Pacific
News Service 
660 Market Street
Suite 210San
FranciscoCA94104-5011415-438-4755415-438-4935
Program: YO! (Youth Outlook)Year Started: 1991 Focus: Media Youth Served: 360 Ages: 15-21 Budget: N/A The Pacific News Service, a national print and electronic media news service, created YO! (Youth Outlook), an organization that provides a diverse constituency of young people with a medium through which to express their views. The organization produces a newspaper, YO! (Youth Outlook). Many of the youth working on YO! are from disadvantaged families; some are living on their own because of problems at home. Through weekly articles in the San Francisco Examiner and its own bimonthly newspaper, YO! participants give voice to the critical issues facing young people today. Youth new to the program meet with writers and editors from the Pacific News Service to develop story ideas based on their own life experiences. With a core group of teen staff writers and a larger group of freelance writers, youth meet weekly to determine the paper's content, make assignments and get updates on stories in progress. Writers are paid for their stories, and program participation includes lunches and workshops with working print and radio journalists, Freedom Forum representatives and peers in local high schools. A fiction workshop meets regularly, and fiction often is included in the newspaper. The newspaper, YO!, is distributed free in schools and youth centers. |