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Join the fight against Human Trafficking

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Last year, we joined the Long Beach GRIP city-wide campaign to participate in the fight against human trafficking. Over the course of last year, we worked with the Anti-Human Trafficking Club at Long Beach Poly, ran an advertising campaign on Long Beach Transit buses and helped put together events in Long Beach to educate the youth in Long Beach.

Most recently we worked with the Male Leadership Academy at Jordan PLUS High School in north Long Beach to put bring awareness to their peers. The idea was simple. Bring human trafficking advocates into the school during school hours and lead sessions in classrooms. The teachers would take a break and let a speaker take over for a period. We had a local presenters such as the City Prosecutor, representatives from the Los Angeles County Probation office, the Los Angeles District Attorney, Long Beach City Police Department, and even the Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, we had survivors and advocates against human trafficking bring their expertise to the table with Guido Hajenius from iEmphatize and Joshua Henry from A21 among them.

The video that you see above was shot by 4 Male Leadership Academy students who were trained prior to the event by Ben Candee. They conducted all the interviews and visited each classroom to gather the necessary footage.  Change Agent Productions simply put the video together to create a short marketing piece that we can show to influence others to join the fight. Even when we can’t use our own YMCA youth to create content, we find a way to include youth somehow.

This student-led event was a huge success and we hope that other schools in LBUSD will follow suit and invite us to run an event on their campus.

Human Trafficking Survivor and Advocate, Christine Cesa speaks of her experiences to students at Jordan PLUS.
Human Trafficking Survivor and Advocate, Christine Cesa speaks of her experiences to students at Jordan PLUS.

 

Male Academy Student Moala greets Troy Davis, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney outside of Jordan PLUS.
Male Academy Student Moala greets Troy Davis, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney outside of Jordan PLUS.

 

Student volunteers at Jordan PLUS put up a banner at the entrance to greet their guest speakers.
Student volunteers at Jordan PLUS put up a banner at the entrance to greet their guest speakers.

 

Markese Freeman from the Los Angeles County Probation Office keeps it real with the students and shows them how social and messaging apps can be tools for traffickers.
Markese Freeman from the Los Angeles County Probation Office keeps it real with the students and shows them how social and messaging apps can be tools for traffickers.

 

Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert is interviewed by Male Leadership Academy students for the highlight video.
Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert is interviewed by Male Leadership Academy students for the highlight video.

 

Human Trafficking Survivor and Advocate, Oree Freeman brought her style of teaching and awareness to a classroom at Jordan PLUS.
Human Trafficking Survivor and Advocate, Oree Freeman brought her style of teaching and awareness to a classroom at Jordan PLUS.

 

Jordan PLUS Principal Lew Kerns is interviewed by Male Leadership Academy youth during the event.
Jordan PLUS Principal Lew Kerns is interviewed by Male Leadership Academy youth during the event.

 

Male Leadership Academy youth pose for a group photo before the event kicked off on January 27th.
Male Leadership Academy youth pose for a group photo before the event kicked off on January 27th.

Bike For Kids

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Imagine being in the third grade and being told that you could win a bike just by writing an essay. I bet that you would write the best essay your little third grade mind could think of.

Suddenly you find yourself in the school auditorium with all the other third graders at the school. You’ve got your fingers crossed and you’re imagining yourself up on the stage accepting the winning bike. You’d thank your mom, your dad, your grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, neighbor, neighbor’s sister, cousin, the list goes on. You’d jump on the bike and ride it off the stage, burst through the doors and take on the world!

The anticipation is killing you

You’ve got your little fingers crossed muttering “please, please, please” as the essays are read and the names are being called. One by one, kids are going up to the stage and accepting their bikes as the winner of the best essay for their class.

They didn’t pick you.

Imagine the disappointment you’d feel. Now click play…

Bikes for kids is a collaboration project between the YMCA of Greater Long Beach, BIKEable Communities and Velo Allegro Cycling Club.

Expanded Learning Opportunities

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We are proud to announce that we have been selected to produce a video for the California Department of Education on Expanded Learning Opportunities. It will focus on after school programs across the state and the impact of aligning LEA goals with collaborative partner’s goals. Keeping students engaged and enhancing their learning capacity and expanding their view of the world is one of the key elements of running a successful after school program.

We have been traveling around the state interviewing people from Superintendents down to elementary kids to get their perspective on Expanded Learning Opportunities. We are so excited to be collaborating with our partners Communications Resources for Schools in producing this video.

We can’t wait until this video is finished!

For now, here’s a sneak peek at some of the raw program footage we’ve been shooting.

Boy putting on Tie Girl looking at Mural Girl Gardening Girl with Drill Press Boy with Trumpet

 

Families Uniting Families | Project: Fatherhood | JR’s Story

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Working in a building that has multiple tenants has its advantages. We love working with our neighbors and local partners as much as we can.

Jim from Families Uniting Families contacted us awhile back as he wanted us to create a film for him that showed the impact that his Project: Fatherhood program had on the lives of the men who joined.  We decided that focusing on one man’s journey was the surest way to get the point across. After about a month of prep and filming we had enough footage to tell JR’s story. We’re sure that you’ll agree that Project: Fatherhood has changed not only JR’s love but his son Anthony’s as well.

The International Youth Institute Summer Newsletter is Here!

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As we wrap up our 15th year of running the summer Youth Institute, we look forward to entering fall with fresh ideas and a growth mindset.

Old dogs can learn new tricks!

We added a few new components to our Youth Institute program while remaining true to our framework. Our alumni really stepped it up this year with their group films and even made a movie with Hollywood professionals under the tutelage of Mico Montes and Brett Walker.

Check out one of their films here.

Before we head into fall and back to school, take a look at our International Youth Institute Summer Newsletter to see what the YI in Long Beach and our partner sites accomplished this year.
2015 International YI Summer Newsletter Screenshot