Share your voice! Voices offers free youth media workshop in Gonzales

It may be despised by our current president, and it may not be considered among the most lucrative profession, but let’s be honest: journalism is among the most fun and most rewarding careers around.

Journalists are the eyes and ears of their communities. If they’re tenacious and dedicated, they end up also being the thinkers, the change makers. And at times like these, we need all the thinkers and change makers we can get. We’re drowning in an ocean of information, but we often wonder if the information we get is reliable. One way to trust information is to trust the storytellers, and what better way to trust them than if they are members of our own community? If they are our very own youth?

From July 9-19, the Voices of Monterey Bay team will train up to 15 young people on what it takes to write or produce compelling journalistic pieces. These students will be asked to step out of their comfort zone and interview their local representatives and community organizers with the purpose of writing about important community issues. We’ll take this opportunity to discuss what other careers depend on good writing and storytelling abilities. Participants will be required to produce at least two high-quality journalistic pieces that will be then published on our Youth Voices section.

At Voices of Monterey Bay, we’re often being asked to write about this or that community program. To profile X or Y community organization. These professionals know their programs are worthy of recognition and could use being highlighted. And while we would like to be everywhere, our crew is spread out thin as it is. That’s another reason why it’s important for us to train young people, so they can become the storytellers the community demands.

We as humans are not born thinkers or change makers, we need training and practice. Our journalism workshop in Gonzales is a modest attempt to create a new crop of storytellers, young people interested in telling their own stories in their own communities.

For more information about the workshop and how to sign up, click here.

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About VOMB

Voices of Monterey Bay is a nonprofit online news source serving California's Central Coast.