Projects that tried to train middle or high schools students to report on news in their community produced infrequent content, in large part because they fell prey a lot of turnover in trainers and the need for great supervision.
Of the three youth media sites that were funded, two are inactive, Anansi’s Web in Gary, Ind. and HipHopSpeaks.org in Philadelphia. The latter is now trying to revive its site. Both struggled to retain the trainers needed to help the kids and frequency of content was spotty. HipHopSpeak’s core development team disappeared and some “lost interest with the quality and quantity of submissions we received,” said founder Donyale Hooper-Reavis.
The “Girls on Air” podcasting initiative at the Lower Eastside Girls Club went dark for almost a year amid staffing issues and then was reborn in a new building and with a new commitment to post twice a month.
We could see no sustainability model amid the turnover of students and the emphasis on developing content in the summers or after school hours.
However, all remain deeply committed to training young people. “I can truthfully say this grant has helped define the path we are traveling into the future. It has encouraged us to look deeply at what communications and digital literacy programs have to offer teens,” said Girls Club founder Lyn Pentecost.
As the New Voices funding evolved, J-Lab changed eligibility guidelines to discourage projects that were primarily focused on training youth rather than covering community news. We could see no sustainability model amid the turnover of students and the emphasis on developing content in the summers or after school hours. Still, we were overwhelmed with youth training proposals.
That said, some of the projects, in particular Intersections: South L.A., are finding some success in partnering with local schools, and their efforts helps plug the site into community issues.
We recommend that focusing on high school or middle school students to contribute content for a community news site be a second- or third-tier source of content – one that can be developed after launch and the site has a reliable stream of other stories.