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.”
Tyson Sanford-Griffin, 18, has passion for free-running—an aerobatic way of darting through urban spaces — that has revealed to him the best and worst of Baltimore, a city wracked by crime. “Can you imagine waking up every morning knowing that nothing bad will happen around you when you walk outside the front door?”