Digital Self-Expression & Community Engagement
Three other Oakland-based groups that promote digital inclusion among their programs are the Women of Color Resource Center, Covenant House’s Cov Records, and the East Bay Asian Youth Center’s (EBAYC) Streetside Productions.
The Women of Color Resource Center (WCRC), founded in 1990, promotes the political, economic, social, and cultural well-being of women and girls of color in the United States. By integrating digital technologies in their programs on peace & solidarity, economic justice & human rights, popular education & leadership development, and research & social analysis, the WCRC promotes digital inclusion among its members and constituents.
Covenant House International “is the largest privately-funded agency in the Americas providing shelter and other services to homeless, runaway, and throwaway youth.” A project of Covenant House, Cov Records is a community-based music and video production center in Oakland. Through Cov Records, youth learn music production, sound engineering, video production, and promotional marketing skills. “Hundreds of youth artists come to the center to produce their solo-artist CDs, create music videos, and organize community arts shows.” In 2006, Cov Records organized Stop the Violence shows in Oakland in coalition with Art in Action and Silence the Violence. In addition to music videos, Cov Records youth have also created documentary films about youth rappers in Oakland. One of these films, Eyez of the Streetz, explores youth homelessness in the Bay Area.
The EBAYC Streetside Productions program trains juvenile offenders and at-risk youth in video production. Using digital technologies as a medium for self-expression and community engagement, often in the form of digital storytelling, the program empowers youth in critical self-reflection, investigating truth and knowledge, developing technical skills, and producing and distributing a self-directed product. Here’s a video of some of their work:
Look for these groups and more at the February 15 Oakland Digital Inclusion Summit!
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