GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY – 100% of Ticket Sales go to Youth in Focus
Live at The Neptune – January 27 – 8 pm – $15
Tickets at STGPRESENTS.ORG or (877) 784-4849

See ya there!

Evening Magazine’s Saint Bryan interviews Youth in Focus in Youth Finding Meaning Through a Camera Lens. Please check it out here

Do you eat lunch and have $10? Join us in raising $2,000 (or more!) to support Youth in Focus’ healthy snack program.

On 10/10, make/take your lunch and donate the $10 you might have spent at a local deli or cafe to Youth in Focus. Then post a picture of your lunch to one of our social media pages:
Facebook: Facebook.com/YIFSeattle
Twitter: mention @YIF_Seattle and hashtag #YIF101010
Instagram: mention @youthinfocus and #YIF101010

Get a group going: Tell 10 of your friends to join you and together you can easily donate $110 with the money you all saved by taking your lunch on 10/10.

Click here to donate!

Here’s a link to the PDF of the flyer. Feel free to print it out and hang it anywhere your food-loving, lunch-eating coworkers and friends will see it> 101010Flyer

When Aurora first applied to Youth in Focus this past March, she was seven months pregnant. Despite our skepticism that she would return to complete the quarter after giving birth, her persistence and drive convinced us to offer her a spot in class – that in addition to much health and safety research, a doctor’s note, and an agreement to wear protective equipment in the darkroom.

Not only did she return to class the day after Jose was born, but she loved YIF so much that she opted to return this summer to take Intermediate Black & White. “When I took my first black & white photography class,” Aurora writes. “It was just because I needed it for school, but I fell in love with photography and want to go to college for photography. Now I know what I want to do with my life.”

Aurora’s photography provides a documentative and intimate glimpse into the complexities of her family life. In it, the viewer sees, through her eyes, a proud mother, a loving partner, and a dedicated sister and daughter. See her work at the Youth in Focus Gallery, on display now through mid-November.

Youth in Focus just wrapped up two great partner programs that ran this summer. The first was a Beginning Black & White photography class with the Meadowbrook Teen Life Center. Our other big partner program this summer was a Basic B&W Photography class with youth from the Yesler Terrace public housing community.

Meadowbrook is a Parks and Rec facility specifically catering to teens and tweens in the Lake City area. The Meadowbrook students attended classes at YIF on ten Friday afternoons from 12-4:30pm, getting the full black and white film photography experience. Unlike our regular core classes, this partner program included youth a bit younger than we typically serve and the youngest was 11 years old. The Meadowbrook students described their experience in the class as positive, with one student saying that the most important thing she learned in that “photography is a better way to express your feelings.”

Our two-week Yesler Terrace class ran as the first third of the 6-week Summer Youth Media Program wherein youth documented the diversity and history of their community, and the impact on them of the upcoming redevelopment project, which will demolish the 30 acre apartment complex and replace it with several high-rises.

The Summer Youth Media Program enrolled 13 youth from the Yesler community who researched the issues involved in the redevelopment. Youth interviewed and photographed city leaders, Housing Authority officials, longtime Yesler residents and local activists. In addition to gaining skills in media production and reporting, they were also schooled in civic engagement, and gained confidence in themselves as community leaders.

This program was designed and led by Seattle University Professor of Photography, Claire Garoutte. Youth in Focus was one of several partnering organizations along with Seattle University, PhotoCenter NW, Multimedia Resources and Training Institute, and Yesler Terrace Community Center. Garoutte hopes for the Summer Youth Media Program to continue documenting and reporting on the redevelopment each summer, as the construction will take years to complete.

We highly encourage you to see the students’ work and to join the conversation. In the Fall, Seattle University will exhibit all of the program’s materials in their Vachon Gallery.

We are extremely grateful to have provided photography classes and mentoring for all the youth in the above programs. It’s been a busy summer, and a very productive one! We look forward to seeing what comes from our partner programs in the upcoming year and sharing the good news with you.

Youth in Focus is extremely pleased to announce that Trina Gadsden has joined the organization as its new Executive Director.

Trina was most recently the Executive Director of Sister Schools, a Seattle-based organization that connects local school children with their peers at schools in Africa. She brings a wealth of nonprofit and corporate experience to her new role. Prior to joining Sister Schools, she served as the Director of Leadership Gifts for City Year Seattle/King County and a Senior Gift Planning Officer at The Seattle Foundation. Trina earned her Executive Master of Nonprofit Leadership degree from Seattle University and is an active professional photographer.

Trina commented, “Youth in Focus is an organization I’ve deeply admired ever since I worked with them in graduate school and realized the significant impact they have on our youth, and I am both honored and excited to serve the organization and its staff, volunteers and youth participants in this capacity.”

Kathryn Lewis, board president at Youth in Focus, expressed her enthusiasm on behalf of the board. “Trina shares our passion for helping youth develop confidence and expand their awareness and positive options in life through photography. As a professional photographer and experienced nonprofit leader, she knows how art and community can change lives. We are very pleased to have her on our team.”

Trina’s first day at Youth in Focus will be August 31. Welcome Trina!

Kat and Waylon (2nd & 3rd from left) with the other participating organizations and Seattle Works’ Chip In organizers.

Last night Youth in Focus was one of three non-profit organizations invited to participate in Seattle Works‘ new pilot fundraiser called Chip In! On from a beautiful rooftop terrace overlooking the Puget Sound, short pitches were given by Youth in Focus, Explorations in Math and Magnuson Nature Programs. Attendees bought poker chips for $5 apiece, to drop into the buckets for the non-profit organization of their choice.  It was a fast event, moving from pitches to final counts in about 30 minutes. Youth in Focus came out on top, with the high prize of the night — $360!

YIF was represented by Program Director Kat Vellos and supported by Waylon Hannon, one of our SeattleWorks Hands On Leadership volunteers. Our amazing Hands On Leadership team — Waylon, Shelley and Jordan — who joined us in January 2012, has been doing a fantastic job of taking YIF’s Traveling Shows exhibits far and wide into the Seattle community. This year they’ve hung shows in South Lake Union, Ballard and Columbia City, and we have additional shows scheduled for Fremont, Madison Park and Rainier Valley. The money raised at Chip In will go towards hosting opening receptions for future Traveling Shows, something we haven’t had the budget to do before, so we’re really grateful for the support. Thanks Seattle Works!

Ben and Alanna (above, center) with friends at the first Hello Poster Show to benefit Youth in Focus, held at Elliott Bay Books in 2011.

Last Spring we told you about our great new partnership with the Hello Poster Show, a non-profit poster exhibit that did a poster show/sale to raise money for Youth in Focus. Well, this Spring they did it again, and they recently donated $2,100 to YIF — proceeds from the recent Forces of Nature show at Cupcake Royale in Capitol Hill.

Aside from continually being wowed by the HPS’s style and finesse, we also have deep admiration for the heart they put into their art. The Hello Poster Show was started by UW grads Benjamin Shown and Alanna MacGowan. With HPS, they get graphic designers from all around the world to donate silkscreen poster designs on a certain theme — past themes include Forces of Nature, Lost and Found, and Hello/Goodbye. Then they sell the posters for $20 and give the money to charity. If you want to get one, a few posters are still for sale online.

We are so grateful for the love they have been showing YIF for the last year, and we hope to be buddies with them for a long time. They take a truly creative approach to volunteer fundraising and are amazing role models for what grassroots, artistic community support can look like.

The recent HPS donation will help us fund a new class happening this Fall Quarter. It will be offered in the Advanced Black & White Photography slot and will focus on teaching Holga/120mm, experimental and alternative processes, Lomography, and other analog photography methods.

Thanks Ben, Alanna and Hello Poster Show! Youth in Focus loves you.

Youth in Focus wants to win the Nurturing Creativity Award in the Seattle Met’s 2012 Light a Fire Awards, and we need your nominations to make that happen! The deadline is August 3.

Please nominate us! You can use the stats provided below to fill in the nomination page, which is located at https://sagacity.wufoo.com/forms/z7z8q9/

Here’s info you can use to answer the questions on the online nomination page:

Youth in Focus
www.youthinfocus.org
yif@youthinfocus.org
206-723-1479 (General office)

Number of employees: 3 FTE/PTE; 7 contract teaching artists
Annual Budget: $375,000

What is the organization’s mission?
The mission of Youth in Focus is to empower urban teens, through photography, to experience  their world in new ways and make positive choices for their lives.

Please give three specific, recent examples of the organization’s success within the context of this category. (200 of 200 words)
• Inclusion/continuation in the Raikes Foundation’s Youth Program Quality Initiative
• Youth who were formerly served by our organization have returned in leadership roles as mentors and photography teachers
• Five Youth in Focus students were recently nationally recognized in Spring 2012 Resolution Photography contest sponsored by the Joy of Giving Something

• On End-of-Quarter surveys, 90-100% of students report that in our classes:
- They felt a sense of belonging
- The class was comfortable/supportive
- They had a chance to show their talents and skills
- Their teacher listened to their ideas
- Their teacher pushed them to become a better photographer
- They learned to understand what is unique and valuable about art
- They learned to see beauty in or gain inspiration from commonplace things
- They were provided a safe place to take artistic risks
- They had a chance to express their ideas and feelings
- They had a chance to explore artistic interests

• Student Quotes:
“When life becomes the opposite of happiness, photographs are my escape in the way I express myself.” — Ella
“I feel that my art is an expression of what I am too afraid to say.” — Dominique

Please summarize the organization’s overall impact on society, quantifying this impact with figures and statistics.  (292 of 300 word limit):
• Serving ~300 youth annually; serving over 2,500 students since founding in 1994
• The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities recognized Youth in Focus as a model program in 2000 providing “life-changing activities” to youth with limited opportunities.
• Providing arts enrichment opportunities for youth in the city who would not otherwise have access. In 2011-2012, we served eight additional partner sites including Youth Care, Seattle Youth Employment Program, University District Youth Center, Friends of the Children, South Lake High School, Big Picture Middle/High Schools, Scriber Lake High School and Cleveland High School.
• Scoring higher than the national average in all four areas of the Youth Program Quality Assessment as determined by the Center for Youth Program Quality. Those four areas are Safe Environment, Supportive Environment, Peer Interaction and Youth Engagement; all YIF scores were in the 3-5 range of a 5-point scale.
• Garnering strong support from the local corporate community, being honored as a recently spotlighted charity by Whole Foods and Groupon Grassroots.
• Recognition from the City of Seattle, as recipients of their Youth Arts grants and Technology Matching Fund grants

• Student Quotes:
“My eyes turned into a lens and my heart turned to film. Everything I captured visually I kept in my heart. I never knew I could love something so much. ” — Aura
“Photography will help me open doors, not only for myself, but for my sister, my family and my community. I create art though photography, but photography has also helped create who I am.” — Andrea
“Photography has made me grow as a person. It had made me learn to not give up. Because if you don’t, the outcome is beautiful.” — Jordan

References:
Kat Vellos, katv[at]youthinfocus.org
Sam Smith, sams[at]youthinfocus.org
Laura Licona, laural[at]youthinfocus.org

Westlake Whole Foods’ Team Members voted Youth In Focus one of the beneficiaries of their Bag Refund Donation program! From 7/2 to 9/30 bring your own bag to Whole Foods and they will donate a 10¢ bag refund to Youth In Focus. At the checkout line, look for the YIF logo and our mission statement posted next to the credit card reader. And don’t forget to Bring Your Own Bag!