“The HL Effect”

"HL taught me I could be a better leader.  I can raise my voice. I can take charge. I can lead people." - Tamarra Henderson, 17

"I have the opportunity to tell a story. I have a voice and you can have a voice too." – Rosa Sanchez, 17

"I changed. Now I can talk to every person I see. I am not ashamed of myself. I go over there and say everything I need to say."

– Henry Guzman, 18

Mission

HarlemLIVE is an after school program that is empowering teens to become informed consumers and producers of high quality new media.  HarlemLIVE gives its students the hands on experience of producing a full-fledged student-run news website, along with the one-on-one mentoring partnerships with journalism professionals that teach the students everything from basic reporting and the use of new media, to news literacy and critical thinking skills.  As students work in the field conducting interviews and covering events, they are engaging with the community and becoming learned to current affairs, both local and international.  By providing students with a platform for disseminating content, HarlemLIVE is bolstering grassroots media, encouraging citizen media and helping to shape the next generation into agents of social change.  Students are developing the technological skills to maneuver and participate within this evolving field, and are simultaneously gaining exposure to the business of media via our regular site visits to prominent networks.  HarlemLIVE students leave our program with life-long mentoring relationships, a large alumni network of fellow young professionals, internship opportunities and an online media presence coupled with the skills to effectively participate in the news process.

HarlemLIVE serves at-risk inner city teens from all five boroughs of Manhattan and benefits local communities by exposing local issues, engaging youth in constructive activities outside of school, encouraging youth to stay in school and excel in school, and by employing programmatic staff from those low-income communities. HarlemLIVE students engage in events primarily within the Harlem Community and as they work in the field conducting interviews and covering events that they are passionate about, they are developing their own voices and becoming a part of the social justice movement by publicly breaking the glass ceiling.  HarlemLIVE is teaching students everything from basic journalism, new media, video editing and writing, to website content management, public speaking, critical thinking and research skills.  However, our teens also learn from real-life experiences like Interviewing Inez Dickens, covering Evelyn Cunningham's memorial service, attending anti-violence rallies, that youth outside of our program do not have access to.  Last December, HL joined forces with the 123^rd St. Youth Council, and offered its services to their at-risk, low-income youth from Manhattan and the Bronx and also with Urban Home Ownership, the donor of our in-kind space, by working with their recently homeless youth and providing resources including scholarship information, internship opportunities and resume writing guidance for high school and college applications.

In 2009, HarlemLIVE served 120 students, 30 of which are still participating in our programs in 2010. In 2009, HarlemLIVE served 59 students from the Manhattan/Harlem/Washington Heights area, 48 students from the Bronx, 7 from Brooklyn and 7 from Queens.  Students are primarily Black/African American youth (58%) and Hispanic/Latino youth (38%), with the remaining 5% consisting of Caucasian, Asian and others.  In the Summer of 2009, 99% of our students went on to college, with Charisma McDuffy being accepted to Howard University and Tammarra Henderson, our EIC, accepted every school applied to.  This year, 100% of our seniors have been accepted into various colleges and it is expected that all of them will attend.

The students who participate in HarlemLIVE may not become journalists ultimately, yet as an after school enrichment program, HL serves to close the gap between schooling and employment, and enables these “at risk” teens to grow out of a future of poverty and disenfranchisement.  HarlemLIVE serves to get teens off of the streets and reduces participation in gang violence and drug abuse by providing youth with a tenable and positive alternative. Since its inception, HL has primarily attracted at-risk teens whose future is jeopardized because of one or more of the following risk factors that include but are not limited to: minority status, immigration status, economic disenfranchisement, single-parent households, or having a parent with an alcohol/drug problem. The HL community becomes a home away from home, where in addition to working on the online and video news magazines, students develop strong peer relationships, can get assistance and advice on personal, employment and academic concerns from staff and Menteers.