EVC youth producer, Raelene Holmes-Andrews, is a Media for Just Society Award winner in the youth media category! On behalf of her team, she will be accepting the award for the winning documentary Life Under Suspicion: Youth Perspectives on the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Policy.
Prior to attending the award ceremony scheduled for tomorrow evening at SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, CA, she shares her thoughts about producing the film and being a part of EVC’s documentary workshops through a blog post on the National Council Crime & Delinquency.
She writes, “I was the only student working towards a GED who wasn’t earning credit, but that didn’t stop me. I was able to learn about my own community in Harlem through a different point of view—a higher point, seeing as we met many New York City Council members and politicians throughout the process, including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; Glenn E. Martin, former vice president of the Fortune Society; and Public Advocate Letitia James, to name a few. I had never been interested in politics or using my voice to commit social change prior to joining EVC.”