BioTU

Mission
Youth Media Institute is an organization that strives to empower youth to become powerful leaders and artists by using media technologies to transform images about their communities, cultures, and themselves.

In a society where media is monopolized and driven by profit, we believe in giving youth the skills and education to take action and create their own media- Media that addresses issues that effect them, that voice their stories, and that reflect their identities and cultures! We believe in using media and digital arts as a tool for self-expression, empowerment, and social change, where the youth are centered in the production and educational process.

Youth Media Now!

History
The Youth Media Institute is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2004 as a summer youth program in the White Center community just south of Seattle, Washington. YMI was founded by Sharon Maeda, who is a longtime community media and social justice activist. She was the first woman of color executive director of Pacifica Radio and she has spent the last 30 years intimately involved in the media justice movement. Sharon created YMI as a resource for youth in the White Center community.

White Center is a low-income community with one of the highest high school drop out rates in the county. These communities are majority immigrant families from over 40 different countries, speaking 56 different home languages. Many youth in the area were thrilled at the opportunity to be apart of YMI and to explore how community media can be used as a means of empowerment in their lives.

In 2004, the first summer program was held. YMI collaborated with Third World Majority, a media justice collective from the Bay Area, to create an intensive video workshop for youth. It was highly successful as many youth participants went on to attend community colleges and become organizers and leaders within the community. Since then, YMI has continued to offer our summer program in partnership with other community organizations such as New Start, a local alternative high school. Many youth from these early years of YMI are still connected with us today.

After the 2006 summer program, YMI expanded into a year round program that allowed youth to build on the skills that they learned from the summer to create media projects for community organizations and events.

In 2007, we have successfully completed another Youth Out Loud summer program. Currently, YMI is continuing to expand in its membership, programming, and values. We are striving to build a foundation that is youth led, so that young media makers can mobilize together to create a sustainable foundation for the future, and to create a collective voice in the name of media justice.