In February we launched our journalism initiative and gave a sneak peek of our first story at WYNC's Greene Space.
This spring we worked with
Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice to create
video profiling initiatives around the city working to increase public safety without the addition of more police. It was super interesting and inspiring to profile
community justice centers, violence interrupters, as well as experiments in using architecture, design, re-allocation of police resources.
In the fall we launched two junior crews who are going through our camera training academy:
We have one crew going in Union Square - building on the work of summer camps...
And a second crew recently launched through a new partnership with
Friends of Island Academy - an amazing organization working with young people who are formerly incarcerated on Rikers Island.
We're teaching a production bootcamp and prepping new journalism pieces about the closing of Rikers.
Perhaps most importantly, the senior crew and I went on our first (and hopefully annual) retreat, where we escaped the city for
some relaxation, reflection, and strategizing our path ahead. We realized that maintaining a healthy, grounded and unified crew is perhaps our most important project of all.
We'll end the year with a short piece that crew member Linda Ricard created as her "mission statement" film. Please don't forget to
donate. Happy Holidays and here's a to a 2019 full of peace, joy, and justice.