Teens Make PSA on Unhealthy Relationships at Furness High School

For two months, the UCCP partnered with the United Communities Southeast Philadelphia to provide students participating in the Out of School Time program at Furness High School an opportunity to learn video production and create a video public service announcement on unhealthy teen dating.

Students in grades 9-12 met once a week with UCCP's V-Media facilitators Aaron Kennedy and Earla Joseph to learn the basics of film grammar and camera operation. In the course of the project, they wrote, storyboarded, shot and edited a short film called "Twisted Love," about a young girl who gets help after being abused by her boyfriend. In addition to editing the film, the students also designed the DVD menus and cover and created special features such as "Behind the Scenes" slideshows.

The film was screened for the OST students and staff on February 2, 2010.

The UCCP partners with organizations on a project-based basis to provide special opportunities, leadership training, and organizational capacity building around media, community partnership and youth leadership. Please contact Barbara Ferman at bferman [at] temple.edu to inquire about bringing a UCCP project based collaboration to your organization, school or community.

Using Media to Address Youth & Violence in Philadelphia

Encouraged by the positive feedback to and the dialogue-provoking power of Point Blank, a documentary about two recent gun shot victims created by our V-MEDIA members Aaron Kennedy and Earla Joseph, the UCCP has been using the film to start conversations with key stakeholders and the larger community around the culture of violence and its influence on Philadelphia youth.

Collaborating with Temple faculty, grad students, undergraduate interns and community leaders in the field, the UCCP hosted a screening of Point Blank and What's Your Story?, a PSA created by UCCP's POWER interns for the Temple community on October 29th, 2009. Dr. Sonja Peterson-Lewis moderated a panel of responders including Scott Charles, Trauma Outreach Coordinator at Temple Hospital and director of the Cradle-to-Grave program, Lieutenant Josey, a Philadelphia police officer actively involved in youth violence prevention, and Earl Joseph, a Temple Student, UCCP Leaders Corps member and a young Black male living in Philadelphia. The response from Temple students, community members and other faculty was overwhelming and the UCCP is planning to continue the conversation about this issue and its institutional and cultural causes and possible solutions with the Temple community.

In the meantime, we have been screening the film for a variety of selected groups , including a 7th and a 9th grade classes from Eastern University Academy Charter School, and a group of young men from Southwest and West Philadelphia. For requests to screen the film in your community, program or school, please contact Natalia Smirnov at nsmirnov (at) temple.edu.

We are very grateful to the Violence Discussion Group for contributing ideas, energy and creativity to this project : Dr. Jill Chonoody, Dr. Sonja Peterson-Lewis, Patricia Harner, Dr. Kay Harris, Nuala Cabral, Kathy Seizer, Courtney McNultey, Matt Gorman, Farhiya Tifow, Earla Joseph and Aaron Kennedy and other occasional and valued guests of the group.

Student Success Center Partnership

The UCCP is proud to share news of an exciting new partnership with the Philadelphia Youth Network’s Student Success Centers (SCC). Over the summer, members of the Leaders Corps worked closely with rising 9th graders at SCCs in Overbrook, University City and Ben Franklin High Schools on a curriculum designed to provide young people with a solid introduction to film production. Across the three schools, the Leaders Corps engaged a total of 45 young people in a range of interactive activities that engaged them in writing, planning, shooting, editing and critiquing their work. All of the students’ mini-projects were compiled to produce a culminating DVD comprised of 20 short film exercises that students proudly screened at their closing celebration, held at Temple on August 6th.