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Salesforce.com/foundation Community Technology Centers Recognized For Award-Winning Collaboration With KQED Youth Media Corps

Chinatown and Richmond Village Beacon Community Technology Centers Partner with Local Active Youth Groups and KQED to Bring Student Voice to the Media

June 2, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.- June 4, 2002 -- Salesforce.com/foundation, unleashing the potential of underserved youth through technology, today announced that two of the Community Technology Centers (CTCs) that it supports were recognized for their participation in an award-winning multimedia project by Bay Area youth. Two of the Foundation's 17 centers, the Chinatown and Richmond Village Beacon Centers, were recruited by the KQED Youth Media Corps for collaboration with the Community Educational Services (CES) and the Black Student Union from George Washington High School to complete a project aimed at enhancing youth voice in the media. KQED Youth Media Corps, in partnership with these local youth groups and the salesforce.com/foundation CTCs, received the Special Award for Community Service in the Secondary School Multimedia category at the 36th Annual California Student Media and Multimedia Festival, the nation's oldest student media festival.

Students' projects were judged in three areas: multimedia, collaboration and content. Judges, independently selected educators across California, evaluate entries on creative and effective uses of multimedia, strong representation of each team member in shaping a group effort and compelling content reflecting critical thinking and insight, and relevance to the audience. The KQED Youth Media Corps projects selected for the award are public websites on "Juvenile Justice: Discover the Missing Truths" and "Family Communication: It works" (www.kqed.org/youthmedia) and short videos broadcast on KQED Public Television 9. Over 7000 students and hundreds of schools across California competed for fewer than 100 awards. Winners were officially announced at the Festival held concurrently in Northern and Southern California on Saturday, June 1, 2002 at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills and Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

The Youth Media Corps division of KQED, the Bay Area Public Broadcasting Service, initiated the multimedia project and engaged the Chinatown and Richmond Village Beacon Center CTCs in an effort to collaborate with outside organizations. The Chinatown CTC, with strength in technology education and equipment, but lacking an activist youth group, appealed to students from the Community Educational Services, a non-profit Chinatown organization formed by activist youth to address the pressing need for academic support and employment services for neighborhood children (www.cessf.org). The Richmond Village Beacon CTC, facing the same problem, petitioned the Black Student Union from George Washington High School for their participation. The partnership between all of the groups brought these proactive, passionate and creative student groups together with hardware, software, and technology support at the centers and the support of the KQED Youth Media Corps to develop the students' skills in multimedia.

"The partnership between the Youth Media Corps and the Community Technology Centers was critical to the success of this project, " said Elizabeth Kanter, KQED Youth Media Corps Outreach Associate. "This was the first time we partnered with these youth groups, and the equipment and instructional support provided at the CTCs empowered the youth to communicate issues which are close to home and to make these campaigns really strong."

"I am excited and inspired by the progress of the Community Technology Centers," said Suzanne DiBianca, salesforce.com/foundation executive director. "It is a big deal for the centers to be recognized at such a prestigious event in such a short amount of time. Just eight months after the Foundation donated multi-media equipment to these labs, they have already put it to award-winning use!"

About the California Student Media and Multimedia Festival

Established over 35 years ago, it is the nation's oldest student media festival. It has celebrated the projects and learning through media of tens of thousands of students and thousands of schools over the years. It has awarded over $90,000 in the past 5 years directly to California schools. The Festival, open to students at all levels, strongly encourages project-based learning and meaningful student work in media and multimedia and exists to acknowledge and reward successful classroom work. The Festival believes that: students are capable of extremely high level work beginning at very early grades; media and multimedia are excellent tools for students; media and multimedia should be integrated into regular subject-area curricula; and rewarding good work and good school programs encourages more of both.

The Festival, sponsored by California School Library Association (CSLA), the professional organization of California's library media teachers and by Computer Using Educators (CUE), California's largest technology user group for educators, has encouraged and inspired similar awards programs locally, regionally and nationally.

About salesforce.com/foundation

Salesforce.com/foundation is building a new model for corporate community service while providing relevant access to technology for youth in underserved communities both domestically and abroad. The Foundation works with other foundations, youth development agencies, and NGOs to create a society in which children, regardless of socio-economic background, ethnicity or learning level, have access to technology and understand how to use it to enhance their lives.

Since July 2000, the Foundation has opened 17 Community Technology Centers in the San Francisco Bay Area, which serve thousands of youth and adults each year. At each Center, the Foundation, through its grants and ongoing hands-on support, builds on the Center's continued successes and strives to provide staff funding, program development, technical support, teacher training, curriculum development, best practices models through collaboration among the Centers, and strategy and sustainability planning. More information is available at http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/.

About KQED Youth Media Corps

KQED, the Bay Area's Public Broadcasting Service, initiated the formation of the Youth Media Corps in 1999. The Youth Media Corps strives to open the doors of communication and collaboration between media professionals and youth. Young people in the program develop media literacy skills to evaluate and respond to media leading to a more informed and empowered citizenry. By adding youth voices into the regular mix of mainstream media the KQED Youth Media Corps ensures accurate, relevant and fair representation of issues that affect youth and their communities.

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