REACH Youth Media Project goes to New Orleans

by Alphonso Ramirez
Woodland Coalition for Youth and KOLORS

Open Your Eyes: Teen Pregnancy. It started off as a project meant to help us with our already established teen group. Our goal was to simply create a well-organized documentary that would reveal and investigate a local issue and then use it as a tool to create awareness. We would have never thought that our documentary would reach such distance, especially anywhere beyond California … fortunately, we were wrong.

On Nov. 4 at midnight, bel Reyes from the UC Davis Center for Community School Partnerships and I boarded our plane that would take us to New Orleans, Louisiana. The next night, Lamar Heystek, the Woodland Coalition for Youth coordinator, and Kindra Montgomery-Block from UC Davis CCSP joined us. Our trip was to attend a national conference by the Coalition for Essential Schools called Changing Schools Changing Lives and to present the REACH Youth Media Project documentaries in the Youth Films Session. There, we showed two of our documentaries – Open Your Eyes: Teen Pregnancy by the Woodland Coalition for Youth (in partnership with KOLORS) and Lack of Role Models by the Sacramento ACT Meadowview Partnership. The focus of the session was to present ways in which students could use media to make a change and to also show leadership. We were asked questions about the process and people were impressed to hear that it was a youth-led, adult-supported project. Lamar and I talked about how the documentary has been useful in our ongoing efforts in Woodland, and several people asked for DVDs of the documentaries.

What better way to show leadership and achievement than in a place that has thrived and remained successful. New Orleans – or should I say N'Awlins – was truly an incredible experience! Everything about it was thrilling: the culture, the weather, the colors and the atmosphere. As we walked down the broken-down streets of the French Quarter, we came across beautiful buildings and art. No corner was silent; they were all filled with traditional jazz music. Not only was the atmosphere different, the food was absolutely unique! Blends of French cuisine and hot spices to create a meal consisting of jambalaya and beignets as dessert was a pleasant treat. New Orleans was an unforgettable experience that was not only enlightening, but also inspiring at every level!

Watch a video from the New Orleans trip and see all four REACH Youth Media Project documentaries.

Photo: On Canal Street are (left to right): Alphonso Ramirez, Lamar Heystek, bel Reyes and Kindra Montgomery-Block