The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation wanted to bring youth voices to TED 2015, to speak on this year’s theme: “Truth or Dare.” Since we’ve taught film, ourselves, throughout our careers, we already knew dozens of youth media organizations around the country. Partnering with nonprofits in New York City, Baltimore and the Bay Area, we worked with young people, ages 16 – 21, on first-person narratives, supporting them through the filmmaking process. The films were promoted in the TED blog “Further Reading on Ideas Worth Spreading.”
Jasmine Barclay, 19, of New York City, is at CUNY’s Medgar Evers College studying social work and has been recognized by the White House as a “Champion of Change.” She has lived in nine different homes since age 2. Barclay is the child of an incarcerated parent—as are 1 in 28 children in America. “I have no evidence that I ever was a child,” Barclay says. “Or perhaps I never was one.”