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Adobe Youth Voices is the Adobe Foundation’s global philanthropic initiative that empowers youth from underserved communities worldwide to comment on their world using multimedia and digital tools to communicate and share their ideas, demonstrate their potential, and take action in their communities.
The program’s goal is to empower young people, 13-18 years old, to create with purpose and to comment on their world by using multimedia and digital tools. Youth are expressing what they care about through documentary film-making, photography, print journalism, and radio diaries, Web communications and other media to underserved communities around the globe. The Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) global network now includes more than 158 sites, grantees, and organizations, in 31 countries engaging over 15,000 youth and 500 educators in schools and out of school programs.
What Kids Can Do (WKCD) WAS one of five founding partners with Adobe Youth Voices. In 2006-2007, we teamed with youth and educators in New York City, San Francisco and San Jose, Seattle, London, Delhi, and Bangalore to produce a rich array of multimedia and book projects. In 2007-2008, WKCD collaborated with youth in Beijing, Hungary, Prague (Czech Republic) and Beijing.
In 2008-2009 we produced a photo book of the best photographs taken by youth worldwide as part of the first two years of Adobe Youth Voices. We also sponsored an international photo competition and created a book made up of the winning photographs and artist statements. Finally, we produced a mini-curriculum for teachers that draws upon this rich image bank to teach students about seeing across cultures.
We have traveled far and wide since Prakash, a student at Government High School in the Cotton Pet neighborhood in Bangalore asked us, "How do you make the camera snap? I have never known a camera before."
Below we share final student products from our work with students in the United States.
“Side by Side” | San Francisco, CA
"Kids' Health Matters" | New York City, NYC
“SAT Bronx” | Bronx, NY
“Radio Diaries” | Seattle, WA`
“Aperture” | Seattle, WA
TO SEE OUR INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION OF AYV STUDENT WORK, CLICK HERE.
Side by Side | San Francisco, CA |
In cities around the world, globalization is producing contrasts at every turn: old versus new, Eastern versus Western, wealth versus poverty, local versus multinational. As part of a yearlong study on the impact of globalization, students at Build San Francisco Institute in San Francisco, California set out with digital cameras to capture these contrasts close up. Their audio slideshow and photo essays document how globalization shows up in daily life around them.
Sights and Sounds of San Francisco [3:37 min]
San Francisco Lives at a Time of Globalization [PDF, 872K]
Kids’ Health Matters | New York City, New York
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The poor nutritional habits of teens and their consequences have become headline news. But obesity and diabetes aren’t the only health threats facing kids. Asthma, often linked to air pollution, is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among kids under 15. Domestic violence remains a silent stalker. And for children living in areas with high housing density, low socioeconomic status, and no safe play environments, getting hit by a car is a real concern—the injury rate among Black children is almost twice that of white.
In this assignment, seventh graders at the Lang Youth Medical Program in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan created four 60-second public service announcements about these pressing health concerns. Their PSA’s combine photographs with audio that they composed, performed, and edited.
What Does Environmental Racism Smell Like? [2.8 MB]
Water Works [5.1 MB]
Let's Play Ball [4.5 MB]
Stop the Cycle [3.5 MB]
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In the 2006-2007 school year, fourteen students and two teachers at Bronx Leadership Academy II, a small public high school in New York City, launched a yearlong project to highlight their “insider knowledge” as urban youth—the ways they are “street smart” as well as “book smart.” Their inquiry, known as “SAT Bronx,” produced a book that the students wrote and designed themelves, published in 2008 by WKCD's Next Generation Press.
Flip through SAT Bronx: Do You Know What Bronx Kids Know? (Next Generation Press, 2008)
As the students created their own take on standardized tests, they shared new knowledge about who knows what, and why it matters. As part of the book’s development, WKCD produced audio clips of their discussions.
Who Says Who’s Smart | What's American | American Families
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Susan Stamberg of National Public Radio writes: "A microphone is a magic wand, waved against silence. A recorder preserves the stories that microphones catch. And radio casts the stories to a broad audience—bringing us together in special ways. We need more young voices, young stories in our lives. Make your microphone magical. Break our silence."
Journalism students at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle have taken up Stamberg’s challenge. They are recording audio diaries and interviews and presenting them on the local public radio station, KBCS.FM. Here we present their first radio story “collage," plus a collection of individual pieces on topics ranging from depression to drag racing.
Youth Voices: First Edition | Bus Behavior | Depression | The Draft | Drag Racing | Pay Discrepancies | Snowboarders | Teen Stereotypes
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On a Saturday in April 2007, young photographers who are part of Youth in Focus, a youth photography program in Seattle, set out to take creative images in the communities around them. Here’s what they found, from a set of old tires to a stand of red tulips.
Aperture : Part I | Aperture: Part II
