|
|
|
|
|
|
The Mirror Project was created to teach video production to inner-city youth in ways that would allow them to express and reveal the quality of their lives. Our mission is to see young people communicate with each other and the wider society through self-reflection and positive engagement with their families and communities. We encourage the students to produce videos based on everyday realities. Our aim is to help teens to discover and show what they themselves know rather than projecting our own adult preconceptions on them. In helping teens to give a voice to their own experience, and in presenting their creative self-expression to their community and elsewhere, our goals are the following: Growth and skills The development of communication and technical skills, creativity, self-esteem, and cultural pride are the outcomes we most strive to achieve among the project's participants. By providing participants with new skills and a profound sense of accomplishment, The Mirror Project aims to spur graduates in their development and achievement beyond the project. Family Involvement The 1995 Concluding Report of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development found that "the parent component is the key to long-term impact of youth programs." The Mirror Project Director and Assistant thus meet weekly with guardians in their homes (and often in their first language) to facilitate their support of their child's efforts. This involvement is often a first for mostly overworked, immigrant parents who are isolated from the institutions that shape their children's lives. Some guardians suffering from addiction or severe depression are completely unresponsive. In these cases, we involve siblings or other adults in the household and seek to refer guardians in crisis to services that can help - we are often the only program with access to the home to discover such problems. A Healthy Community The Mirror Project aims through art to integrate both youth (through diverse participants) and adults (parents through project involvement, community through screenings and workshops) across ethnic, gender and class lines. In the community, The Mirror Project seeks to forge greater understanding of the creative talent and daily experiences of the city's multicultural youth, thus helping to remove barriers to their future success. Mirror videos provide a window into different cultures, perspectives, and neighborhoods while often revealing shared concerns. Public Outreach and Distribution The Mirror Project goes beyond video production and beyond the borders of the neighborhood. Project participants conduct workshops on youth issues, racism, and media methods. Held at universities, museums, and conferences, these workshops teach media students and professionals and the general public about the misrepresentation of disadvantaged, minority youth in the mainstream media; present a forum for youth voices; and promote alternative, community-based media. These presentations also give the youth an early opportunity to develop confidence in their public speaking skills and to learn that they and their messages belong in academic and professional settings. Additionally, regional, national and international distribution of Mirror videos through video festivals, museums, and TV stations brings the ideas, concerns, creativity, and the example of the achievement of Mirror youth to thousands of other youths and adults. This extra step in the process of art education is critical to The Mirror Project's efforts to involve underrepresented populations in media and video. |