McCormick Foundation Awards $50,000 Grant To Youth Media Los Angeles Collaborative

The McCormick Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Youth News Service L.A. Bureau to support the Youth Media Los Angeles Collaborative (YMLAC).

“We are excited and honored to receive this prestigious grant,” said Linda Bowen, project manager of the YMLAC and assistant professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge.

The YMLAC is a citywide group of youth media organizations and individuals dedicated to training young people in producing journalism across multimedia platforms. Initially, the collaborative will coordinate the various youth journalism and media programs and organizations throughout the greater Los Angeles region and create an online database of youth media and student journalism programs.

“The idea is to create a networking foundation and Web-based interactive resource that can bring these diverse groups and individuals together to help young people become and stay interested in journalism,” Bowen added. “Fostering civic engagement and news media literacy are critical project components.”

Ultimately, the collaborative will connect youth media producers and young journalists to a broad network of mentors – from university students, educators and professional journalists to non-profit agency trainers and members of advocacy and literacy organizations. Eventually, professionals and students could be geographically matched.

“McCormick-funded research shows that students who study journalism do better
academically,” said Clark Bell, McCormick Foundation Journalism Program director. “By
fostering collaboration among student media organizations, we can expand the network of
journalism opportunities for Los Angeles youth.”

The YMLAC is intended to serve as a model for organizations throughout the country seeking to improve the state of journalism by sharing resources, cultivating journalism skills and promoting First Amendment rights.

The McCormick Foundation’s Journalism Program invests in projects that enhance content, build news audiences and protect the rights of journalists. The Chicago-based Foundation believes nothing is more critical to the vitality of a democracy than a free, vigorous and diverse news media, providing citizens the information they need to make reasoned decisions. This mission furthers the Foundation's overall commitment to children, communities.

CONTACT:
Linda Bowen
Office: (818) 677-3238
Email: linda.s.bowen@csun.edu