Youth Radio

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Youth Radio was founded in 1990 on the deeply held belief that underserved youth, ages 14-24 years old, have the creativity, technical skills and entrepreneurial spirit to become leaders in the multi-media industry and the community and to serve as mentors to other youth.

The heart of its pioneering efforts is to train young people from under-resourced public schools, community-based organizations, group homes and juvenile detention centers in broadcast journalism, media production and cutting-edge technology. Youth Radio offers professional development and technical skills training absolutely free of charge with the aim of preparing young people for pathways to meaningful careers. Youth Radio graduates leave with the soft and hard skills necessary to land jobs with employers from KCBS and KQED to the Port of Oakland and Google.

Each year Youth Radio introduces diverse groups of students to a broad spectrum of media-related careers and state-of-the-art technology. Its program goals are to strengthen basic life-skills, motivate them to graduate from high school and attend a two or four year university and prepare them for multi-media and other careers in the 21st Century Marketplace.

Youth Radio currently trains 1,300 youth each year to develop core competencies in audio, video, web and print and to produce the highest quality original media for the widest range of mainstream outlets. Its reporters are heard worldwide through radio, video and the Internet and through print media.

Seventeen years ago San Francisco’s KQED broadcast Youth Radio’s first two minute youth commentary. Today, more than 300 Youth Radio reports and commentaries are broadcast each year on National Public Radio programs such as All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on-line outlets like CNN.com and iTunes and on public radio stations across the country. An estimated 27 million people hear and read the often overlooked perspectives of young people through Youth Radio’s work each year.

Youth Radio has become nationally and internationally known as a cutting edge youth development and media organization, weaving the fast end of the ‘digital curve’ with best practices and innovation in community based education. Youth Radio has received prestigious awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

Series

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2 Pieces

The Peabody Award winning investigation into child prostitution in Oakland, CA.

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10 Pieces

Youth Radio participants share their personal experiences in a commentary on issues that are important to them.

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5 Pieces

Youth Radio's the Best of What's the New What? is a great end-of-year round roundup of the most interesting and provocative trends from 2008. The series includes five stories from Youth Radio's popular weekly NPR series "What's the New What?" This series asks what new trends in youth culture are replacing old trends. In short: What's the New What?


Pieces

Caption: A Maker's Quest 2.0 story
Youth Radio’s Arai Buendia talked to two HIV-positive youth – one 14 years old, the other 24 – and asked them how California's budget cuts will imp...

Bought by YouthCast and WMNF


  • Added: Aug 26, 2009
  • Length: 03:14
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Is it wrong to push the limits? Erin Bilir is a high school overachiever, and doesn't think so.

  • Added: Jul 15, 2009
  • Length: 01:51
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Jordan Monroe, a young father, says its time to redefine fatherhood in his family.

  • Added: Jul 15, 2009
  • Length: 02:19
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Young voices reflect on the late, great, King of Pop.

  • Added: Jul 15, 2009
  • Length: 02:39
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Like many public school systems, Oakland Unified School District was facing serious budget shortfalls when it devised a system to save more than 20...

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Jul 10, 2009
  • Length: 03:09
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Youth Radio’s Lauren Silverman considers herself lucky. At 20 years old, she’s too young to have a life savings or house to lose. So she’s using th...

  • Added: Jun 24, 2009
  • Length: 02:37
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Antony Jaureguí questions why he doesn't question energy use.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, YouthCast, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Jun 05, 2009
  • Length: 04:49
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Teen spending averages 125 billion dollars a year, but as Asha Richardson reports, 2009 is likely to be a different story.

Bought by WMNF, New Hampshire Public Radio, and KUOW


  • Added: Jun 05, 2009
  • Length: 01:58
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Youth Radio's Ahmina James is on a mission to make "being green" colorless.

Bought by KUFM - Montana Public Radio, Vocalo.org, New Hampshire Public Radio, and KXOT Public Radio


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 01:59
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Like a lot of high school seniors, Mayra Jimenez is weighing her options after graduation, and hoping to be college bound but not broke.

Bought by KVNF, New Hampshire Public Radio, and Michigan Radio Economy Special


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 02:42
  • Purchases: 3