Media Youth Power wants your help making a music video. Sign up by June 12.
This story is a collaboration between Manchester Proud and the Manchester Community Partnership group.
In a time when media is consumed by upsetting and difficult events, Media Power Youth doesn’t want the Manchester community to forget its success navigating a challenging time.
It is inviting students, educators, and staff at participating service agencies to help create a lip-sync music video to the song “Celebrate” by Mika. Participants will choose a phrase from the song to lip-sync or dance to. Media Power Youth will put all the clips together for a video it will share online.
The deadline to sign up is noon, June 12. Visit https://tinyurl.com/yasv5lmb. Participants will receive instructions on choosing a lyric after they sign up.
“There is so much happening in the news that is about difficult subjects,” said Heather Inyart, executive director of Media Power Youth. “I think it’s easy to lose sight of the good that is happening. We wanted to create something that was pretty simple and fun, something really positive.”
You can find the song’s lyrics at https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mika/celebrate.html.
This is one of a few ways Media Power Youth has partnered with Manchester schools and community members this year.
All Manchester students and staff are eligible. Participants and staff connected to the following local service providers are also eligible: Granite United Way, Granite YMCA, Manchester Police Athletic League, Roca Kidz Club, Boys and Girls Club of Manchester, SNHU Center for New Americans, Boy Scouts of America Daniel Webster Council, Manchester Community Music School, UNH STEM Discovery Lab, UpReach, Amoskeag Health, Media Power Youth, Girls Inc., City Year NH, Mental Health of Greater Manchester, and NH Legal Assistance.
Inyart said this project is the work of the Youth Enrichment Partnership, a community initiative funded by the Granite United Way and the Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation. The goal of the Youth Enrichment Partnership is to bring support services, enrichment opportunities, and life-skill programming to the youth of Manchester and meet them where they are. Right now, many students and staff of youth-serving organizations are using technology to communicate and connect with one another.
“We wanted to offer a vehicle to harness this positive energy and showcase the creative spirit of our youth in the city,” Inyart said.
Media Power Youth, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to teaching youth to consume and create media safely and responsibly, has collaborated with the Manchester School District this year on a new project aimed at teaching students digital literacy and citizenship. It released a new curriculum in the fall for 7th graders that included lessons on online conflict resolution, navigating social media responsibly and safely, and understanding how media influences substance abuse. Teachers have continued to have access to that curriculum during remote learning.
After the transition to remote learning, Media Youth Power also created new resources for teachers and students on the particular challenges of online education.
This initiative included a Facebook group for teachers to share remote learning resources and experiences – and to find support from peers. Teachers can still join that group by going to https://www.facebook.com/groups/mpyteacherscollab/.
For students, the initiative included lessons for students on digital etiquette and safety, such as choosing spaces for video conversations and identifying which objects to remove from their background to protect their privacy. Other lessons taught students how to cope with the stress of learning from home and being separated from friends and support networks.
For more information about the lip-sync video, email claire.garand@mediapoweryouth.org. For more information about Media Youth Power resources, visit mediayouthpower.org.