Adobe Youth Voices
What is Adobe Youth Voices?
Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) aims to empower youth in underserved communities around the globe with real-world experiences and 21st-century tools to communicate their ideas, exhibit their potential, and take action in their communities.
Overview
Launched in June 2006, Adobe Youth Voices is Adobe's global signature philanthropy program designed to provide youth in underserved communities with the critical skills they need to become active and engaged members of their communities and the world at large. Adobe has committed to providing financial, software, and global volunteer support amounting to more than US$10 million over five years.
With a focus on empowering youth, Adobe Youth Voices supports young people in and out of school and encourages the use of cutting-edge multimedia tools to communicate and share their ideas, demonstrate their potential, and take action where they live.
The Adobe Youth Voices network now includes 75 sites in 4 countries and over 100 educators in and out of the classroom empowering youth to create with purpose, producing a variety of media on topics important to them.
Adobe Youth Voices was launched with the help of a unique collaborative of leading youth media nonprofit organizations with strong track records and a common vision, including Educational Video Center; What Kids Can Do, Inc.; Listen Up! Youth Media Network; Arts Engine, Inc.; and iEARN.
A program with three guiding principles: Engage, enhance, exhibit
Engaging young people in exciting and meaningful new ways, Adobe Youth Voices provides an unparalleled opportunity for middle school and high school youth to communicate their concerns, aspirations, and vision. Young people who may have been feeling disengaged learn how to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively — all critically important skills that can help them attain a competitive edge in school, career, and life.
Enhancing educators' skills and resources, the program provides comprehensive professional development in teaching strategies that incorporate cutting-edge digital tools. Those who work with youth can learn new ways to encourage the use of 21st-century communications skills in telling stories that make a real impact.
Exhibiting participants' work is a key element of the Adobe Youth Voices program. The program provides youth with forums in which to share their vision and voice for a public purpose — via traveling art exhibits, film screenings, and festivals; on the Internet; in publications; and through other local and global venues.
Multilevel support to empower youth to create with purpose
The Adobe Youth Voices initiative includes two components:
Adobe Youth Voices sites engage talented educators of middle- and high-school-age youth — in both school and out-of-school programs — in a yearlong professional development and support program. Educators enhance their teaching strategies, gain new skills, and collaborate with like-minded educators and youth media experts to enable youth to express themselves using digital tools and to create media with a personally meaningful purpose.
Adobe Youth Voices grants support leading youth-focused programs and organizations — through a competitive grants process — to engage youth in breakthrough learning experiences using digital tools to express themselves and to create with purpose. Grantees develop a specific Adobe Youth Voices project and then make the completed youth-produced media available for widespread distribution by AYV.
