The KLF launched a library-published teen newspaper as a community engagement tool and to provide a platform for fostering local youth voices. The purpose of this initiative is to connect a community of inquisitive and expressive teens, support media literacy, and increase the relevancy of library services among the teen population.
Full list of objectives:
- Provide a platform for teens to express their voice
- Cultivate traditional literacy skills such as writing
- Application of real-life tech skills, eg. email etiquette, word processing, attaching documents, etc.
- Opportunity to learn more sophisticated tech skills, Eg. graphic design in Adobe InDesign
- Training for media skills, eg. How to interview, how to write a column, etc.
- Provide job-readiness experience to put on their resume
- Foster media and news literacy eg, what is fake news, importance of sources, journalist ethics, etc.
- Provide a place of connection of peers with similar interests
- Offer validation from peers and adults in the community
- Encourage and model civic engagement
How it works:
The editorial teams provides guidance to teens in creating news stories – by working with them personally, putting on workshops throughout the year on local journalism and potentially matching them up with a mentor. We produce an issue every second month and send physical copies to each library in the Kootenays. We will have a digital version that can be shared across social media platforms.
Here is how you can get involved: Share this opportunity with your community by putting a poster up, posting on social media channels, sharing it in your newsletter, and telling the youth you know about the opportunity.
Here is a blurb you can put in your newsletters:
Kootenay Teen News:The Kootenay Libraries are publishing a Kootenay-wide newspaper created by teens for teens! Interested in getting involved? We need all sorts of content creators: writers, reporters, artists, photo-journalists. We can teach you everything you need to know! Do you have a story idea for us? We would love to hear it! Get in touch with Editor Melodie Rae at mstorey@nelson.ca
Promotional posters and SM posts
Paid Internship Opportunity
Generously funded by the Columbia Basin Trust, Kootenay Teen News is now able to provide a paid internship to youth creators/writers/thinkers who are Black/African Descent as a way to uncover and honour Black presence in the Kootenays. The newspaper will set them up with a mentorship with artist Shayna Jones who will walk them through a research, exploration, creation process centered on the stories of Black life discovered through the Basin – past and present. The youth will then have the opportunity to publish their findings in the newspaper. The internship runs from January 2023- March 2023. Find out more by emailing Melodie Rae at mstorey@nelson.ca.
