Community TV Network

23. Mar, 2010 1 Comment

Community Television Network

Community TV Network (CTVN) empowers low-income young adults and children in Chicago by engaging them in the creative and collaborative process of digital video production. Harnessing this dynamic process and the resulting media content, CTVN promotes positive youth and community development with the overall goal of raising the educational success and economic viability of the neighborhoods in which youth participants live and work. CTVN programs instill in youth the awareness, motivation, and tools they need to create positive futures for themselves and their neighborhoods.

Contact and Networking

Address:

2418 West Bloomingdale

Chicago, IL, 60647

URL:

http://ctvnetwork.org/Site/Home.html

Email:

info@ctvnetwork.org

Facebook:

http://chicagoyouthvoices.org/Community-Television-Network

Youtube:

http://youtube.com/user/hardcoverchicago

E-Donation Site:

https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=363100475

Getting involved:

Call 773.278.8500 and ask for Michael. Or email him at michael@ctvnetwork.org

About us

Populations:

CTVN serves communities where an average of 90% of students are low-income and 97% are minority. Youth who participate in CTVN programs come from every corner of the city, from Rogers Park in the north to Grand Crossing in the south to Austin in the west. By welcoming all Chicago youth ages 13 to 21, CTVN reaches the most at-risk Chicago young people, including drop-out youth, out-of-school youth, and youth living in communities with few positive opportunities.

Types of media:

CTVN focuses on engaging youth in digital video production. Youth use state-of-the-art cameras, audio recording gear, and non-linear video editing software, as well as music composition, motion graphics, and DVD authoring programs to create documentary, music video, narrative, P.S.A., and experimental work.

Literacy skills:

CTVN’s Model Curriculum in Digital Video Production is rooted in best practices in arts- and empowerment education, journalism, and civic engagement. The curriculum focuses on a variety of literacy skills, including research techniques, idea development (brainstorming, mapping, journaling, etc.), storyboarding, pitching, interviewing skills, scriptwriting, and journalistic writing. These skills are all taught in a hands-on, sequential, project-based environment where youth address real-world issues through creative expression.

Other outcomes:

CTVN youth programs are future-focused and emphasize the value of education. Youth participants in CTVN programs report that they “feel inspired to finish high school” (81%) and “feel inspired to go to college” (75%) as a result of our programs.

Primary accomplishments:

-CTVN was awarded the 2004 Coming Up Taller Award -Hard Cover was voted “Best Youth TV Program” in 2006 and 2008 by the Manhattan Neighborhood Network

Programs

Partners:

Alternative Schools Network

After School Matters

Chicago Public Schools

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

Youth Voices Network.

Kinds of programs:

school and after school settings. CTVN provides in-school media arts programming for more than 10 alternative schools, in which students receive credit toward graduation. CTVN also partners with After School Matters, providing schools with valuable media arts programs in an after-school setting.

Programs:

Hard Cover Open-Enrollment Program This drop-in program is open to all Chicago youth and focuses on reaching out to new, inexperienced youth. The program is open year-round in order to introduce youth to the “Hard Cover” philosophy and cultivate basic digital video production skills in preparation for more advanced work.

Hard Cover Apprenticeships Apprentices are hired to work as youth producers for “Hard Cover” as part of an After School Matters partnership. Like all “Hard Cover” programs, the apprenticeship incorporates CTVN’s Model Program Curriculum in Digital Video Production, in which youth create media messages addressing their lives and concerns. Successful completion of the apprenticeship program earns participants a stipend for their work.

Hard Cover Youth News for You This program stresses the fundamentals of journalistic practice, discusses issues in journalism such as First Amendment Rights, introduces youth to professional journalists.Youth participants will enhance their writing skills, develop keen investigative reporting skills, and produce several “Hard Cover News Crew” video segments for exhibition.

Hard Cover Summer Program The Summer Youth Employment Program will engage 30 youth ages 14-21 in an intensive six-week training session using CTVN’s Model Program Curriculum in Digital Video Production. Youth producers will meet for six hours per day, four days per week.

Hard Cover Youth Staff Throughout the program year, CTVN will employ ten youth staff who will be paid an hourly wage. These youth leaders will be responsible for designing each new episode of “Hard Cover” around a theme of their choice, creating related assignments for youth in CTVN satellite programs, setting deadlines for these assignments, and editing segments into half-hour shows.

Hard Cover Chicago Public School Partnerships The “Hard Cover” school partnership program will involve a group of high school youth who receive school credit while participating in the model curriculum during the school day. Participants meet three hours per week at the youth media center for 12-16 weeks.

CTVN runs a Hard Cover apprenticeship at Shurz High School, in partnership with After School Matters. Sixty youth participate in this program, which is held three days a week for two 10-week sessions in spring and fall and also in the summer.