Reel Grrls Chosen as Adobe Youth Voices Partner in Seattle!

Reel Grrls chosen by Adobe Foundation to reach 900 youth at 20 schools and community organizations this school year

September 27, 2012 -- Reel Grrls was chosen by the the Adobe Foundation to greatly expand Adobe Youth Voices in the Seattle area. Adobe Youth Voices is an international strategic partnership dedicated to building young people’s creativity, civic engagement, and communication skills, teaching partners like Reel Grrls were handpicked from organizations worldwide to represent leaders in the field of youth media education. Both the City of Seattle Community Technology Program and the Seattle International Film Festival are leading partners in this endeavor, and will help to ensure its success this year.

Other AYV Global partners include afterschool programs, youth leadership agencies, arts organizations, and school districts across. This year, over 900 youth at 20 schools and community organizations in our region will work on projects that allow them to develop new media skills and to express their voice about issues they care about. These projects will be showcased here in Seattle at SIFF and via the Adobe Youth Voices web site.

For previous projects made by Seattle youth through Adobe Youth Voices visit the AYV gallery - for the 2010 Seattle Adobe Youth Voices Live and the 2011 Seattle Adobe Youth Voices Live.

"This partnership between Adobe, Reel Grrls and Seattle's Department of Information Technology is a very exciting step for building the landscape of youth media in Seattle," stated AYV Strategic Partership Coordinator and Reel Grrls Founder Malory Graham. She continued, "The 20 schools and youth organizations that we will be working with this year will have a huge impact of providing cutting-edge media education to Seattle's young people--and having the backing of Adobe, Seattle's Dept of Information Technology and the Seattle International Film Festival means the program will have real traction."

This fall Reel Grrls trained thirty teachers from each of the participating sites. Each participating site received training from Reel-Grrls using Adobe curriculum and donated software. The curricula promotes youth expression, creativity, and engagement, helping young people build critical 21st-century technology and life skills.

Reel Grrls Director Robin Held stated, "Reel Grrls has been training youth to use media production tools to express themselves for over ten years, and Reel Grrls is, justifiably, being recognized as a leader in this field. Growing the youth media community in Seattle is exciting for Reel Grrls, as is the fact that Adobe Youth Voices connects Seattle youth with young people all over the world."

David Keyes from the City’s Community Technology Program helped recruit and select participating sites. The City of Seattle will continue to help advise projects on creating media for civic engagement and encourages submission of completed videos for screening on the Seattle Channel.

Participating sites include Seattle Public Schools (The World School -BOC, Pinehurst Middle School, Aki Kurose Middle School) Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC), Meadowdale High School in the Edmunds School District, Bellevue Big Picture, the Seattle –King County Metrocenter YMCA’s Y-Tech program, Arts Corps, Youth In Focus, Multi-Media Resource Training Institute (MMRTI), Unified Outreach, Technology Access Foundation (TAF), Longhouse Media/Native Lens, KCTS 9, and City of Seattle RecTech Computer learning labs at Garfield Teen Life Center, Delridge, Rainier, Southwest, The Seattle International Film Festival, and South Park Community Center.)

-- By Betsey Brock, [email protected]