The Ferguson Youth Initiative is piloting a youth storytelling workshop.

The Ferguson Youth Initiative (FYI), a 501(c)3 not for profit organization, was founded in 2010, to serve youth of the Ferguson community. FYI provides programs for youth ages 13-20 years old, of all races, to personal interact with each other and work on projects together such as painting murals, organizing street festivals with live bands, rock-climbing walls, and face painting, among others. There’s also an Earn-a-Bike program young people can learn maintenance and receive their own bicycle, helmet and lock, as well as FYI’s “Ferguson Community Service Program” which gives youth 16 years and older a chance to erase legal fines and misdemeanor charges by performing community service and undergoing mental health and substance abuse screenings.

Since FYI started, volunteers and organizers have worked diligently to engage youth and increase their involvement in community programs and activities. FYI worked with Ferguson City Staff to implement the Ferguson Youth Advisory Board as well as organize activities for youth. As a youth-serving organization, the Ferguson Youth Initiative (FYI) considers the safety and well-being of the youth in our programs a top priority, and we strive to put safety first with our programming and policies. Its organization prohibits bullying, abuse, or other violence and strives to pro-actively address reports of this type of conduct, even if it means someone will be embarrassed or upset.

While FYI has artistically driven efforts such as “Spot 394,” and the spoken-word word forum, “SLAM,” it lacks a robust, professionally focused visual storytelling and documentary program such as the one for which it is seeking funding from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation--the Ferguson Storytelling Workshop. The grant being sought from the foundation will be used to cover equipment expenses and contribute toward travel support for participants in the form of bus passes.

Designed in partnership with Jimmie Briggs and co-facilitated by St. Louis area photojournalists Carolina Hidalgo and Bradley Rayford, the program is visualized as a twice a year opportunity to occur concurrently during the academic year for Ferguson teenagers between the ages of 15-18 years old to learn fundamental skills of digital media. The work created will tell individual and shared narratives, as well as foster deeper social connection and dialogue in a community wracked by division since the 2014 killing of Michael Brown, Jr by a law enforcement officer.

As part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, young women and men in Ferguson are facing the same social challenges, and physical risks as thousands of their peers. Over the past five years in St. Louis, 15,000 victims were murdered, shot or robbed at gunpoint. Over 90% of St. Louis residents who were killed by guns were African-American, and two-thirds were under the age of 30. Further, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney reports there were 2,092 shootings in 2015 and half those involved were youth age 25 years, and under.

It is important to note this program is trauma-informed given the recurring incidents of abuse, community violence, and periodic homelessness which can be experienced young people in Ferguson. The workshop sessions will take place over ten consecutive Saturdays-save for spring break-between 10am through 3pm with continental breakfasts hot lunches, and bus passes. Field trips, guest lectures and regular assignments are included in the curriculum designed in collaboration with the FYI Youth Advisory board. Each engagement is constructed to emphasize the possibilities of documentary photography to capture the reality of the kids' surroundings in contrast to how they've been depicted in the inter/national media, but also as a healing outlet for harmful stress and damaging emotions. Critically there is an historical thread to the storytelling framework which the teens will learn and discuss running from turn-of-the-19th century icons such as Ida B Wells, Jacob Riis, and Lewis Hine through the Farm Security Administration’s documentation of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl to wars and social justice movements.

Participants will be selected through an application process open to all age-eligible youth in the community, and those who attend consistently will receive modest financial stipends. The culminating workshop session is an exhibition of the young people’s work and dialogue in a public space. Young people who attend all the sessions and exhibit their work for the Ferguson community will be given internship opportunities over the summer(s) with journalistic organizations including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Magazine, Riverfront Times, St. Louis American, and others.