Wide Angle Youth Media uses video, photography and design to engage with young people, teach them valuable skills and help them use their voices to foster social change. Baltimore Children & Youth Fund is proud to support Wide Angle’s vital work.
In the past year, Wide Angle served more than 400 young people – creating videos, doing design and shooting photographs. The programs have a bigger purpose.
“We’re really using media as the hook to support and connect with young people and teach foundational skills that are transferrable to a wide range of career paths down the line,” says Moira Fratantuono, development and communications director at Wide Angle. “We work as an organization to leverage our resources to amplify youth voices. Youth are one of the most underrepresented demographics in our city and country, and our youth have so much to say.”
Through educational programs and its social enterprise, Wide Angle Productions, Wide Angle’s team of young people provides services to a range of community organizations and clients, including in the past year: Black Women Build, Strong Schools Maryland and My Law. Wide Angle is now identifying new organizations to support with in-kind media assets through its Build Your Brand initiative and figuring out strategies to do the work during the public health crisis.
BCYF funding helped Wide Angle move away from paying its youth apprentices relatively small monthly stipends to paying minimum wage. “We felt that was a huge step toward equity. If we are going to train young people, they need a viable wage for this to be a viable option for them,” Fratantuono says.
Along with the grant funding, BCYF has provided technical assistance to Wide Angle and helped share its work.
“I do see that BCYF is really working to make a difference with our young people,” Fratantuono says.
