Montana Students Amplify Their Voices Through New Journalism Grant – 94.9 KYSS FM

The sound of youth is getting louder in Montana. A generous grant is set to boost student journalism and empower the next generation.
UM News Service tells us that the announcement was recently made that the University of Montana received a $475,000 grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation to expand the Youth Voices Project, which began as an initiative to engage young people by teaching them to produce audio reporting about their communities. These projects, created in either semester-long classes in high schools or more intensive week-long summer camps, often air on public radio or in professionally produced podcasts. 
The award will increase the number of Youth Voices program partners, provide new professional credentials and improve opportunities for high school students in rural and Indigenous communities throughout Montana to create journalism. The grant also supports a series of trainings that will enable high school teachers to implement the program within their own schools. A new advisory board will ensure the program meets community needs.
Past Youth Voices projects have included Greenough students reporting the impacts of a bridge closure in their neighborhood, Poplar students documenting an annual buffalo hunt, and Heart Butte students documenting a solar project. 
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Youth Voice Project helps address Montana’s critical workforce development challenges by providing job expertise to high school students in rural and Indigenous communities. These programs provide teens with transferable skills and valuable experience that will propel them to success in any field they pursue.
Projects like these these projects will expand in number and offer students tangible professional credentials they can apply anywhere after the project.
Our congratulations to the University of Montana for helping enable young students, some in areas of Montana who that could really use a boost.
Find out more about this fascinating program by getting the full story here.
Gallery Credit: Ashley
Gallery Credit: Ashley

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