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PushOuts (Drop Zone)

PushOuts is a youth-led multimedia project reporting why young people of color are failing to graduate from Philadelphia public schools. It resulted in a blog, a 27-minute documentary and a 50-minute special that has been shown on PhillyCAM, the city’s public-access station, several times since its launch on June 6, 2011. In addition, 100 DVD copies of the project were made for use by community groups for their own screenings.

The project trained young people in inter- viewing and documentary making and it garnered coverage on NBC and in the Philadelphia Sun.

 Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Awards -  Pushouts logoPhillyCAM took the lead, providing a base of operations, video production training and equipment and project administration. YESPhilly, which helps train high school dropouts, recruited the student participants, incorporated the project into its weekly curriculum, provided instructors, did the graphics and music for the project, organized the gallery exhibit and did PR support for the video release. Voice of Philadelphia provided the journalism instruction, edited the written works and provided training in best practices for journalism and research.

“YESPhilly plans to incorporate some of the learning into its ongoing curriculum.”

– Gretjen Clausing, Executive Director of PhillyCAM

The project came together in several forms. There is the blog, which YESPhilly plans to continue with future students The 27-minute documentary is a stand-alone work. The 50-minute special includes excerpts from a panel discussion recorded at the documentary’s May premiere and has been aired on PhillyCAM several times since June. There was also a gallery exhibit of art by YESPhilly students. The DVDs also contain post-project interviews with the students. Participants appeared on NBC 10’s live special for Education Nation on June 6, 2011.

 Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Awards -  pushouts - Jay-zPhillyCAM Executive Director Gretjen Clausing said the project exceeded expectations. “YESPhilly plans to incorporate some of the learning into its ongoing curriculum. Participating in this project also helped Voice of Philadelphia refine its mission going forward. It has decided to shift its emphasis from direct news publication to journalism training as a means of collaborating with different community organizations. PhillyCAM learned valuable lessons about working with young people not in a traditional school system and approaching video journalism projects,” she said.

“Most significant was the transformation of the six youths who went from unsure participants to fully engaged video journalists, proud of their work and wanting to represent their experience to a broader public. This project gave them confidence in their words and opinions and validated their experience.”

From one participant’s personal reflections

“Free Hand: Around this time there’s a point where I feel lonely. I want to talk about it but when I try I think the person will look at me differently. My counselor told me I was moving up in my classes but I also feel I’m not mak- ing progress. Then I’m in this situation where I need this job and I need school too and I know I’m not ready to take parts of the GED because I still need help…I just need to get pointed in the right direction.”

Clausing said there was not enough time to add a “print” segment to the blog and do all the video work at the same time. “Only one of the six students felt comfortable writing … If we were to do it again, it would be preferable to have two teams, one for video documentary and the other for written articles.”

Clausing called the budget ample for a “pilot.” But all the instructors and staff people from the partner organizations put in a significant amount of additional time that was not budgeted.

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