marcwalsh-zz
commented
7 years ago Thanks for the submission! Unfortunately this session has not been selected as part of the program for 2016. Please expect an email from us with further information very soon.
[ ID ] 741f1a50-1626-4a1e-8e8c-47c5d7f3dea3
[ Submitter's Name ] Jennifer Steele [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Chicago Public Library [ Submitter's Twitter ] @_projectus
[ Space ] youth [ Secondary Space ] digital
[ Format ] hands-on
Description
PROject US wants to empower young creatives to maximize open source resources to support entrepreneurship & professional development in the creative workforce. We want to both synthesize and centralize resources and tools so that users don't have to go to multiple sites to maintain and share their digital portfolios, apply for employment opportunities and collaborate. PROject US has been very successful delivering in-person programming, but we are now exploring how to make our programming and resources more accessible via a technological tool, and we want to mitigate the challenges that young creatives, and those who are interested in employing them have due to the absence of a tool designed for the Creative Industries.
Agenda
This learning lab will be both a discussion and a workshop. PROject US, based on the SouthSide of Chicago, has been very successful attracting and engaging youth (ages 14 - 24) who develop professional and artistic skills through portfolio development. We attract professional partners who create "challenges" for students, which allows program participants to develop skills in a realistic environment while also earning tangible benefits (internships, showcasing opportunities and more). During this session, we will share some of the tools, resources and best practices for creating high-yield partnerships, while also crowd-sourcing how to translate the tools, resources and best practices into an online space, so that more youth can benefit from our innovative programming and more employers can have access to a more diverse talent pool.
Participants
More than volume, we are most interested in having session-participants representing a variety of industries. We plan to determine whether those in attendance are in the tech-sector, program-providers or private-sector. Our discussion will be interactive, where our facilitators will both share their experience and expertise, while also asking open-ended questions to encourage participants to share their expertise. From there, the room will be divided into small groups (comprises of individuals from different sectors), who will then create an intervention or idea to address our goal of translating our in-person program into an online community.
Outcome
(1) Participants will provide a framework for the development of an Online Community for Young Creatives that could serve as a global hub for professional development, portfolio development and sharing and employment in the Creative Industries.
(2) Participants will hear about tools, resources and best-practices for a youth-based Creative Workforce Development program.
(3) Participants will be invited to host PROject US Programming in their local communities, extending the relationship(s) beyond the conference.