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Silver Spring youth summit continues
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SILVER SPRING, Md. (Map, News) - A massive multimedia effort to engage Silver Spring teens in their community continues today.
What started as an observation by youth-centered organizations that junior high and high schoolers have become increasingly disengaged has morphed into an interactive project that community agents hope will become an agent for change.
According to Richard Jaeggi, director of local group the Gandhi Brigade, today’s event will include a screening of a participatory video a dozen youngsters developed about Silver Spring’s new downtown. But beyond the video showing, the youngsters will use the dialogue that goes on at the screening as the basis of a second video geared toward overcoming stereotypes between teenagers and adults.
The aspect that distinguishes the videos from documentaries is that the creators are telling their own stories rather than having a neutral, third party “pick and choose facts,” he said.
“Some of it is storytelling; some of it’s talking about what they’d like to see done in Silver Spring,” he said of the videos. “In Silver Spring there’s a big concern about gangs and their involvement with criminal activity. Those of us in youth-centered work look at the crime as being symptomatic of something else, alienation from the larger community. And we think the way to connect them is through multimedia projects like this.”
Ultimately, the goal is to take the taped footage and use it as a catalyst to develop more infrastructure around the Montgomery County city that is pleasing to youngsters.
For example, Jaeggi said the first participatory video focused on a turf area near the corners of Fenston Street and Ellsworth Drive that accidentally became a teen hangout.
“It’s a place that’s unprogrammed and free,” he said.
Now the hope is to add more locations specifically for teens, such as skate parks or designated teen clubs, two other ideas suggested in the video.
