It's Our Money
#itsourmoney Youth led direct democracy
Name of Your Organization:
The Family Center, Inc.
Overview of the Project - Please provide a brief description of the project.
The Family Center’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) is excited to submit a proposal for Our Vision, Our Voices, through which our teens will develop film-making and project management skills while sharing their experiences with other teens through short videos shared over social media. The program will be open to members of our YAB, all youth of color, primarily hailing from Central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Brownsville and East New York, as well as to other Brooklyn youth, ages 14-19 who receive services at The Family Center.
When reviewing the ‘It’s Our Money’ opportunity at our most recent monthly meeting, the YAB came up with the idea to propose a program through which teens could share their stories about the impact of Covid, remote schooling, the racial justice movement sparked by George Floyd’s murder and the political unrest of the last several months. Our YAB members, many of whom have accessed mental health services at The Family Center, believe that through sharing their stories on social media, they can help reduce isolation that so many teens are feeling, encourage and normalize connection to mental health services and create community.
With this idea in mind, TFC staff reached out to Andrew Filipone Jr., a documentary filmmaker who works primarily with non-profit organizations and has taught filmmaking to teens. We are excited to be collaborating with him on this project. The project will be coordinated by Tonya Collins, TFC’s Development and Communications Manager who, in 2019, completed a smartphone filmmaking training at BRIC Arts Media and has access to BRIC free equipment lending library.
The Project will start with 6 hours of instruction over the week of March 29th, which will cover both basic filmmaking and storytelling skills and ideation activities to develop a vision for a social media video series. After the initial instruction, teens will be assigned roles focused on aspects of the project (i.e. videographers, writers, directors, narrators, etc.), and will meet weekly, facilitated by Mr. Fillipone and Ms. Collins, to plans for, develop, and post content. Teens will also work independently or in small groups in between sessions, including going into the field to interview other teens, family or community members. Videos will be posted on TFC’s social media and teens will also be challenged to use hashtags, and links to their own social media and other platforms to help build their audience. The group will finalize and post approximately one video a week between mid-April and the end of June. All instruction and meetings can be done remotely, but if public health condition allow, we will have some of the initial instruction and small group work in-person at The Family Center as well as some outdoor filming sessions. The project will culminate with a screening and Q&A session (in-person or remote) hosted by the youth participants.
The goals for this project are: (1) to raise awareness around, and explore, the impact of the pandemic and the events of the last year on the mental health of NYC youth; (2) to build community for Family Center youth. Producing a series of short films will allow for diversity of genres, styles and topics to be explored by youth, whose individuals voices and perspectives can be better shared through this format. As the youth will also be working on digital outreach to share, like, and comment on the video posts, they will have an opportunity to engage with their classmates and friends around the content posted.
Over the course of this four month project, our Youth participants will produce at least 10 video posts generating a minimum of 72 new followers. YAB members eagerly anticipate learning new marketable videography and communications skills and sharing their perspectives on everything from remote schooling to community policing in NYC. Working in collaboration with the YAB, The Family Center plans to evaluate this project through a series of surveys gauging teen participants’ experiences, as well as the impact of the social media outreach conducted by teens.
Which of the following issues does your project address?
- Issue 1 - Addressing Mental Health
- Issue 2 - Preparation for College and/or Career
- Issue 3 - Youth Advocacy Promotion
1, 2 and 3
The Family Center expects this short film series project to include content about youth mental health (1) during the pandemic as well as youth advocacy (3) around issues such as racial justice and police brutality. Finally, we expect that participants will be able to leverage filming, video editing and social media marketing skills for future academic or career plans (2).
Youth Engagement - Please explain how you will engage youth in the planning and implementation of the project.
The idea for this project was generated by our Youth Advisory Board upon learning about the It’s Our Money project. After getting feedback from our consultant filmmaker, the proposed idea was again reviewed by our YAB. Twelve youth will be enrolled in the program. Members of our YAB will get priority, but because of the time commitment, we anticipate that not all of our YAB members will, so we expect to also recruit youth from our mental health clinic. We anticipate that an additional 8-10 youth will be involved as interview subjects, and we will be working towards a goal of 100 new youth followers on TFC’s social media by the end of June.
Teen participants will work closely with Ms. Collins and Mr. Filipone to plan all aspects of the project, the content and the social media plan. Teen participants will collaborate with each other on role designation and all aspects of video production and will be expected to contribute to social media outreach efforts to promote their work and message. The Family Center also expects to engage teens in the evaluation of this project at its conclusion.
Budget - Your total project budget must equal $20,000 to be placed on the ballot for a youth vote. Please provide a brief description of what the funds would be used for to successfully implement your project. You will also need to download, fill in, and attach a full budget using this template.
The Family Center expects that $17,350 will cover personnel expenses including 0.4 FTE of Ms. Collins salary for the four month grant period as well as the consultant fee for Mr. Filipone. We plan to allocate the remaining $2,650 for incentives for the YAB teen participants as well as some of their interview subjects. We expect to provide each of the 12 participating teens with a $100 gift card upon completion of the first week of instruction, and another $100 gift card upon the completion of the project. Teen interview subjects will be offered $25 gift cards. As The Family Center can leverage our partnership with BRIC for free equipment rentals, we do not anticipate incurring expenses in that category.
Timeline- Please describe the timeline for the implementation and completion of the project. All work for this project must be completed by June 30, 2021, which is the end of the city’s fiscal year and the deadline for the funds to be spent.
By March 5, we will develop and disseminate a flyer and application for the program. Both YAB members and other TFC teens will have to submit an application to participate. The YAB will review applications and select members by March 19. The initial 6 hours of filming and video editing training will take place the week of March 29th when NYC public schools are closed for spring break. Participants will be expected to spend 4-6 hours a week on the project, including working in small groups, and participating in weekly meetings and work sessions. Participants will begin filming immediately afterward the initial training week so as to release the first video by mid-April. Throughout May and June, the YAB aims to release weekly videos on instagram and other agency social media platforms. In late June at the end of school year’s close, the YAB will host a virtual screening of all videos on The Family Center website.
Project Activity Alignment - How does your project align with at least one of the following topics:
- Leadership skills development: organizing & advocacy trainings
- Stewardship of public spaces: public parks, transportation, etc.
- Youth and student engagement
- Civic education and advocacy
- Community outreach involving residents that have been historically underrepresented in or underserved by city government and its processes
This short film series project aligns with the following activities: Leadership skills development (1), Youth engagement (3), Civic education and advocacy (4) and Community outreach (5). YAB teen members will be collaborating to advocate for youth and raise awareness about the impact of Covid, as well as racial justice and other events of the last year, on the mental health of NYC youth. Youth who have been historically underrepresented and underserved are the exact teens serving on The Family Center YAB. This project will amplify their voices but also the voices of the community members whom they plan to interview and engage in the project.
What is your organization's area of focus?
- Children and youth related
- Advocacy and organizing
- Arts and culture
- Civic engagement
- Education and literacy
- Emergency management and disaster response
- Employment and workforce development
- Environment and sustainability
- Faith-based
- Food access
- Health and medicine
- Homelessness and/or affordable housing
- Human rights
- Human services
- Immigrants and/or refugees
- Justice related
- Legal services
- People with disabilities
- Senior services
- Women's issues
Health (11)
Affirmations - Type "YES" below each statement to affirm that you are eligible to appear on the ballot for this process.
I confirm that my organization will be registered in the NYC Payee Information Portal and in PassPort, NYC’s online procurement system, in order to receive funding from the City of New York.
Yes
I confirm that my organization is able to front the costs of implementing this project. Organizations will be paid based on deliverables.
Yes
Completion of Deliverables: I understand all deliverables must be completed by June 30th, 2021.
Yes
I understand a condition of funding includes submission of a final report upon project completion, and participating in a debrief session with the CEC.
Yes
This idea proceeds to voting because:
Thank you for your proposal submission! Based on our review, your proposal is eligible according to the project guidelines and will be placed on the ballot for the youth vote to take place in February. We may reach out if we need further information to prepare the ballot.
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