Equity: Youth Advocating for Their Community

Stealing Home from Educational Video Center on Vimeo.

What is home? Through looking at the history of redlining in New York City, Educational Video Center Youth Producers explore the effects of gentrification on a rapidly changing Washington Heights community, and the resulting increases in housing costs across New York City. The film profiles EVC Youth Producer Raimundo Delacruz, as he navigates the changes in his home, while wrestling with the possibility that things may never be the same.

Life Under Suspicion: Youth Perspectives on the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Policy from Educational Video Center on Vimeo.

Congratulations to Educational Video Center (ECD), long-time grantee of the W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation. EVC student, Raelene Holmes-Andrews won the 2014 Media for A Just Society Award, presented by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), for her film “Life Under Suspicion: Youth Perspectives on NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy.” According to NCCD’s website “These awards are the only national recognition of media whose work furthers public understanding of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and child welfare issues.”

This is a great honor for EVC and for Raelene. About the process and her work with EVC, Holmes-Andrews writes “At the age of 17, I was introduced to the youth media organization Educational Video Center (EVC) through my advisor, Noah Golden. At EVC, we were approached by Manhattan Deputy Borough President Rosemonde Pierre-Louis to document, from a youth perspective, how the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy affects New Yorkers and their families. For me, I hadn’t known anything about filmmaking, let alone anything about the topic. So joining EVC’s documentary workshop was an eye opener for me.”

“Reviewing that footage was very touching. Not many people had positive experiences to share with us. Sadly, this problem of police brutality is getting worse with the recent deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. I hope our film can open people’s eyes to this problem, help us make a difference, and stop the violence.”

Growing up in Harlem, Raelene Holmes-Andrews dreamed of being in the film industry. At the EVC, she honed her skills, collaboratively producing three youth documentaries on the stop-and-frisk policy, environmental justice, and bullying. She is now a freshman majoring in new media technology at LaGuardia Community College in New York City. (NCCD website, October 2014) 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.