Programs

(Revised 09/18/2006)

Youth Communication runs four major programs and many smaller projects.

Major Programs

• Book for Educators and Child Welfare Staff: In addition to publishing teens' stories in our magazines, we republish many of the stories they write in anthologies. Each anthology includes some of our best stories on a specific topic, such as resilience, or anger management, or dealing with difficult emotions. The books allow teachers and youth workers to use stories on the specific topics that they are teaching, or that resonate with teens in their program.

• New Youth Connections magazine is published 7 times during the school year, and is written by New York City teens who we train in our Manhattan newsroom. About 80 teens work on the magazine each year as writers and illustrators. Teachers, librarians, and other youth workers subscribe to the magazine and give it out free to teens in their classes and programs. Circulation ranges from 55,000 to 70,000 copies. Reader surveys show that about 3 people read each copy, for a total readership of the print magazine in the range of 150,000 to 200,000 people.

The magazine was founded in 1980 and has inspired more than a dozen youth media projects across the nation.

• Represent magazine is published 6 times a year (bi-monthly), and is written by teens in foster care from New York and across the country. About 40 teens work on the magazine each year as writers and illustrators. Social workers, case workers, independent living coordinators, CASAs, and other adults who work with teens in the foster care system buy subscriptions to the magazine and give it out free to teens in their programs. Many staff, administrators and policy-makers also subscribe to the magazine to learn what teens are thinking and feeling. Circulation ranges from 10,000 to 15,000 copies. Pass along copies bring the total readers to about 20,000 in the print version.

The magazine was founded in 1993 (under the name Foster Care Youth United), and is the only national magazine written by and for teens in care.

• Rise is a magazine by and for parents who have been involved with New York City’s child welfare system (ACS). Its mission is to provide parents with true stories about the system’s role in families’ lives and information that will help parents advocate for themselves and their children..

Smaller Projects
(these projects complement our three major programs)

Youth Communication frequently launches special projects to address emerging needs. (Not all of these projects are current, but they give a flavor of the kinds of the initiatives we undertake.)

Writing Workshops: We offer many writing workshops in the fall and the spring, plus two intensive, six-week summer writing workshops. From time to time we also offer writing workshops at other sites to special populations, such as pregnant teens, teens in foster care group homes, incarcerated teens, etc.

Illustration Workshops: We also offer school-year and summer illustration workshops.

Lessons and Curricula: We provide adults with lessons, discussion guides, and other curriculum materials to help them teach the stories in our magazines and books. These include the Tips for Teachers newsletters that accompany each issue of our magazines, recommended questions and writing assignments, and full-fledged curriculum guides that accompany some of our books.

After School Literacy and Advisory Lessons: We develop and test lessons based on our stories which help after school staff and advisory teachers strengthen their reading and writing and social/emotional learning programs for middle school students.

Foster Care Transition to Adult Life: Teens who are about to leave foster care-and young adults who have recently left care-participate in exercises to learn the skills they need to live on their own. Then they write about the experience of living on their own for Represent magazine.

Promoting Youth Voices: We work to place teens' stories in magazines, websites, and professional journals, on radio and TV and other places where their stories will have an impact on adults who make and implement policies that affect youth.

Gay Teens in Foster Care: GLBTQ teens (and straight teens) write about their experiences, investigate services, and interview staff about how to make foster care a more welcoming and nurturing environment.

Awards for Youth in Foster Care: We administer an essay contest for teens in foster care. There are 25 winners each year, who are awarded more than $10,000 in prizes.

Writing Teams: We often select a theme for an upcoming issue of our magazines. Teens work together to identify key stories and perspectives, select a cover image, and write an introduction that frames the topic in a way that will be compelling to their peers.

Technology Training: We continually train teens in "21st Century" skills. All teens write learn Word by writing stories on computers. Many learn other computer skills, including Windows file management, database entry and searching, and Internet research (including proprietary databases like Lexis-Nexis).

Presentations and Public Speaking: We train some teens to read their stories for radio, and to make presentations to their peers and to groups of experts and policy-makers.

Alumni Services: We are tracking more than 800 of the 2,000-plus teens who have worked here in the past 25 years. We frequently write job and college (and graduate school) recommendations for them, and help them network with each other.

Special Presentations: Outside speakers talk with our teens about everything from libel law to how to get an internship during college. Many of these presentations are offered by our alumni.

Parents' Writing Group: We run workshops for parents who have lost their children to foster care, and their stories are printed in Rise magazine.