Listen Up Youth Radio

“Listen Up has truly pushed me (in the best way) to come out of my shell and be a leader. Without Listen Up I wouldn’t have gained such important interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills.”

- Youth Media Collective Member

This Give to the Max Day, we are asking you to support Listen Up Youth Radio's work in expanding our media mentorship programming!  The Youth Media Collective provides youth with competitive jobs, media literacy, leadership development, and opportunities to build community - helping run our organization and teaching other young people the skills they've learned.  Mentorship has been part of Listen Up's model since we began, and we're excited to pair our young people to media professionals who can support them on their own journeys as young people and audio storytellers. To ensure we have the capacity to teach and mentor new and returning Youth Media Collective members, our total goal is to raise $8,000 this Give to the Max day!

“Being able to create and share our stories as people of the diaspora, as BIPOC, as people navigating multiple forms of marginalization is life giving. Getting to be a part of [my mentee's] journey reminded me of that. Seeing their curiosity and craftiness reinvigorated my own desire to create and regrounded me in why I love this form of storytelling.”

- Listen Up Mentor

LISTEN TO OUR PRODUCERS' STORIES HERE

Our mission: To provide Twin Cities youth with access to radio and digital media, tools to build community through media justice, and opportunities to amplify voice and leadership.

“Listen Up gave me the opportunity to do meaningful work in the creative field while also being able to support myself and that’s not always possible. As a young person, Listen Up has really helped me in building my circle and expanding the people that I am in relation and community with. I’ve gotten to interview and converse with such amazing people and I’m so grateful for those opportunities.”

- Youth Media Collective Member

In the last year we:

Taught audio storytelling to 70+ youth

Provided professional work experience for 20 young people

Had 10 youth in leadership positions

Aired original youth-produced episodes from 14 radio shows on our partner stations WFNU and KSRM

We Also:

1. Launched a brand new podcast called YouthSoup, distributed by our friends at the Alive Podcast Network, and produced four full seasons that you can listen to on the Alive Podcast App or any major podcast platform! Episodes touch on local issues, identity, food, family, borders, and so much more.

2. Ran a new youth media program in collaboration with SPEAK MPLS called RIOT MPLS (Reclaiming Identities and Our Truths) for young people in Minneapolis.

3. Hosted our largest Summer Media Intensive to date - with a cohort of 10 new up-and-coming audio storytellers - taught by Youth Media Collective members, adult staff, teaching artists, and volunteer mentors at our office inside of St Paul Neighborhood Network!

4. Were sponsored by Hindenburg, our audio editing software of choice, for the second summer in a row.

5. Partnered with organizations including MIGIZI and the Science Museum of Minnesota, where Youth Media Collective members taught other youth the audio storytelling skills they had learned.

Want to dive deeper? Check our our 2022 Impact Report! 

“I would like to thank [everyone I worked with this summer] for just being kind. I felt very welcomed and glad every time I came here.”

- Summer Media Intensive Cohort Member

We are working with MENTOR Minnesota to further develop our mentorship capacity and programming over the next year! A donation to Listen Up Youth Radio ensures that we can continue to connect young people with professionals and community members who share their identities, experiences, and aims. As a small, BIPOC-led organization working predominantly with folks who are BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, and/or female, and who self-identify as low- to moderate-income, every $5 or $5,000 makes a difference for us!

“I am a working journalist – doing things I enjoy everyday, working on narrative change for all our communities, contributing to public discourse – because of nonprofit media programs and mentors that believed in me. Media is so essential to how people relate to others and engage in democracy. I think it's important to always be nurturing diverse voices to tell stories from different perspectives and add to media's relevance and accessibility to different audiences.”

- Listen Up Mentor

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“Listen Up has been such a huge part of my life for so long and I really can’t imagine not being a part of this community in some capacity. I have learned so much, grown so much, and built so many relationships.”

- Youth Media Collective Member

Without you this wouldn't all be possible. Thank you for choosing to invest in youth voices and media justice!