Student
Career Alternatives Program (SCAP) is hosting it's fourth annual It's
My Life contest! It's My Life - Youth Made Film Festival encourages
metro Atlanta youth aged 23 and younger to create shorts that respond
to one of the four provided prompts. The genres can span the
whole spectrum from animations, documentary, music video, narrative
to spoof. Films are to be three minutes or less.
Film submission deadline is April 24th and all
entries will be screened at the Plaza Theatre April 29, 2014 - See
your film on the big screen!
Prizes
will be awarded to every category and two cash grand prizes!
Materials
including entry form, categories, DIY filmmaking poster, and film
festival poster are attached here. Should you have any questions
about submitting or are interested in spreading the word, feel free
to contact me (Victoria) at - scapatlanta@gmail.com or
victoriactemple@gmail.com or 678.524.9133
This year we decided to organize a youth film festival instead of a general art contest. Our thinking was that short thematic films could have a greater impact beyond the art contest event itself and that it would be really cool for youth to see their films on the big screen.
The festival was held at the Plaza theater this past Tuesday and was really well attended. It was great to have teachers, youth, and parents come together to watch and honor the work that went into these films.
Awards went to the following film makers:
The SCAP Career Alternatives Award presented by Dalia Alvarez
Kayla Crumbley for, "A Silver Screen Dream"
The WAND Award presented by Courtney Hanson
Katherine Sudakova and Paul Duhe for, "Love....Just Love"
The Wonderroot Youth Film Maker Award presented by Jennifer Lobsenz
Tesh Yana for, "Horizons School"
The Cash Grand Prize was presented by Tim Franzen
Daniel MiQuel for, "Gotta Make a Change"
Every official "It's My Life" youth film festival selection was awarded with a certificate and a one year pass to Wonderroot Community Art Center. At Wonderroot youth will have free access to a digital media lab, a dark room, performance space, ceramic studio, and a recording studio!
We were also grateful to have former "It's My Life" youth art contest winner Aisha Ra'nee present to give all the youth film makers words of encouragement. Aisha's video entry several years ago is one of the reasons we decided to try doing a film festival this year. After winner 2011's art contest Aisha went on to enter a film program at Georgia State University where she has thrived as a student.
We want to give a big thanks to all of this year's sponsors, Georgia WAND, Wonderroot, Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, and The Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition.
Also a big thanks to the Plaza Theater for giving us a discount prize on the theater rental.
This event would not have been possible with out the countless hours of volunteer time that Victoria Temple and Erica Schoon put into this project! Thank you both for your amazing service!
Student Career Alternatives Program (SCAP) is hosting it's third annual It's My Life contest. This year we are sponsoring a Youth Made Film Festival encouraging metro Atlanta youth to create short, theme centric films.
The film genres can span the whole spectrum from animations, documentary, music video, narrative to spoof. The themes chosen will hopefully encourage thought in those areas and broaden students outlooks as they prepare for the next step in their lives.
All entries will be screened at the Plaza Theatre April 30, 2013!
Prizes will be awarded to every theme and a cash grand prize!
Teachers, schools, and youth clubs have been notified via snail mail, email, and phone call.
NOW we are preparing to go to schools and youth groups to discuss, encourage, and promote the festival with students and answer any questions.
Additionally we need folks with video/editing/storytelling experience to work with youth in a workshop or classroom setting. Filmmaking can be overwhelming and we wish to encourage students to work within their means and utilize the tools available to them.
Some of you may know that there has been an ongoing effort by AFSC to address the unjust disproportionate recruitment of low income Georgia youth into the military industrial complex. For several decades struggling Georgia youth have been the target of fairly aggressive recruitment tactics that include the promise of well paid post military jobs, the promise of avoiding a combat zone, the promise of a great education, and more. We know that statistically speaking these promises are rarely kept, leaving the majority of young recruits hurt, not helped by their military service.
We have an opportunity to provide safeguards in Georgia, but we need to act
fast, and we need to act now.
Every year tens of thousands of Georgia youth take the ASVAB(Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test), many don't even know what it stands for. There are two lies that perpetuated in regards to this test.
1. It's a test designed to help you decide what career paths might be good for you.
2. It's a mandatory test.
The truth is the test is most certainly designed to see what kind of soldier
you would be, and all of the results are turned over to the local military
recruiter often without your knowledge or consent for one reason, so he can
better recruit you. The test is absolutely not required.
This past Sunday, AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program hosted a “Movie Making Day” for youth. Thanks to WonderRoot for the donation of their space and editing lab, students flexed their creative muscle in storytelling through video.
Those in attendance learned filmic storytelling from start to finish as they explored writing, recording, interviewing, and editing.
Each student personally interviewed, recorded, and edited a story that was uniquely their own. Whilst each story varied in tone, the general motif became asummers gone by as the four reminisced of adventures from a year or so past.
While the students learned a new camera, program, and medium, they more importantly learned a new way of expression and a voice that has existed in them ever-presently.
Occupy The Hood Atlanta is doing some of the most inspiring work in the most impoverished pockets of our city. Today they hosted community event at the Chappell Forest apartment complex in Southwest Atlanta where clothing, food, and back to school where given away.
They also hosted a number of political education and community empowerment workshops.
AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program was on hand to provide some school supplies, including our "It's My Life" books, designed to help high school students explore creative post highschool career options. We also gave out dozens of our, "Beofre You Enlist" DVD's, which interview combat vets who were recruited out of low income high schools with the promise of opportunity. The DVD's really challenge the notion that the military is there to help young people.
Big, Big ups to Occupy The Hood for really stepping up for those hardest hit by the economic crisis in a way we haven't seen in years. We're excited to engage with the dynamic organizers of Occupy The Hood moving forward.
This past Saturday one of AFSC's projects, Student Career Alternatives Program, hosted a back to schools pool party for youth k-12. While there was plenty of food, a pool beat the heat, and steady flow of live hip hop, this party was more then just a good time.
As the school year begins we wanted to create space where young people could not only receive all the school supplies they needed but also explore some of the deeper challenges they are likely to face this school year.
For the young ones the focus was how to treat ourselves and each other, how to love ourselves, and how to stand up for ourselves.
For the older students we explored how to identify systems of violence and oppression in the school system, from military recruiters, drug and gang violence, to underfunded schools in struggling neighborhoods. Every middle and high schools student got a copy of AFSC's, "It's My Life" guide to cool alternative post high school career resources and a DVD of "Before You Enlist", which focuses on feedback from youth recruits returning from Iraq and Afghanistan giving the real deal on military recruitment.
Some of us forget how hard it is to be young sometimes. We forget how much pressure we can feel to get on some sort of post high school path. In lower income communities, this pressure can be pretty intense. The options that are overwhelmingly pushed on students are college, the military, a very low wage job(which isn't easy to get these days), or selling drugs and robbing folks. It shouldn't surprise folks that the more resources someone has, the better their outcome tend to be.
The sad truth is that our society continues to pour resources into pockets, playgrounds, and schools of folks that are already have too much at the expense of everyone else. Military recruitment is a prime example pf America's crisis in economic priority.
Low and middle income youth are targeted for recruitment into a military that continues, year after year, to fight unpopular wars the make the super rich richer at the cost of human lives and tax payer dollars.
All in all the pool party was a success, everyone smile and laughed, most importantly everyone left with something important that they didn't have before.
Student Career Alternatives Program hosted an event this past weekend. Originally it was going to be a block party for youth in the Pittsburgh community just south of downtown, but we had to change the location due to extreme heat.
Luckily, not far from our original location is DA Stanton park, which features fun sprinklers and water cannons(perhaps the only cannons SCAP can get behind).
Despite the last minute venue change, we still had a very good turnout. Young people got an opportunity to chill out in the water, enjoy a nutritious meal, and get to know each others. Topics of conversation included how to get a summer job, GED preparation, and conflict resolution.
Our next SCAP event will be held in late July at Wonderroot Community Art Center, where youth will learn how to shoot and edit their own short films.
This past Wednesday we hosted a Student Career Alternatives Program to discuss youth programs this summer. It seems like we had all the rights folks, and just the right amount of excitement in the room.
There were a lot of great ideas put out there by high school aged youth as to how we might engage young people this summer.
For now we're moving forward with planning a series of youth events, the first one being on June 23rd, all leading up to an August "Be The Change" youth convergence.
We'll be meeting every Wednesday from now on for a potluck meetings to bring in new folks and plan next steps, and you're invited!
Earlier this year we had several talented young film makers following us around documenting some of the work we do. They ended up not only putting together a really amazing snapshot a our work over the course of a few months, they also have stayed involved with our Student Career Alternatives program ever since.
I hope you will take the time to check out the film they made, there's a few real highlights that might inspire you to share it with your networks.
Here's their synopsis of the film:
Last Best Option A short documentary produced by Georgia State University students Kristy Breneman, T.J. Hicks, Victoria Temple, and Kristan Woolford in collaboration with the American Friends Service Committee's Student Career Alternatives Program (SCAP) and GSU's Peripheral Visions lab under the direction of Professor Niklas Vollmer.
Today marks a special occasion for AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP) for two different reasons. First, this was our first day of tabling this school year, second, this marks our fourth year working with students and faculty at Cross Keys High School! When I first started making monthly visits to the school today's current senors were freshmen. It's been really awesome to watch Cross Keys students grow up into adults while watching SCAP grow as a project as well.
Today was about reuniting with familiar smiling faces in the student body, as well as faculty. Each year we've been at Cross Keys we've escalated our presence on the campus, we're excited about what that's going to look like this year.
Today we decided to focus on promoting SCAP's new monthly events, which are youth planned and facilitated. This year every month SCAP will be hosting an event somewhere in Atlanta. We also promoted our migrant youth voice video workshop to students. The workshop is designed to give students a crash course in video production with hope that youth will record, edit, and share their own stories. Students get paid a $25. stipend to attend the five hour workshop.
We'll be back at Cross Keys next month and we can't wait!
Now that school's back in session students and parents have the SAT test back on their minds.
This year the SAT scores are more vital than they ever have been for students, especially those that don't have tons of money to cover college. Due to cuts in the HOPE scholarship students must now not only maintain a 3.7 GPA, they must score at least 1200 (combined verbal and math) on the SAT. SAT tutoring usually costs around $500. Youth through SCAP get it for free!
How do we provide this service? Well in a sense, you do it. Unpaid volunteers looking to step up for their communities provide this service, and we're always in need of folks that have a few hours to donate to this cause on Monday nights. Have you ever done tutoring for youth? Did you recently ace the SAT? Are you a teacher?
If you think you might be able to help us make this service continue to happen please contact Dell MacLean at delldot@gmail.com
Be The Change 2011 is this upcoming weekend! July 29-31 at the Horizons School. Please join us in helping to empower the next generation of community youth activists and leaders!
How can you get involved? If you're 13-24 years old, register here and take part in the awesome skill-building and action packed weekend!
Any age and want to volunteer or contribute in any way? Check out our volunteer needs page and sign up! Then, join us this Wednesday @ 9pm for our final planning meeting!
With the success of our first day facilitating field trips for CEO Kids summer camp, the group was anxiously awaiting our next meeting. We followed up with yet another day at Wonderroot Community Arts Center. The students were eager to check on their projects from the last Wonderroot visit and excited to see what other projects they could create.
On Friday at Wonderroot two of the volunteer staff were able to share with us the vision of Wonderroot of contributing to social change through art and also by providing a safe space for youth of their surrounding communities. This past Friday the students were taught how to make creative collages of things they felt passionately about. The collages ranged from themes of Justin Beiber to themes of the camp itself. Another new project they took on was patch making, where we saw similar themes to those that were in the collages. The students were excited to wear their patches proud!
The kids were also able to check in on their ceramics projects and were looking forward to coming back to Wonderroot on their own time to glaze their pieces. Finally, the most anticipated part of Friday was for the kids to get to listen to the final product of their 'Monkey Fist' track. It's definitely going to be a hit and will soon be up on the blog for others to have a listen!
CEO Kids is looking forward to SCAP further introducing them into the social justice world. We have a couple more field trips planned with the group that include serving food to the homeless with Food Not Bombs, and also a trip to the King Center! We're excited at every opportunity to reach youth, and even more excited that the youth we encounter want to continue to learn and be a part of SCAP!
During a career fair at Stephenson high school Student Career Alternatives Program was approached by an enthusiastic faculty member,Tonetta Collins, who was organizing a summer camp for youth age 10-13. It's the first time Tonetta has organized a summer camp and she wanted to reach out to for ideas.
SCAP ended up agreeing to facilitate six all day field trips designed to open up dialogues with youth about social justice, grassroots community organizing, civic engagement, and arts as a medium for positive social change. Yesterday was day one and we all had a blast. SCAP partnered with Wonderroot Community Art Center for not just one but two field trips. Yesterday youth learned their way around Wonderroot digital media lab, recording studio, and ceramics studio. One of the exciting collaberative projects we all worked on that day was the recording of a song. Youth came up with a song that was about the famed martial arts move, "Monkey Fist" which ended up being an analogy for hidden strength and self defense. We'll be putting out the song on this blog tomorrow evening!
Youth also learned how a community art center works, and how they can access all the resources Wonderroot offers young folks. Camp participants were treated to a delicious lunch in Wonderoots community garden provided by Homegrown restaurant.
It's an understatement that day one went well. All the youth were super excited about their day and it was clear that they eagerly await day two. We want to give an extra big shout out to wonderroot, and all the amazing staff that devoted their time to our kids.
This past Sunday Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP), a project of AFSC, hosted an event called "Food For Thought".
SCAP organizers spent all day cooking a delicious three course meal for attendees. The event was a fundraiser for SCAP's scholarship fund, and it was an opportunity to create important conversations about some of the issues SCAP focuses on.
After everyone loaded up on food we screened two short films, the first one was, "Last Best Option" which was produced by several really talented Georgia State Students. The film basically chronicled some of the work the SCAP does in Atlanta. We were really lucky to have all the film makers( Kristy Breneman, Kristen Woolford, Victoria Temple, and T.J. Hicks) present along with one of the youth featured in the film(Aisha Davis) for a Q&A after the screening. We all feel that, "Last Best Option" is a really great snap shot into what SCAP stands for, and more importantly what we actually do. Sometimes it's difficult to adequately give the skinny on how SCAP works, so it's really amazing to have this resource to share with folks in the future.
The second short film entitled, "Migrant Youth Voices" is on in a series of films designed to raise the voices of undocumented youth in Georgia. The short that was shown Sunday evening was a compilation of several interviews. The audience was treated to a Q&A with both of the courageous youth chronicled in the film. I can honestly say that there were few dry eyes after the short film was shown. I can't explain how truly inspiring it's been working everyone associated. Migrant Youth Voices is part of a national AFSC effort, here in Atlanta we've been watching what Oakland's been putting out with excitement.
We're really excited at the prospect of showing both of these films around the state or Georgia, feel free to contact me in you would like to set up a film screening at your school, church, community center, ect.
Big thanks to everyone that came out Sunday! We raised a lot of awareness and over $4oo.oo for SCAP's scholarship fund!
Tim Franzen American Friends Service Committee tfranzen@afsc.org
