Student Creative Work and Advocacy Media Platform

Access to tech and creative industry employment

Central LA East LA South LA

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Progress has been made in diversifying the workforce in U.S. motion picture, streaming content, and gaming, research, including comprehensive studies by the Economic Policy Institute and McKinsey & Co., continues to show that women and minority groups remain distinctly underrepresented in the Film, Streaming, Broadcast, Gaming and other creative content creation industries. This is especially apparent in "behind the screen" vocations such as camera operation, post-production, sound design, mixing, lighting, and so many more.
In addition to conscious and unconscious bias in hiring, a significant factor contributing to this discrepancy is the relatively smaller pool of BIPOC talent trained in these fields. While acting, signing and other higher-profile career choices are more widely known due to their pervasive cultural presence, many young people in marginalized, underrepresented communities are not even aware that these careers exist, let alone realistic career choice options.

We propose to launch a Student-branded multimedia platform where our Creative Career Pathways students, and participants from partner community-based organizations such as Street Poets, LA Clips, and A Place Called Home can post their creative media advocacy content in a high-impact, engagingly designed platform. A platform for the collective of the community.
The majority of the content posted and hosted on the platform will be our own Creative Career Pathway (CCP) students. CCP programs consist of music technology, recording and production classes, videography and post production classes. Delivered using our state-of-the-art video and audio production technologies, these programs serve highly at-risk and system impacted youth ages 16-25. Foundational skills are developed then cultivated through a progression of increasingly specialized classes. The program is designed as an intentional pathway that will develop the skills and hands-on experience required in the creative economy.
The grant will support expansion of our CCP programs, as well as the services of a branding expert or firm, cutting-edge designers and back-end coders who will create the platform itself. All creative choices will be made by CCP students, who will work with the design team in building out the platform. Not only will students gain access to professional-level media production tools and technologies, they will gain insight and experience in visual design, marketing and branding

LA County will have a greater awareness its most marginalized voices. LA County will realize just how creative and talented its marginalized and underrepresented youth are. LA County will gain insight into the hopes, dreams, and powerful vision for the future, their future, these youth have. LA County will know its disadvantaged and "othered" youth in more complete, fully realized way. LA County will empathize with their frustrations, cheer their triumphs, and feel more connected to the whole of its population.
Historically underrepresented youth will have a platform from which to share who they are, a platform that projects the power of their voices, and reflects that their voices matter.