Nuf Said

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Teen reporter Natalia Yarbrough introduces “In the Hot Seat,” a column feature that spotlights experts on the frontline of issues facing teens. Guests are Roger Peden, director of employer services for Jobs for Youth, a program in Chicago that helps young adults ages 17-24 get jobs, and Melvin Buckley Jr., owner of McDonald’s restaurants in Richton Park and in South Chicago Heights. Read more…

NUF SAID youth analyze data collected from their peers

It’s no secret that youth are drawn to the social media technologies that have come to define their generation. It’s difficult to find a young person these days who doesn’t have at least one regularly-updated profile on any of a number of social networking sites.

But for a group of youth media makers in Chicago, using social media technologies has gone beyond the routine status update or IM session. These young artists and journalists have used the power and popularity of social networking sites to disseminate peer-to-peer surveys. The surveys, written by youth, for youth, ask young respondents to weigh in about the issues they care about most.

The project, called NUF SAID, is a program of the Chicago Youth Voices Network that engages youth from around the city through the collaborative efforts of ten Chicago-based youth media organizations. The NUF SAID crew has been working since January to create and circulate the online surveys, which have attracted over 850 respondents.

But the project doesn’t end there. The NUF SAID youth participants plan to use the data they collect from the surveys to inform their media creation this summer. As journalists and artists, they are trained to find out what their peers care about most and respond with thoughtful and compelling media. Using familiar social media technologies is just one more way for youth media makers to understand how young people are faring in their communities and then use the power of media to bring these stories to life.

Look for lots of original NUF SAID media coming this summer.

This PSA focuses on how teens feel about safety in their neighborhoods.

This article focuses on how teens feel about safety in their neighborhoods.

In this article written by Youth Journalist Manquaze Allen, he interviews youth from the Chicago Housing Authority development where he lives.  Manquaze asked youth a hypothetical question: if they had a conflict with another student in school, would they go to an authority figure? Read more…

Youth Journalist Trevor Hill uses data from the NUF SAID status survey to show how violent acts in school lead to violence in the community. He interviews community residents, from youth to the elderly, to get their reaction to the data NUF SAID collected doing the surveying process.

Youth Journalist Alisha Jacobs writes about recycling as a way to prevent pollution. She interviewed young people from her neighborhood and the Resource Center, a company that manages recycling in the Chicago Public Housing development where she lives.

In this article written by Youth Journalist Jasmine Hunt, she interviewed Alderman Pat Dowell of Chicago’s 3rd ward. Jasmine’s angle was to get an official’s point of view on pollution and what the city is doing or planning to do in the south side communities to prevent pollution.

Street-Level’s NUF SAID team created a comic book that illustrates how youth might respond to a conflict. The main character, Jaden, gets harassed by another youth and is forced to make a hard decision. The story is interactive and open-ended so the audience can decide their own conclusion to the conflict.