From homeless youths to PIX producers… they spent years living on the streets, now seven of New York City’s formerly homeless teens are trading their troubled pasts for public service with INVISIBLE: THE DIARIES OF NEW YORK’S HOMELESS YOUTH a 30-minute documentary to air on Saturday, October 10th at 10:30pm.
This TV special is the result of a partnership between CW/PIX and the Reciprocity Foundation. The Reciprocity Foundation, a not-for-profit organization known for innovative approaches in assisting homeless youth, helps students to turn their passions and talents into careers, which in turn enables them to break the cycle of poverty. At the Reciprocity Foundation, youth create films, music videos, fashion designs and other creative assignments with industry leaders who coach, train and mentor. Executive Director Taz Tagore said, “The CW/PIX partnership is the perfect example of how New York City leaders can help homeless youth to achieve their career goals and have a positive impact on the world.”
This special project included student collaboration with industry leader Chris Glorioso, an Emmy award winning PIX News Reporter. Reciprocity Foundation students undertook this project in order to highlight an often-ignored and somewhat taboo issue; the film documents personal experiences of youth homelessness as only formerly homeless teens could tell it. The show was co-written, co-produced, and partially shot by 7 of Reciprocity's formerly homeless teens themselves (Lysette Horne, Selassie Samuel, Eleet Lucheonnie, Aaron McBride, Dorian Paat, Bobby Beavers and Jennifer Carter).
Told mostly from a first person perspective, the program explores and demystifies some causes of youth homelessness: being orphaned, fleeing chronic physical and sexual abuse, or simply trying to escape overwhelming economic dilemmas. Each year, up to 2.8 million youth experience homelessness. INVISIBLE: THE DIARIES OF NEW YORK’S HOMELESS YOUTH examines the issues that perpetuate youth homelessness and details the Reciprocity Foundation’s unique formula for lifting kids out of crisis and into successful careers.
Reciprocity Foundation’s Managing Director Adam Bucko said, “Homeless youth can break the cycle of poverty, but only if you enable them to have a career goal that excites them and leverages their talents. In a very real way, working on this documentary has done just that for our students. They were homeless just months ago, but now they can honestly say they’ve produced a television show in the nation’s top media market.”
According to Lyssette Horne, one of the film’s co-producers who previously spent 2 years homeless, "When I teamed up with Chris, PIX and the Reciprocity Foundation, I started to realize my dream career was in media activism through documentary making. After helping write and produce “Invisible,” I know that I can make a difference with the stories and experiences I portray.”
INVISIBLE: THE DIARIES OF NEW YORK’S HOMELESS YOUTH airs on Saturday, October 10th at 10:30pm exclusively on CW/PIX.
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CASD-KENYA is a registered National Charitable Organization in Kenya, We attest to the fact that the process of empowering the poor and marginal sections is by these sections to express their own analysis and strategies to overcome their powerlessness and poverty
CASD is based on the believe that the process of empowering the poor and marginal sections, including differently-abled individuals needs adoption of participatory principles which provide space for these sections to express their own analysis and strategies to overcome their powerlessness and poverty. There is a role of development agencies in this regard, be it NGOs, CBOs, government or any other, which is for facilitation of such participatory processes of development. There is a need to build new institutions (NGOs, CBOs, etc.), and to nurture the existing organizations which practice participatory principles and best practices, to enhance the impact of participatory development processes. Influencing government, the biggest player in eradication of poverty, on adopting participatory principles for facilitating people centered development processes.
Our empowerment program seek to address the attitudes of communities towards development and the need for them to participate in it, since it had been noted that the community have for a long time depended on external expertise to solve their own problems.Visit us on www.casdkenya.co.cc Join us We need everyone
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