Tara L. Conley, Teachers College, Columbia University (March 29, 2013)

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to speak about participatory design and fostering critical connections in our work with young people. Though the talk was meant as a brief audition for TEDxTeachersCollege next month, I was able to share some of the work I’ve been doing with young people involved in building a text line for court-involved youth in NYC.

As I continue to work with young people on the mobile initiative, I’m beginning to understand why it’s important for us, as educators, designers, researchers, and social entrepreneurs to involve young people in the work that we’re doing. Particularly if your mission is to actively support communities and young people, it’s important to involve motivated young leaders because, quite frankly, they know more than we do about what’s best for their neighborhoods, families, and local cohorts. It’s sounds simple enough but you’d be surprised at how much we end up not actively involving young people in work that is meant to support their growth.

In this brief 5-minute talk I outline some of the reasons why I believe that participating in collaborative working groups is an effective strategy for community building and social entrepreneurship. I also touch on the idea that the process of building and creating technology platforms with others may result in a kinship formation experience where we not only produce knowledge together but we do so in a way that can yield sustainable outcomes for surrounding communities.

A few key definitions and insights that inform my work thus far:

Participatory Design

“Participatory design is a hybrid experience where participants are neither user or developer but both simultaneously. Characteristics of PD experiences include ‘challenging assumptions, learning reciprocally, and creating new ideas, which emerge through negotiation and co-creation of identities, working languages, understandings, and relationships, and polyvocal (many-voiced) discussions across and through differences’” (Muller; 2002).

“‘Believing in the potential of everyone to design is more egalitarian than believing in exclusive talents and specialised roles. However, this is not the same as involving every potential user in every design project, or at all stages, or in the same way as the next person” (Light & Luckin, 2008).

It is not the hand that makes the designer, it’s the eye. Learning to design is learning to see . . .Our experience sharpens our eyes to certain perceptions and shapes what we expect to see, just as what we expect to see shapes our experience. Our reality is perspectival. Although we don’t perceive and sense things that a more experienced practitioner can, we can learn. (Reichenstein; 2013).

Transcript from my talk below.

Thank you.

I’d like to share a quote with you from author Margaret Wheatley, who received her doctorate in education from Harvard University. She wrote in 2006,

“Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections.  We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits.  Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change”

I recently received a Media Ideation Fellowship grant that will allow me to begin developing a text line for court-involved youth in New York City. The text line will support young people involved in foster care, juvenile justice, and criminal justice systems so that can use their cell phones to access educational, vocational, and intervention support resources.

I’m currently working directly with young people who serve on the text line youth advisory board to develop the mobile initiative.

For the TEDxTeachersCollege conference, I would like to talk about the significance of collaborative working groups between young people and social entrepreneurs, and the exponential impact this particular collaborative cohort has on the broader community.

I want to talk about how we can, as Margaret Wheatley amply describes, foster critical connections through our work and by way of democratic working processes, and through what Oliver Reichenstein articulates as an understanding that learning to design (in what ever form that may take for educators, scholars, and designers) means learning to see. Learning to see.

To that end, I want to discuss how we might envision and situate technology artifacts as points of entry where community building and kinships can emerge. And how we might re-conceptualize the process of building and incorporating technologies in learning spaces with members of communities we wish to serve.

While working with the youth advisory board over the past four weeks, I’m beginning to notice these sort of third space, or hybrid, themes come about, and I want to share these themes with the TC community as a way to inform our teaching, researching, and design practices.

Some of the themes I’ve noticed include:

• The idea that social entrepreneurship is fundamentally participatory
• That participatory design methods as defined by Mueller look more and more like kinship formations
• Also the idea that critical connections yield knowledge production that is local, specific, and sustainable
• And the idea that hybridization does not only apply to theory and practice but also applies to entrepreneurship and learning
• And finally, it is the notion that education is a concept we can actually define through democratic learning processes and, most importantly, through love.

Before I go, I want to share with you a story. I was walking home with one of the youth advisory board members recently. And she told me that when she first heard about the opportunity to be part of the development of the text line she knew she wanted to be involved. She told me that she thought the text line would be a great way for court-involved youth to access resources that were usually difficult to impossible to access. Then she said to me, “You know, when I first head that someone was developing a text line for court-involved youth, my first thought was, ‘Wow! Someone out there actually cares about fosters kids.’”

That was my ah-ha moment. That was when I realized why it’s so important for us to develop strategies and create spaces where we involved young people in our teaching, researching, and design methods.

Because young people are not statistics or bodies to fill up classrooms, residential facilities, or prisons. They are media makers. They are developers. They are designers. Young people, especially the one I work with, are possibilities personified. Thank you.

References

Fouche, R. (2013). “From Black Inventors to One Laptop Per Child: Exploring a Racial Politics of Technology” in Race after the Internet, L. Nakamura & P. A. Chow-White (EDs). (pp. 61-83)

Kensing, F. and J. Blomberg. (1998). Participatory Design: Issues and Concerns

Light, A., and Luckin, R. (2008). Designing for social justice: People, technology, and learning. Futurelab: http://archive.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/opening-education-reports/

Muller, M. J. Participatory design: The third space in HCI. In J. A. Jacko and A. Sears (Eds.), The Human Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 2002, 1051–1068.

Reinchenstein, O. (2013). Learning to see.

April 22, 2013 – Friday night, The Huffington Post debuted on its front page a striking graphic representing US deaths related to gun violence since the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2013. The moving graphic illustrates nearly real-time statistics of gun deaths across the country. Many of these gun related instances appear to be concentrated on the eastern part of the country (with the exception of California and Texas). It also appears that most gun violence is situated in densely populated areas. Congress has since failed to pass an assault weapons ban.

For some perspective, according to the Huff Post graphic there have been 2,244 deaths since the Sandy Hook shooting (98 days). There have been a total of 852 civilian deaths in Iraq since January 2013 and 2,537 civilian causalities in Afghanistan from 2009-2010.

Huffington Post states it’s methodology is based on “compiled news reports of gun-related homicides and accidental deaths in the U.S. since the massacre in Newtown, Conn. on the morning of Dec. 14.”

This is perhaps an example of digital media journalism at its finest. The use of interactive mapping, data visualization, and infographics are becoming increasingly popular means of documenting and showing information. As gun-related violence continues to infiltrate cities and neighborhoods across this country, the use of media here seems like the most appropriate means of providing the public with necessary information while raising awareness.

A question we’re most concerned with here at MEDIA MAKE CHANGE is what do we do with this visual information? Related to this question concerns, how can media, in this instance, work to inform and evoke necessary action to change the current epidemic in this country related to gun violence? What calls-to-action might we engage so this graphic doesn’t simply collect virtual dust?

A good place to start would be to contact your local congress person (senator and HOR) and, as professor Sarah Jackson suggested, email the graphic directly to your representative.

Kudos to Huffington Post for using media to spread information and evoke awareness. Here’s hoping we can use this online media artifact to change the course of gun violence spread across our neighborhoods offline.

I’m so pleased to announced that I’ve been named as one of the 2013 Media Ideation Fellows! I, along with Kristy Tillman, Charles DeTar, and Yongjun Heo are among the very first class of fellows supported by the Media Ideation Fellowship, a Voqal initiative.

Several months ago, I asked for your nomination for the fellowship and many of you came through with support. For that, I thank you. I’m humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude, especially knowing that my work will be supported financially and by way of professional mentorship. Through the generous support of the Media Ideation Fund, I will be able to begin developing a text line for court-involved youth in New York City.

The Text Line for Court-Involved (CI) Youth [official name TBD] will provide anonymous means for young people who are tethered to foster care, juvenile justice, and criminal justice systems in New York City to access resources and seek support beyond the institutions to which they are bound.

Eventually, users of the text line will be able to:

• Access available tutoring services and job listings in their neighborhoods.
• Access family planning and mental health services.
• Connect immediately to crisis and emergency response hotlines.
• Set up reminders for court dates and other appointments.
• Receive automated information about Know Your Rights (ACLU) and tips/suggestions about how to talk to lawyers and caseworkers.

There is a tremendous amount of work ahead and the fellowship marks only the beginning of further development that will need to be completed to ensure that young people involved in foster care and juvenile justice systems receive the support and resources they need and deserve.

So far this month I’ve been meeting (and hanging out!) with several young people who are serving as youth advisory board members. Their insights, stories, and perspectives will inform the purpose and uses of the line. The youth advisory board members will be making their public debut on MEDIA MAKE CHANGE very soon, so stick around and prepare to be touched and inspired by the work these incredible young people are doing. I can’t wait for you to meet them!

I’ll continue to keep MMC readers updated on new developments within the next few months. In addition to a beta launch of the text line, we will also be launching an official Facebook group page that will begin connecting agencies, organizations, resources, and CI youth online and via social media.

Finally, I invite those who will be in the NYC area on March 29th, 2013 to come support me as I audition for TEDxTeachersCollege. I’ll be giving a brief pitch on a proposed TED talk about participatory design and how mobile technology can enable members of transient and displaced groups to build stronger connections and networked communities across contexts. It’ll be like American Idol for nerds! You can register for the conference by going to TEDxTeachersCollege.com

With that, I leave you with an excerpt about critical connections that has stayed with me since I began this work. The quote comes from Margaret Wheatley.

Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections.  We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits.  Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change (2006).

If you are a mobile strategist, funder, or developer and interested in learning more about the text line, please email me directly at tara [at] mediamakechange [dot] org.

It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news about the passing of Joshua C. Watson. Josh was an inaugural fellow of the 2012 Community Producers Program that MEDIA MAKE CHANGE co-authored with the Beyond the Bricks Project. He was known as one of the most brightest fellows in his Atlanta cohort. Josh is shown in the video below speaking proudly about his work and his hopes for the future. We learned yesterday that Josh was victim of an apparent robbery while walking home from work. He was murdered on Christmas Eve.

From the Beyond the Bricks producers, Derek Koen and Ouida Washington:

18 year old Joshua C. Watson, one of the young men that graduated this past June from the first cohort of Beyond The Bricks Community Producers Program, was murdered in Atlanta, GA December 24, 2012, robbed on his way home from work. I had the pleasure of meeting Josh in person once, I spoke with him a few times over Skype and we awarded him with a certificate for his dedication to the program. The entire BTBP team was horrified to hear the news that yet another young person with so much promise and potential was taken away forever. Josh was the result of hard work, sacrifice and love by a community of people; evident by the way he presented himself to the world. We here at Beyond The Bricks Project struggle to make the message clear, we ALL have a role and duty to give ALL our children brighter futures and the chance to live their life the best way possible. Senseless violence that we see almost daily in news headlines, in our communities and in our schools is destroying this country. In the life of Josh, lest we forget that too much has already been lost.

If the person who took Joshua from this earth can some how come across this message, I would like you to know that this is not acceptable you deserve to be punished and you are redeemable.  To you all, we would like to introduce you to Joshua C. Watson.

We share the sentiments expressed by the BTBP team. The news of Josh’s death only strengthens our desire to ensure the work that we do at MEDIA MAKE CHANGE benefits young people like Joshua Watson. He was an inspiration, shining light, and a gift to us all. We would like to send condolences to the Watson family and express our deepest sympathies to anyone who had the pleasure of befriending Joshua during his short eighteen years on earth.

You can pay tribute to Josh’s memory on RIP Joshua C. Watson Facebeook page made in his honor.

I’m pretty active on the Internet. I’m especially active on my facebook page, ImmaTeen. All my admins on ImmaTeen have been actively using this page for fun, games, and anti-bullying awareness.

So today, I asked my fans on ImmaTeen if they can post some of their bullying stories, and they agreed to! Here’s one story below.

“I was getting bullied in 7th grade because I liked a boy who a girl liked. She never would leave me alone. Her friends would start and they would message me saying I’m a slut I’m fat and ugly no ones wants to be with or around me. After awhile I started to believe them so I started drugs, then burning my self. One night I took a full [bottle] of sleeping pills the ambulance had to revive me. I’m now not doing drugs or bullied and I’m not harming myself things get better. Trust me”

- Katlynn

It makes me sad to think that this happens to kids and teens all around the world. Just hearing some of these stories give me chills down my spine. It’s not something that needs to happen to people. Most reason kids bully each other, especially over the Internet, is because they were hurt themselves. They had gotten bullied or abused at home. They can’t take away the pain and suffering so they bully someone.

I made this video a while ago and posted it for all the ImmaTeen fans to see, Its called “Stop The Tears and End The Fears”. It’s a video featuring people who had been victimized by bullies. Some of these kids and teens have been so close to committing suicide because of these people. The main way I have chosen to help these teens is by using the Internet.

This is why I want to start a program at my school to stop cyber, verbal, and physical bullying. Today is the day you can help someone who’s been bullied. This is your time to make a change.

Media Speaks! So use it!

Also, check out this page: Stop The Tears and End The Fear! Its a great page and they’re very helpful on there!

-Zoë, Youth Correspondant/contributing writer

Have you been bullied? Share your story with Zoë at Media Speak! or on ImmaTeen Facebook page.

Image source

Andy Kopsa is a freelance journalist who currently resides in New York City. She (yes she) is the creator of the much-talked about Tumblr From NOLA to NYC, which appeared the week after hurricane Sandy. When I came across Kopsa’s Tumblr page via Twitter I immediately wanted to reach out and get to know more about her work. Like Kopsa, I too have a connection to both NOLA and NYC. Though I never lived in NOLA, I was a volunteer during hurricane Katrina while living in Houston, Texas. Over the last several years I’ve collaborated with Katrina survivors on media and research projects. Hurricane Katrina undoubtedly changed my life and fueled my ambitions to be a better storyteller and advocate.

Having recently experienced hurricane Sandy as a resident of New York City and as an Occupy Sandy volunteer, I’ve found myself reflecting on the similarities and differences between hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. I’m beginning to think hurricanes follow me, or perhaps I follow them.

Nonetheless, I’m fascinated by the power of the human spirit to act as a healing mechanism after (un)natural disasters. I’m also incredibly drawn to the ways in which ordinary people, those directly and indirectly affected by natural disaster use social media to create what I call nurture-networks; that is, online/offline support networks cultivated in response to crisis.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Kopsa about NOLA to NYC Tumblr. In addition to discussing her project, she also told me about how disappointed she is with media outlets using images from NOLA to NYC Tumblr without permission. She also talked about being frustrated by various media outlets referring to her as a “he”. Kopsa also shares with me how she feels about NOLA seven years after Katrina. In the passages below, you’ll learn more about Kopsa, the woman behind the NOLA to NYC Tumblr, and about her plans to continue to support the two cities she calls home; New Orleans and New York City.

TLC: It seems like we share similar experiences having both been affected by hurricane Katrina and hurricane Sandy. What interests you most to the stories of those affected by the hurricanes?  

AK: I don’t think it is hurricanes per se.  For me, this project was about two of the places I have called home:  New Orleans and New York City.  Having a deep connection with New Orleans, and with New York it only made sense . I had to do something.  I am an investigative reporter who went to photo school so these things just happen with that kind of history!

TLC: You wrote in the “About” section of NOLA to NYC that during Sandy you were in NOLA, and while thinking about your family back in NYC, you thought to create NOLA to NYC via Tumblr. What made you think to use social media like Tumblr as an outlet and as means to connect two geographically separate communities?  

AK: Truthfully, because it was easy.  I had a Tumblr account for another project in the works featuring women journalists from rural america who moved to the “big city” and it was simple to add another page.  I know, not a very sexy answer but the truth.  On the road, it is hard at times to get up and run on a blog, new website, etc.  Pitching stories on the fly is difficult for me. Tumblr afforded some serious ease since I was consumed with shooting, reporting, and watching The Weather Channel.

TLC: At what point did you realize NOLA to NYC was beginning to pick up viral steam on the Internet?

AK: A friend tweeted a Salon story featuring the project.  But, I do publish in a wide variety of places and know writers at Salon so I wasn’t completely surprised. It didn’t seem like a big deal initially.  It is when media requests started pouring in from places like NBC Nightly News and other outlets that I was taken aback.

TLC: What insights, if any, have you gained from the NOLA to NYC project? What have you learned that perhaps you weren’t expecting to learn as a result of creating NOLA to NYC?

AK: That the media, of which I am a part, is an incredibly powerful tool. For good or for ill, you have control how you use that tool.  In retrospect, I may not have used Tumblr simply because everyone and their monkey’s uncle picked up photos and used them without permission.  This started as a deeply personal project, me photographing Katrina survivors, friends.  I listened to their stories and went through some personal anguish reporting on and photographing the appalling lack of progress in the seven years since Katrina. NOLA was my home for a handful of years and I love that place. So when people in the media, I am talking small time blogs to national television networks, started using some of the photos without even an email, well, I was none too pleased.

As a reporter who would never dream of using someones images, writings, anything, without permission – or at least a hat tip or link – it disgusts me.  People were writing things about me that weren’t true.  Like I am a he , which I am not.  And, one publication printed that I was a native of New Orleans and a Katrina survivor.  Both not true.  Nowhere in my personal history will you ever find those kinds of claims.  A 5 second google search would have told you I am an Iowa native and a lady.  Come to find out the “reporter” picked up my twitter feed and read her own fantasy into my tweets about NOLA to NYC.  I asked that next time she write about a person, at the very least, she give a ring-a-ling or drop an email.  Off soapbox.

I should mention that I didn’t learn that New Orleanians are incredibly passionate, resilient and down to earth people, that Katrina survivors are bad ass, love their city and will give back until it hurts.  I didn’t learn that from this project only because I already knew that.

TLC: Some may argue that NOLA to NYC is just another Internet meme that may lose people’s interest when the next meme comes along. Do you think NOLA to NYC is ‘just another Internet meme’? How do you keep the conversations going even after people lose interest in hurricane narratives?

AK: People are already losing interest.  But, that doesn’t really matter.  I wasn’t launching the site to springboard a career.  I will go about my business.  I won a grant from USC Annenberg (Knight Grant on Reporting in Religion and Public Life) to investigate religion and sex education in Mississippi so I need to get back to that.  The only conversation I want to continue is the one about seven years later: NOLA is still hobbled.  The lower ninth ward is still decimated.  The lakefront still bears the scars of Katrina.  Half the population is gone. Graft is still a king of New Orleans.  We need to look at New Orleans as prologue to the long road back we have here in the wake of Sandy.  There are tons of lessons to be learned from how Katrina was handled.  We need to be mindful that although the administrations have changed, many of the mechanisms for disaster recovery have not.  Private contractors promising victims a brighter tomorrow when what they really are up to is testing out new building materials or upcharging FEMA and the feds.  I know, sounds bleak, but this is one of those teachable moments.

TLC: Do you have any plans to expand the outreach of NOLA to NYC offline or to other online spaces? If so, are there ways that other people can continue to support your efforts?

AK: I just made the decision to start selling prints of the original 12 portraits I shot.  I will be donating a portion of the profits, if any, to the Ali Forney Center in New York City.  A drop in shelter for LGBTQ teens. The center was destroyed in the wake of Sandy.  A lot of my reporting in the past dealt with issues of LGBTQ rights and I’ve donated clothing and other items to the center before.  It seems a natural and right fit.

I am also going to Mastic Beach this weekend to take NOLA to NYC care packages to the people hit hard in that area of Long Island.  This was brought to my attention by the head of a pop-up charity group called New Orleans Gives Back.  The group will be bringing a truck full of useful cleanup and support supplies to Mastic this weekend.  The founder of the group asked if I wanted to be a part of it.  Of course I did, so I am making little prints and bringing some of the words of love and wisdom from the NOLA to New York project to Mastic.  It is a small gesture, but hopefully hearing from people who have been through it will bring a brief moment of comfort.  

Many thanks to Andy Kopsa for taking the time to chat with MEDIA MAKE CHANGE.

To purchase prints from the NOLA to NYC project, please visit: http://andykopsa.photoshelter.com

Photos courtesy of Andy Kopsa

More teens and kids around the world are on the Internet, so why not start there? -  Zoë

We’re so excited to introduce you to Zoë Zvosechz (pronounced ZO-ee ZA-vose-ICK), MEDIA MAKE CHANGE’s brand new youth correspondent!

Zoë, 14-years-old, was born in Germany from a U.S. military family currently living in El Paso, Texas. She loves soccer, writing, and JUSTIN BIEBER! Zoë also enjoys hanging out with her friends. She describes herself as “often online and posting things on my [Facebook] page, ImmaTeen, and talking to the admins.”  Zoë enjoys being around family and friends, and aspires to work with young people in need of support.

We recently came across Zoë’s Facebook page, ImmaTeen, which brings together young people from all around the country to speak out against bullying. ImmaTeen has garnered over 11,000 likes on Facebook and continues to grow in popularity among teens around the country.

Zoë has also produced (yes, produced!) an anti-bullying digital video, Stop the Tears and End the Fears, which features teens holding up signs that reads “victim” as a way to respond to being bullied in and out of school.

Zoë’s work is a prime example of how young people are using social and digital media to transgress conformity and transform communities from the inside-out. It was only natural for us to reach out and ask Zoë if she’d like to be MMC’s official youth correspondent. She happily accepted, and we’re so delighted to feature her voice, insights, and super cool name on Media Speaks!

We recently had a chance to chat with Zoë about her work and about what she hopes to bring to MMC’s community. Check out what she had to say below!

First of all, you are a superstar! We’re so excited about the work you’re doing using social and digital media. You are the co-creator of ImmaTeen, a Facebook group with over 11K “Likes” that offers teens an alternative space to express themselves and also supports young people who have been victims of online and offline bullying. Can you tell us a little bit about how ImmaTeen came about?

How on earth did you manage to cultivate an online community of over 11K teens on Facebook? That’s amazing!

What can adults and educators do to support and better engage young people who use social and digital media?

What are some ways young people can be proactive in addressing issues confronting youth?

We’re so excited to have you on board as our official youth correspondent and contributing writer! As MMC’s new youth correspondent, what topics would you like to explore, write about, and report on?

A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 in Hoboken, NJ. (via Facebook)

Back in 2005, after hurricane Katrina shattered the Gulf Coast, I began monitoring several online networks created and cultivated by what I called women virtual volunteers. Though Twitter and Facebook weren’t around back then, women were created blogs, list servs, and newsgroups in efforts to provide relief support for victims and survivors of hurricane Katrina. This was the first time I witnessed people gathering across time and space to pull their resources online after a natural disaster. It’s important to note that at the time, the nurture-networks I looked at were also created in response to lack of support from the federal government, namely FEMA.

Seven years after hurricane Katrina, the country has yet again been devastated by a natural disaster in the form of hurricane Sandy.  People along the east coast, and parts of the midwest, are currently assessing widespread damage as a result of a massive storm surge lasting several hours.

As we saw during hurricane Katrina, people have taken to social media to help spread the word about damage and to provide resources for victims and survivors of the storm. However, unlike what we saw during Katrina; that is, when social media looked more like Yahoo! news groups and comments sections of blog posts, those directly and indirectly affected by Sandy have taken to popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and even Storify to provide the nation with up-to-date information and online resources. And it’s not only traditional journalists and reporters creating these spaces, but also everyday citizens with a cell phone and a wifi connection.

In my continuing efforts to monitor online networks post-Sandy, I’ve put together a (growing) list of resources that I hope folks will find useful as we begin the arduous process of cleaning up after Sandy. If you have more resources to share, please do so below in the comments section. You may also tweet us @mediamakechange

IMAGES AND STORIES FROM THE STORM

ABC 7 Storify Hurricane Sandy: http://storify.com/EyewitnessNews/hurricane-sandy-1

Storify Users Cover #Sandy: http://storify.com/storify/storify-users-cover-sandy

AcuWeather: Sandy Floods New York City: http://storify.com/breakingweather/photos-sandy-floods-new-york-city-new-jersey

Hurricane Sandy Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hurricane-Sandy/506493399380778?fref=ts

ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT

American Red Cross

• Red Cross Hurricane app : http://www.redcross.org/mobile-apps/hurricane-app
• List of currently open Red Cross shelters at: http://www.redcross.org/nss/
• Visit the Red Cross web site: http://www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
• People should also register on the Red Cross Safe and Well website, a secure and easy-to-use online tool that helps families connect during emergencies:  http://www.redcross.org/find-help/contact-family/register-safe-listing

@NotifyNYC on Twitter

• People located in NYC can ‘follow NotifyNYC’ on Twitter, and text 40404 to get @NotifyNYC (http://www.twitter.com/notifyNYC) tweets as text messages.

Google Crisis Map

• Google Crisis map that has good information about Hurricane Sandy as well as shelter information:  http://google.org/crisismap/sandy-2012

Disaster Assistance

• A secure, user-friendly web portal that consolidates information about federally funded government assistance to disaster victims, including the ability to apply for FEMA benefits directly online: http://www.disasterassistance.gov

State Offices of Emergency Management

• A list of the emergency management offices in all 50 states plus territories: http://www.fema.gov/regional-operations/state-offices-and-agencies-emergency-management

Disaster Distress Helpline

• The Disaster Distress Helpline (DDH) is the first national hotline dedicated to providing year-round disaster crisis counseling. If you or someone you know has been affected by a disaster and needs immediate assistance, please call this multilingual, crisis support service (available 24/7) at (1-800-985-5990) and SMS (text `TalkWithUs’ to 66746). Residents in the U.S. and its territories who are experiencing emotional distress related to natural or man-made disasters: http://disasterdistress.samhsa.gov/ toll-free number for information, support, and counseling. You will be connected to the nearest crisis center.

The Salvation Army 

• Also see The Salvation Army’s blog with up-to-date information on hurricane Sandy. http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf

NYC Service 

• You can email nycservice@cityhall.nyc.gov for more information on how to volunteer in your area. http://www.nycservice.org

New York Blood Center

• Be sure to visit their website BEFORE going to donate blood. Not all centers are open because damage due to the storm. We recommend that you call 1-800-933-2566 or visit www.nybloodcenter.org for donor center hours and the latest information. Thank you for your support. http://www.nybc.org/press-release.do?sid0=60&page_id=152&content-id=785

AmeriCares

• Delivers medicines, medical supplies and aid to people in crisis around the world. http://www.americares.org/

Direct Relief

• Provides medical assistance to people affected by disaster. http://www.directrelief.org/

Sources: Facebook, CraigConnects, Huffington Post

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When describing an altercation she had with her classmates at school, Todd writes, “After I got home all I saw was on Facebook – ‘She deserved it. Did you wash the mud out of your hair? – I hope she’s dead.’”

On October 10, 2012, approximately one month after Todd posted the video on YouTube, she was found dead after an apparent suicide attempt.

On October 24, nearly two weeks after Amanda Todd reportedly committed suicide, Felicia Garcia, a Staten Island teenager jumped in front of a moving train in New York City. Friends and family said Garcia was bullied in school and online because rumors were spreading that she’d been sexually active with football players at her high school. The last words a friend heard Garcia speak right before falling backwards in the path of a moving train were, “Finally, it’s here.”

Though Garcia’s classmates didn’t seem to think she was in trouble, a quick glance at Garcia’s Instagram pictures tells another story.

Similarly to Todd posting on YouTube, Garcia posted, what I believe to be her last cry for help via Twitter twelve days before she decided to take her own life.

It’s heartbreaking to watch our young people take their lives as a result of being bullied by other teens and adults online. As a researcher, I wonder why our young people, girls and boys, decide to use social media as one of the last forms of communication before killing themselves. While it seems like a classic case of cry-for-help, social media further complicates this psychoanalytic narrative by the so-called spectacle in the form of retweets, @ replies, favorites, and likes.

I have to wonder what Amanda and Felicia felt while uploading and posting. What did they really wish to communicate? And has social media now become an alternative to the handwritten suicide letter?

I recently spoke with The Media Bytes about young people in the digital age. I mentioned Amanda Todd in our conversation, in that I believe we failed this young girl in many ways. We had access to knowing and seeing her struggles in a mediated and visible space, yet still we were unable to, or not willing to intervene. During the interview I mentioned that perhaps seeking out social and public spaces while struggling essentially comes down to our basic human need to connect with someone; anyone who will watch our videos and read our tweets.

I understand this need to connect all too well as I also struggled, and was diagnosed with severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after my father passed away in 2008. I took to singing on Youtube early on while my father was sick. It was a cathartic response to coping with death and dying. It still is. I’m sure if I revisit my Twitter streams, Facebook updates, blog posts, and even SMS text messages during that time immediately after my father’s death, I would see myself in my most rawest and vulnerable form. There was something about singing and talking to a camera, then uploading to a public site that allowed me to let go. To where and to whom I let go in this public space was, and is always a risk. But for Amanda and Felicia it was more than simply letting go publicly online, it was a permanent disconnection from a space so-called the ‘real’ offline world.

Now we are left with YouTube videos, tweets, and Instagram photos that will continue to remind us of our failure as a tribe in the global village.

That said, however, ubiquitous use and mainstream presence of social and mobile media provide a unique opportunity for adults (and anyone else who cares about the well being of young people) to better address youth in crisis. I recognize that the idea of ‘crisis’ itself carries with it a ton of baggage; what exactly is meant by crisis? Is crisis a word we only use for certain ‘kinds’ of communities? Is the very idea of wanting to un-do crisis problematic because it automatically assumes something needs to be fixed? And might that ‘something’ be the child? One look at the comment’s section of this post, and the constant victim blaming that ensues, reminds me that we, as a collective, still haven’t fully grasped what it means to be empathetic in a crisis situation. So, I recognize the conundrums.

But I also recognize that something unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed before is happening with our young people in this digital moment. We live in a hypermediated and interconnected world, so much so that we now craft our identities in these public and mediated spaces like corporations do; as brands. We’ve always created elaborate narratives of ourselves, but now it seems as though these narratives are beginning to take on a posthumous life of their own.

It’s fascinating when you think about the posthumous digital life. Yet, I still wonder where do we stand in the midst of this crisis as our young people both live and die in social media?

We simply can’t be satisfied with mourning the deaths of these young girls after the fact and behind our computer screens. What keeps us from nurturing our young people while they are alive? What keeps us from engaging them as they explore their multiple and contradictory identities? What keeps us from being more attentive as they express themsevles in these public places—not as a way to police or to monitor inappropriate behaviors—but as a way to gain insight into what’s actually happening in their media-rich, public, and interconnected worlds?

Part of what I wish to do as an academic and social entrepreneur is to create spaces where young people like Amanda Todd and Felicia Garcia (who was in foster care) can go to retreat, reconnect, and rebuild. And I believe media and technology can play a transformative role in mediating what I’m calling nurture-networks. But we have to be deliberate and thoughtful in how we further encourage media and technology in the lives of young people, particularly those in crisis.

I recently applied for the Media Ideation Fellowship and my idea is to specifically address the needs and concerns of young people in crisis, namely court-involved youth who are tethered to multiple social institutions like foster care, juvenile, and welfare systems. I’m hoping to create a localized SMS Texline co-developed by and serving the needs of court-inolved youth in New York City. While I understand that media and technology is not *the* answer to address ongoing and dynamic problems young people face in today’s world, I do believe that media and tech tools can help to support deliberate efforts in (re)building what’s seemingly been broken. As evident with Amanda Todd and Felecia Garcia, our young people are living and dying in these social and mediated spaces, isn’t it about time we meet them where they already are?

**Update***

I just discovered that Amanda Todd sang too.

There is a new Tumblr page that has been getting quite a bit of attention in the last few weeks. It’s got an unoriginal, yet strangely catchy title that would cause almost anyone to click on the link: Rich Kids of Instagram. Your finger might hover over the mousepad for a moment–sure that it could not possibly be what the straight-forward label is seeming to describe, yet weary that it most likely is–you wonder if this is what you should be doing with your time? Should you throw a load of laundry in before you make this time commitment for something you might later regret, or worse, that you might absolutely love (but not be able to tell anybody about)? But like so many other viral videos and Internet memes, in which a mere click stands between you andknowing what everyone else is talking about, this site wins over any rational thought, and just like that you feel the pad of your index finger make contact with the cool sensory surface beneath it.

The bottom line is that we must have conversations, many multi-layered conversations, with each other and with youth about sites like RKOI: about the activities and lifestyles represented, as well as the online and offline behaviors fueling the creation of and participation in such sites. It is ok and very normal to want to protect our youth from the unknown, but we’re doing ourselves and them a disservice if we think that leaving these unprecedented realities unaddressed is better than sinking our teeth into them in order to proactively figure all of this out, and we need to do it together–parents and children, teachers and students, peers to peers, or else we’re never going to get anywhere.

Emily Bailin is a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. She’s also an an educator, consultant, and public speaker motivated by a passion and determination to collaborate, create, and sustain culturally relevant and socially just pedagogy with other educators to better serve increasingly diverse 21st century learners. You can follow her on Twitter at @emilybailin