in recent memory. New precedents, policies and procedures have been set that have made Media Bridges a more youth-friendly organization and have broken down barriers to youth participation. Elizabeth has also provided support for youth-oriented projects initiated by Media Bridges producers, volunteers, staff, and other nonprofits. We plan to absorb the new programs and activities into the current staff, continue initiated programs such as the youth media club, and continue using the youth policies developed.”
- Jeremy Wolford, supervisor

Transmission Project