110° After School Magazine Project
Tucson through the eyes of its low-income youth. Our award-winning after school magazine program.
Highlights From the 2005-2006 Year
From October 2005 through June 2006, the 110o Project mentored 21 low-income youth to tell their personal and community stories using the forms of :
• personal essays,
• interviews,
• feature stories, and
• photography.
Throughout the eight months of the program, youth worked :
• four days a week after school at the VOICES headquarters
• with adult mentors (staff and volunteer) who were
-experienced professionals in the documentary and media arts, AND
• with two youth-leader mentors who were
- experienced 110o program participants
- who acted as peer mentors, and
- assistant editors on the magazine.
The youth each got
• their own computer to use at the VOICES headquarters,
• access to all VOICES digital and single lens reflex cameras, and
• a bi-weekly stipend.
Project Overview
WHY is the 110° Project important to the community?
The 110° Project seeks to strengthen the cognitive, artistic, emotional, civic, and professional skills of local low-income youth.
The best national research tells us that young people who are consistently nurtured in these key youth development areas are much more likely to become healthy, emotionally-resilient adults who are economically independent and active in the community.
The goal of nurturing our teenagers to become caring and contributing adults is a goal we can all agree on.
WHAT do the youth do in the 110° Project for 8 months?
Throughout the eight months of the program, youth work intensively with their mentors on researching and shaping their stories for June 2007 publication in a magazine — 110 Degrees: Tucson’s Youth Tell Tucson’s Stories — published in The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s largest daily newspaper.
The youth each get their own computer and are paid a stipend based on the percentage of weekly goals they meet.
The program is set up to be a safe and nurturing environment. Adult staff provide cognitive, artistic, and professional mentoring but also serve as caring adults who are “there” for the youth emotionally. We have an informal referral partnership with Our Family when serious emotional and social issues come up with the youth.
Overall, the program is roughly segmented into the following macro-activities:
1) Training in research, interviewing, digital and SLR photography, and digital storytelling;
2) Pitching and outlining stories;
3) Researching stories in the field (library research, interviews, fieldwork, photo shoots, etc.);
4) Writing first drafts and critiquing initial photo shoots;
5) Rewriting and re-shooting photos;
6) More editorial feedback from mentors and Arizona Daily Star staff;
7) Final revisions;
Publication in The Arizona Daily Star;
9) Celebration at a magazine release party where youth read from their published work and exhibit their photos in large-scale digital presentation.
WHEN does the project take place?
From October 1, 2006 through June 8, 2007, The VOICES 110 Degrees After School Magazine Project will mentor 30 low-income teenagers (ages 14-21) to tell their personal and community stories using writing, digital photography, and digital media storytelling.
HOW many youth are served?
Thirty. This is a 50% increase over the last six years of the program. We are responding to overwhelming youth and parent/guardian demand. Over the past two fiscal years (since we were released from restrictive County recruiting rules), 120+ youth have applied for the program.
WHO are the key staff?
Rachel Villarreal, Project Director; Katie Johnson, Writing Director; and Josh Schachter, Photography Director. Prior to joining VOICES, Villarreal taught at the University of Arizona and volunteered as a writing mentor with the 110 Degrees program. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American History at the University of Arizona. Johnson has a master’s degree in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English from the University of Arizona and is a Ph.D. candidate in the same program. Schachter is an award-winning photojournalist and youth development community leader who founded the VOICES photography programs.
There are also eight volunteer mentors: five from graduate programs at the U of A and three from The Arizona Daily Star.
WHO are key community partners?
The Arizona Daily Star. The 110° youth stories take are excerpted throughout the year in the Arizona Daily Star as features, photo essays, and opinion pieces. Each June, the Star then publishes the full-length stories as a newspaper tabloid magazine entitled 110° — Tucson’s Youth Tell Tucson’s Stories. The Arizona Daily Star provides several writing and photography volunteer mentors, a volunteer Arizona Daily Star/110° liaison editor, and significant in-kind donations of design, copy editing, editing, printing, and distribution. Pima Community College/Downtown Campus. Youth who successfully complete the eight-month 110° program receive three degree-applicable credits from Pima Community College (PCC). 110° program activities carried out in collaboration with PCC include three in-depth “college knowledge” and financial aid workshops for 110° participants and their families during the program year. Additionally, through a unique pilot summer program that begins with PCC in the summer of 2007, past and present 110° youth participants will be able to take English 100 and 101 at the VOICES headquarters with VOICES 110° Writing Director, Katie Johnson. The course will be free for the 110° youth participants — scholarships are being underwritten by individual donors.
