Youth Voice Organizations Begin Coalition

Phil Costello, director of Youth Communication in Chicago, Illinois has organized a community newspaper for middle and high school students called “New Expressions.” The newspaper is published four times a year, every two months during the school year, and once over the summer, and has a circulation of 284 sites in Chicago with over 46,000 copies. But students who are drawn to writing, but are looking for something in a non-journalistic style can look to another innovation by Phil and Youth Communication. Phil, along with other educators in the Chicagoland area and other surrounding states, have formed the Coalition of Youth Media Partners, a group of youth voice community based organizations. “We’re trying to create some sense of idenity as to how this whole Chicago based youth voice works…Say they’re into poetry, and though this [New Expressions] was more of a creative writing program, and I’ve known about these organizations for years, but we developed a group that meets bi-monthly to create its own identity and a website and other synergistic services and say that we’re about youth voice,” said Phil.

Take a look at Youth Communication's website, and stay tuned for the Coalition of Youth Media’s website. We’re sure that it will be worth watching.

Jeffrey Guercio founded a summer institute in Irondequoit, New York around tenth graders, and some eleventh graders who struggled in English or Social Studies the previous year. The institute is committed to having students work on real, ongoing projects for the city of Irondequoit. Since beginning the institute, Jeffrey’s students have worked to develop a new bridge, build a walking trail along deserted train tracks, plan a town square from deserted and run down buildings, and even planning a central library. Here is a clip of one of the projects that appeared on local news: