The first issue of NYC.

• Youth Communication is founded to give a voice to New York City Youth through print journalism. We publish the first issue of New Youth Connections (NYC), an independent, teen-written magazine, in May, 1980. Several stories focus on the wrenching effects of budget cuts.

• We begin monthly publication of NYC in January, 1981. Circulation jumps to 44,000 by June.

• We run our first intensive summer writing workshop (we have run one or more workshops every summer since).

• The Board of Education allows students to receive school credit—up to an entire semester's worth—to write for the magazine.

• NYC proves very popular with teens (and teachers): Teens send us hundreds of letters and writing contest entries in response to every issue. Teachers report using the magazine in reading and writing classes. We publish our first teachers guide.

• We begin to sell advertising in the magazine.

The graffiti issue.

• Frank coverage of graffiti writers sparks controversy. Some readers accuse us of promoting anti-social behavior, highlighting a tension that will permanently inform our work (i.e., if we report accurately on teen experiences, do we risk glorifying negative activity?).

• Our writing contest, "Send Us a Letter You'd Like to Send to Your Parents, But Don't Feel You Can," draws over 300 heartfelt entries. (Students have since submitted thousands more essays, and we've awarded over $15,000 in prizes to budding writers.)

• Circulation, still free, continues to rise. When requests near 100,000 copies, we begin to convert from free to paid circulation. Circulation levels off at 70,000 copies per issue, circulated by a network of 1,200 adults in virtually every public high school and library in New York City.

• NYC is becoming widely recognized for its appeal to "reluctant readers." The New York City Board of Education orders a citywide subscription for students in its remedial reading programs and high school ESL classes. Teachers report that "teens who won't read anything else are clamoring for NYC."

NYC covered the crack plague.

• The crack epidemic hits the city; in a vivid demonstration of the special access that teens have to their peers, during one weekend our teen staff interview 28 teens who have tried crack. Our May, 1986 cover story talks of a "crack attack" on New York neighborhoods.

• In a workshop with the City's Victim Services Agency, several of our young writers reveal that they have been raped, and want to write about it. Over time, essays about personal experience becomes more and more prominent in NYC.

Our juvenile prison newsletter.

• We begin our second project, Spofford Voices, a newsletter written by and for teens in Spofford, New York's maximum security juvenile jail. It continues for ten years, until succumbing to city budget cuts.

• We publish the 50th issue of NYC. Writer Bonz Malone is featured on the cover. Bonz creates a column written in slang for NYC, called "Street Talk." He later takes the column to Spin, and then to Vibe magazine, where he becomes a columnist.

• Our annual teacher survey reveals that teachers are assigning upwards of 50,000 essays a year in their classrooms based on articles in NYC.

Covering AIDS in 1988.

• Immigrants are remaking the face of New York, and we publish our first supplement on the immigrant experience.

Our special issue on the AIDS epidemic is the first frank and comprehensive treatment of that subject published for teens. Our writers spend many hours carefully weighing the appropriateness of every word, and the issue is widely praised by health educators for its balance and clarity (though it is attacked for being too graphic by a New York Post columnist).

• Other stories that year expose fake abortion clinics and explore the growing problem of homelessness.

Our Alumni newsletter.

• We start to track alumni and begin publishing a newsletter for them. (We notice that our alumni are beginning to achieve significant success in college and early careers, and recognize that they may become an important resource for the teens in our program.)

• We publish major stories on gay and lesbian teens, anti-racist skinheads, plus a new column written in Jamaican patois.

• In our reader survey we learn that about one-third of teens have talked to a counselor, parent, or
another adult about an article they read in NYC.

• We publish an interview with a member of the notorious gang, the Decepticons. (Despite much media hype about the gang, adult media have been unable to interview an actual member.)

• Other publishers begin requesting permission to reprint our work in magazines, textbooks, and newspapers.

• Executive Director Keith Hefner wins a MacArthur Fellowship.

Spelman College President Johnnetta Cole (left) and Youth Communication alumna Rachel Swarns speaking at our 100th issue celebration.

• We publish the 100th issue of NYC, with articles in Spanish, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, and Russian. Spelman College President Johnnetta Cole keynotes our celebration.

• We launch a new project: teacher training. After two years of development, we begin offering workshops and courses to teachers who want to learn how to improve their students' writing skills.

• We write a mission statement: "Youth Communication's goal is to help teens acquire the skills and information they need to make thoughtful choices about their lives."

The Write Source.

• The Write Source uses two dozen of our stories in its best-selling high school English textbook series.

• Our teacher training work grows to encompass two dozen teachers in six secondary schools when we become part of the teacher training project called Students at the Center.

• NYC includes stories on self-help, slam dancing, and the new face of feminism. FCYU writers critique proposed mandatory HIV testing for foster youth, and the renewed interest in orphanages.

• FCYU is awarded a Special Citation for Meritorious Journalism in a national competition sponsored by the Casey Journalism Center.

• FCYU inspires the creation of foster teen magazines in Tennessee and South Carolina.

• The Harvard Educational Review reprints many of our stories on in their journal (left) and in several books.

• Our juvenile prison magazine, Spofford Voices, succumbs to budget cuts.

The Heart Knows	Out With It

• NYC alumnus James Earl Hardy publishes B-Boy Blues, the first of 5 books he will write before age 30.

Books by Youth Communication alumnus James Earl Hardy.

• FCYU is awarded Honorable Mention in the 1996 Anna Quindlen Awards for Excellence in Journalism in Behalf of Children and Families, a nationwide competition sponsored by the Child Welfare League of America.

• Executive Director Keith Hefner wins the Luther P. Jackson Excellence in Education Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists.

• NYC alumna Edwidge Danticat publishes Krik? Krak!, which is a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. Alumna Veronica Chambers publishes her memoir, Mama's Girl, a Book of the Month Club alternate selection. Edwidge and Veronica each publish several other books during the '90s.

Books by Edwidge Danticat and Veronica Chambers

• A New York Times editorial notebook column calls the writers of FCYU "the real foster care experts."

• Persea Books publishes our third book, Starting With I: Personal Essays by Teenagers with a foreword by Edwidge Danticat and accompanied by an extensive teachers guide.

• NYC teens write about the torture of Abner Louima by New York City police, sweatshops in New York City and the racial imbalance in the city's elite high schools. FCYU writers expose conditions in the child welfare system, and explore the difficult transition to independent living.

• Simon & Schuster publishes our fourth book, Things Get Hectic: Teens Write About the Violence that Surrounds Them, with a foreword by Geoffrey Canada.

• We launch a Girls Writing Group, in which young women explore everything from women's history to body image to sexuality through reading and writing.

• NYC writers travel to wealthy suburbs and compare the high-quality education and facilities with the second rate version they get. They also write about welfare reform, cultural identity, and other topics. FCYU stories include portraits of teen mothers in foster care and youth who end up homeless after being discharged.

• FCYU sponsors the First Annual Child Welfare Fund Awards for Youth in Foster Care, and awards $6,000 in scholarships.

• We launch a California edition of
Foster Care Youth United.

• President Clinton signs the Foster Care Independence Act, and we're told that part of the impetus for the bill is Hillary's Clinton's reading of our foster care anthology, The Heart Knows Something Different. At right: Represent writer Xavier Reyes (center) and Alfred Perez (right), the teen who originally gave Mrs. Clinton a copy of our book, at the bill signing at the White House.

• We introduce a column in FCYU written by biological parents who have lost their children to foster care.

• Free Spirit publishes our fifth book, The Struggle to Be Strong: True Stories by Teens About Overcoming Tough Times, with a foreword by Veronica Chambers. It is an anthology of stories by teens who have shown resilience in the face of adversity. The anthology, co-edited by resilience expert, Dr. Sybil Wolin, is accompanied by a Leader's Guide featuring hundreds of suggestions for using the stories in classrooms and youth programs.

• We begin editing Kids Quill, a column of teen writing for Youth Today, the major U.S. trade magazine for youth workers.

• We establish a Website, which features stories from our two publications. We hope to eventually expand the Website to include a comprehensive archive of the thousands of stories we have published since 1980.

• As our program grows and our products multiply, we decide to create one logo and tag line to accompany all of our materials. The logo is pictured to the left. We experiment with many tag lines, including "Stories that make a difference," and "Read between the lines." But in the end we decide to go with "True stories by teens," which reflects the fact that the teens' stories are the core of our program.

• Foster Care Youth United 10th Anniversary: In June, Foster Care Youth United publishes its 60th bi-monthly issue. In 10 years the magazine has helped catalyze a national transformation of the foster care from secretiveness to openness. There is also growing recognition that client voices must be part of the mix in practice and policy.

• Resource for Gay Teens in Foster Care: Gay youth are overrepresented in foster care, and often are treated insensitively. Our book, In The System and In The Life, is the first comprehensive manual for working with teens and staff to improve conditions for those vulnerable youth.

• New Youth Connections is a finalist in the Association of Education Publishers annual contest for its special issue on teens and their relationships with their families, "It's a Family Affair." Other themes for 2002-03 include homeless teens, conflict resolution, teen activism, and teen reactions to the war in Iraq.