Kids In The Spotlight

Kids In The Spotlight (KITS) uniquely inspires opportunity and healing through art, offering hands-on filmmaking experiences, career exploration, and workforce development for youth impacted by foster care who face limited opportunities. This proposal supports our Production Studio with Purpose, which provides Hollywood-grade instruction, equipment, and production value. The studio serves as a social enterprise, enabling entertainment industry professionals to pay it forward while fostering a diverse talent pipeline in LA's creative economy.

Kids In The Spotlight (KITS) empowers L.A. foster youth to address and overcome trauma through the arts, telling their stories their way. Our Script-to-Screen programs culminate in the annual KITS Film Awards—think movie premiere meets the Oscars—where these opportunity youth are given celebrity treatment as they celebrate a year of learning, healing, and achievement. Prior to the awards portion of the evening, we screen the short films made that year, written by and starring our creative and talented youth, for an audience of 500+.

Founded by a Black woman in 2009, KITS empowers foster youth to heal from trauma through the arts. Now, KITS is launching a Production Studio for a Cause to change the current trajectory of youth in foster care by increasing career readiness, social capital & personal wellness. Operating as a social enterprise, KITS will use the tools & labor income of the entertainment industry to provide racial & economic equity to LA’s most underserved youth through workplace training in – & the artistic outlet of – filmmaking & other creative industries.