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EVC invites you to #StoriesTakingAction, our Spring Virtual Benefit Event and Youth Film Premiere! The event will be hosted by EVC Alumni Raelene Holmes and Cirilo Ordonez. At the event, EVC will honor documentary filmmaker, producer and activist Abigail Disney, and EVC alum Maude Carroll. Abigail and Maude will join us live for the event! About Abigail E. Disney: Abigail advocates for real changes to the way capitalism operates in today’s world. She has worked for thirty years with programs for low-income families, women’s rights, and global poverty. She is an Emmy-Winning Documentary Filmmaker and co-founder of Fork Films, a nonfiction media production company, which produces the weekly podcast “All Ears,” where host Abigail Disney interviews bold, solutions-oriented thinkers from the front lines of America’s urgent inequality and race crises. She is also the Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, a new breed storytelling company focused on systemic change through creative excellence, balancing financial and social returns. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair and peaceful New York City. About Maude Carroll: Maude is an EVC alum of both the Youth Documentary Workshop and the Youth Organizers Television  programs. She now lives in Chicago, where she is the digital strategist for a non-profit human rights organization, American Constitution Society. “EVC changed my life. Learning about documentary film helped me to make sense of the issues I was facing as a young person growing up in the Bronx. EVC totally transformed me, and I know that they continue to shape young minds today.”–EVC Alum Maude Carroll About Raelene Holmes: About Cirilo Ordonez:

The Educational Video Center (www.evc.org) is seeking an exceptional Development and Communications Director to join our team at a time of strategic growth. EVC is an award-winning non-profit youth media arts and social justice organization dedicated to teaching documentary video as a means to develop the artistic, critical literacy, and career skills of young people, while nurturing their idealism and commitment to social change. The Development and Communications Directors’ primary focus will be proposal and report writing, prospecting and research of funding opportunities, cultivation of new and existing funding relationships, liaising with EVC’s program teams and other departments to understand needs and programming, and effectively and compellingly communicating EVC’s mission, programming, accomplishments, and needs to external audiences in both verbal and written form. Extensive grant writing experience is required; experience in marketing and public relations is a plus. Responsibilities The Development and Communications Director responsibilities include: Developing and implementing a comprehensive fundraising strategy to ensure that EVC’s revenue meets its annual funding objectives and broadens its donor base through: foundation and government grant writing, corporate giving, individual and major donor recruitment and retention, digital fundraising, and in-person and virtual events planning. GRANT WRITING AND REPORTING (75%) Write, review, and edit foundation, government and corporate grant proposals and reports, funder emails and other grant-related materials (one-pagers, information summaries, program briefs). Coordinate language development with ED and other staff, including development of new language as appropriate, as well as splicing, synthesizing, and expanding upon existing language, depending on the specific needs and aims of each piece of writing. Work closely with program staff to gather data, client stories and program news to prepare compelling narratives for funder audiences. Sift through information from disparate sources, and then identify and prioritize the key pieces, and synthesize and organize them into coherent narratives. Conduct prospect research on foundation, government and corporate funders and prepare briefing documents; attend pre-proposal conferences and other informational sessions. Develop and manage fundraising calendars of LOIs, proposals, and report deadlines. Help to cultivate relationships with new foundation and corporate funders in collaboration with ED including thank you calls, high stakes emails, periodic email updates, virtual tours, and other opportunities for funder engagement. Research trends in the field to support team learning, coordinate stewardship of existing foundation donors, and identify and strategize around new private funding sources to meet ambitious annual fundraising goals. INDIVIDUAL GIVING, MAJOR DONORS AND FUNDRAISING EVENTS (15%) Oversee individual and major donor engagement activities, including donor research, cultivation and stewardship; creating and launching campaigns; peer-to-peer fundraising; and identifying new opportunities in collaboration with ED and Board of Directors. Manage all aspects of donor-focused events. These events range from virtual events, annual Benefit in June, annual Winter Cocktail in January, to intimate cultivation events that occur throughout the year. SYSTEMS, PROCESSES, AND DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION (5%) Oversee fundraising operational systems including donation processing, tracking, and acknowledgement. Oversee maintenance of EVC’s donor database (Salesforce). Oversee maintenance of all department files, systems, and processes. Schedule, coordinate, and participate in external and internal meetings as requested. As needed, assist with volunteer, visibility, and employee engagement opportunities throughout the year. COMMUNICATIONS (5%) Develop communications strategies and calendars. Draft newsletter and e-blast texts. Draft all external communications including press releases, annual impact reports, promotional materials, website texts etc. Other responsibilities as assigned. Requirements CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor’s degree required. Three or more years of grant writing experience with a proven record of success; multi-year grants and six-figure grants experience preferred. Exceptional writer, storyteller, and communicator; ability to see “big picture,” think strategically, and translate strategy into goals and actions. Ability to manage multiple strategic writing projects and deadlines in a fast-paced, results-oriented work environment, while maintaining a very high bar for quality. Has an anti-racism and social justice lens, and an ability to talk fearlessly about race, class, gender, sexuality, migration, ability, and structural injustices. A passion for youth media and social justice, as well as a familiarity with current social, political, cultural, and economic issues. In depth awareness of the New York philanthropic community and youth development and education foundations nationally. Employee Benefits The position will be compensated at a full time rate with benefits in the range of $70,000 – $80,000 commensurate with experience, and will be supervised by EVC’s Executive Director. This position is eligible for vacation, sick days, and organizational holidays with health and dental insurance, commuter benefits, and more. How to Apply for this Job Please submit your resumé and a thoughtful cover letter detailing how your experiences match the responsibilities of the position to aqureshi@evc.org. Please include the title of the position in the subject line. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis and handled with confidentiality. As an organization EVC is committed to engaging in work that disrupts and roots out systems and structures that perpetuate racial inequities and oppression. We intentionally seek to build and maintain a diverse and talented team that reflects the backgrounds and experiences of our students and creates an inclusive environment for all employees. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, EVC encourages applications from all individuals regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, physical ability or any other legally protected basis.

The Educational Video Center wants to shoutout EVC Alum Norma Gottschalk for being featured in a Spectrum NY1 news story about Summer Youth Employment Program. Norma is a Youth Documentary Workshop alum who worked on the 2021 documentary, What’s Gender Got To Do With It? Excerpt: The 17-year-old is planning to be among the tens of thousands of young people that will take part in the summer youth program in a few months, relieved to get back to work after city officials took the program virtual last year because of the pandemic. “The opportunity that this program gave me of learning things, improved my English and also being in the professional field, it’s going to help me a lot when I go to college,” Gottschalk said. Click here to view the full the video and article.

The Educational Video Center is a non-profit youth media organization dedicated to teaching documentary video as a means to develop artistic, critical literacy, and career skills of young people, while nurturing their idealism and commitment to social change. On the occasion of #StoriesTakingAction, we are proud to present EVC’s new logo, which represents a continuation of EVC’s dedication to amplifying the voices of our youth through documentary film, to uplifting young people’s activism and their vision for a just and equitable future. EVC thanks Floyd Rappy and Studio Rappy for his partnership in creating this logo!

As a Communications and Events Planning intern, the day started at 10 am with the communications meeting, where we talked about the website revamp (worth checking out!) and anything pertaining to last July’s Docs & Dialogue: Ride to Nowhere and September’s Docs & Dialogue: New Visions. After brushing up on my (admittedly very shabby) Photoshop skills, I tended to do work for the D&Ds, including but not limited to: writing email blasts, researching related organizations, emailing said orgs, etc etc. I’ve worked in event production before and theater, so I felt very used to the buzz and frenzy that surrounds a show the closer it looms. But I always enjoy the time outside of the show where I get to sit with talented people and their talented creations. I saw this when students of the summer program displayed what they learned about different social issues in their videos. I also got that useful and optimistic feeling from sinking into EVC archives. I watched Ride to Nowhere (repeatedly), New Visions, Life in the G, The Queer Survival Guide, and parts of much more. If anyone ever gets the chance to watch super old EVC videos and see their connection to the present moment, I truly recommend it. As my final task, I ended up surfing Instagram and Twitter (already a win) for organizations similar to EVC and exploring the interesting ways they organized their accounts. I appreciated being asked to do that, in addition to reading grant proposals, because it made me believe I had a worthy, notable eye. And I especially appreciate Raino, Brandon, Raelene, Betsy, Ambreen, and everyone else who I didn’t meet (or met very briefly) at EVC for leaving me with a productive (and fun) experience. I hope that EVC can get more future interns, former alumni, and current students together when everyone’s in-person! Octavia Washington

EVC films are screening at a number of film festivals this fall! Catch these amazing documentaries at the following events: Cops Are(n’t) Colorblind is an official selection at the Bronx Social Justice Film Festival. The festival takes place October 22-25. Get tickets. The Ones Who Bought Bushwick is an official selection at the Bushwick Film Festival. The film will screen online on Friday, October 22. Get tickets. Finding Hope in a Lost Cause is an official selection at the ChangeFest film festival, based in Chicago, IL (with online screenings). The film will screen online on Sunday, October 24. Get tickets.

Greetings from EVC! We hope you enjoyed a summer full of creativity, exploration, and activism. We certainly did! We were super busy offering workshops for youth, educators and community members in neighborhoods here across New York City, as well as in Appalachia and East London. Here are the highlights. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS EVC’s PDP department had a jam packed schedule of programming this summer with week-long teacher institutes in New York City and in London, the launch of our We Are All Connected rural-urban youth media program supported by Mozilla Hive NYC Fund, and a youth filmmaking camp with Bronxworks Betances Community Center in the South Bronx. In addition, high school students and teachers from our “Youth Powered Change” project presented their action research curriculum and documentaries reporting on the problem of police brutality at the city-wide Transfer School Conference. Produced by students at HSEI and IDP in partnership with the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Readiness, these three films were also broadcast on MNN’s Youth Channel 4 and 5 in August and September. NY and Tennessee Students Cooling Off After A Hard Day’s Work at the Summer Media Camp We kicked off the “We Are All Connected” pilot program with a week-long summer camp in the Appalachian mountains of East Tennessee where four students from New York City lived and worked with four students from Tennessee to create a film and website on the local issues of opioid abuse and internet access. We will be celebrating the second phase of this project with a screening at EVC and Skype reunion with the Tennessee students on September 15th. As one EVC student said who has been writing letters to his new Tennessee friends since the summer camp, “I wish I could mail myself back to Tennessee!” The filmmaking camp at the Bronxworks Betances Community Center documented the beautification project at their neighboring St. Mary’s park and made a film about healthy food initiatives in the Bronx. Participants at our University of East London summer institute and the EVC site learned to incorporate social justice documentary production in their curriculum. The New York City teachers created “Divided We Stand”, an inquiry on the urgent topic of immigrant rights in the United States, while the London team produced “Regeneration: Building Whose Dream?” about gentrification and displacement in their local East London community. YOUTH DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP Youth Documentary Workshop Students Preparing for a Shoot EVC youth producers in this summer’s Youth Documentary Workshop program produced a fifteen-minute documentary profiling the Geriatric Career Development program (GCD). The EVC project was supported by the Pinkerton Foundation with youth stipends provided by DYCD Summer Youth Employment and 1199’s Workforce 2000 program. They learned “on the job” by interviewing the program director and shooting verite footage. Their final interview was with an alum of the GCD program, now a CNA, who spoke about the sacrifices he made in order to complete the rigorous program: “I missed a lot of family birthdays but I made up my mind—I wanted be a CNA. My aunt has cancer, my mother has a bad knee. Being a healthcare professional is the best way to be there for my family.” With only 2 weeks left to finish their project, the EVC team found it daunting to come to agreement on how to edit down over 10 hours of footage into a coherent fifteen minute documentary. When their film premiered on August 11th at the 1199 Headquarters, one EVC youth producer explained, “When we were editing, I was really inspired by the GCD students who we interviewed. Here are people my age taking college courses and becoming nurses. They didn’t give up even when the program got stressful. Editing the movie was really hard but I didn’t want to give up. I’m glad we kept at it; I’m really proud of the movie.” For applications to EVC’s fall semester Youth Doc Workshop. Contact Gil Feliciano Gfeliciano@EVC.org and Jessie Levandov Jlevandov@evc.org NEW MEDIA ARTS NMA Students at Their Summer Launch Party This summer’s New Media Arts (NMA) Program had much to celebrate during its launch party on August 10th. Over 60 students, interns and instructors proudly shared their youth-produced websites and remix videos on topics ranging from mass incarceration, to recycling, gentrification, educational equity, and teen pregnancy. With generous support from Digital Media Learning Fund in the New York Community Trust, we held summer workshops at EVC and 3 NYC Parks and Recreation Computer Resource Centers, in addition to a course on the campus of Bronx Community College through College Now. We are thrilled that18 EVC students earned early college credit through this new exciting partnership! During the launch party Q & A session, one of these students thanked her instructors telling them how valuable it was for her to practice college-level writing and conduct interviews with students, teachers, and parents for her project on education. “It prepared us for college because we had to write a personal essay and most students don’t get to do that until their senior year.” ExpandEd Schools made it possible for students from the our Spring NMA Workshop to gain important real world work experience this summer working as digital media teaching assistants at the five new media arts sites. We’re excited that a photo essay on the New Media Arts program is featured in the current issue of Youth Today which you can see here Youth Today OST Hub. Follow Us The Educational Video Center is a non-profit youth media organization dedicated to teaching documentary video as a means to develop the artistic, critical literacy, and career skills of young people, while nurturing their idealism and commitment to social change.

Which are the most essential promising practices drawn from EVC’s Documentary Workshop model that can be transferred and successfully applied in External Education Program school settings? How can these practices be made visible and measurable to support the monitoring and evaluation of program implementation as the program is brought to scale on a national basis?

EVC’s Executive Director Steve Goodman has been invited as one of 40 youth media leaders to participate in the 2009 Youth Media Summit funded by the McCormick Foundation. The Academy for Educational Development (AED) will convene this summit August 5-7 in Lake Forest, IL for the purpose of strategizing ways to better collaborate and maximize the impact of youth media.

EVC will also present a workshop on its method of teaching critical literacy at the NAMLE (National Association for Media Literacy Education) Conferencethis August in Detroit, MI titled “Bridging Literacies: Critical Connections in a Digital World.”

EVC submits It’s Not About Sex and Shame On You: That Can Be Reused! to the 3rd Annual City of Temecula Youth Media Arts Festival.