Young Storytellers, formerly known as the Young Storytellers Foundation, is an arts education non-profit operating primarily in Los Angeles. Young Storytellers currently serves elementary, middle, and high school students in Southern California, including the cities of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights to the ea ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

, and

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

. Young Storytellers supports students in Title 1 schools; these are schools and school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty in which academic performance tends to be low and the obstacles to raising performance are the greatest. The program improves writing and self-confidence while also focusing on social and emotional learning and including components of Learning for Justice's Social Justice Standards.

History

Young Storytellers began as an in-school mentoring program in 1997. The company was founded by three screenwriters Mikkel Bondesen,

Brad Falchuk Bradley Douglas Falchuk (born March 1, 1971) is an American television writer, director, and producer. He is best known for co-creating the television series ''Glee'', ''American Horror Story'', '' Scream Queens'', and '' Pose'' with Ryan Murph ...

, and Andrew Barrett upon learning about cutbacks in funding for creative arts programs in the Los Angeles public schools. The first school adopted into the program was Playa Del Rey Elementary School in Culver City. The program was incorporated as a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

in 2003.

Programs

The organization supports students elementary, middle, and high school.

Script to Stage

This 9-week, Common Core-aligned elementary school program places students with an adult mentor one-on-one to write scripts that are entirely their own, then actors perform those for the students and their peers live at a show.

Volunteers

Programs are run by volunteer Head Mentors and volunteer Mentors. Mentors in the Script to Stage Program work one-on-one with a student for the duration of the nine-week program to create a screenplay and the resulting screenplay is then performed by a volunteer performer. There are currently over 1,200 volunteers in

serving more than 2,000 students in 60 schools.

Funding

The organization received grants from the

Hollywood Foreign Press Association The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was a nonprofit organization of journalists and photographers who reported on the American entertainment industry for predominantly foreign media markets. It is best known for founding and conduc ...

multiple times. In 2013 the organization was represented by

Olivia Wilde Olivia Wilde (born Olivia Jane Cockburn, , March 10, 1984) is an American actress and director. She played Thirteen (House), Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House (TV series), House'' (2007–2012), and appeared ...

and received a portion of the $1.6 million in grants given by the HFPA that year. 2016 in the amount of $10,000. In 2015, the organization received a grant from the $4.5 million given to the Los Angeles arts scene from Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...

's, Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, has also provided funding.

Notable partnerships

In 2016,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

invited Young Storytellers students to participate in the Fox Writers Intensive. March 2017, Young Storytellers partnered with Disney to give a group of students early access to see the live action version of

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

These students then created their own stories based on the film. Then, in collaboration with Tongal, an independent creative network, the students’ stories were turned into live action and animated short films. In February 2018, a group of Young Storytellers students were invited to a special premier of Disney's

A Wrinkle in Time ''A Wrinkle in Time'' is a young adult science fantasy novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle. First published in 1962, the book won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-u ...

and given the opportunity to create and then share stories based on the film. Disney then turned these stories into either short films or live performances to highlight the students’ storytelling. In October 2020, Young Storytellers partnered with Netflix to have members of the Over the Moon cast host a dramatic reading of a student's story.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

E!Online
- article about Young Storytellers fundraiser
NPR audio article
- Gloria Hillard reports on the Young Storytellers Foundation
NPR radio play
- ''Day to Day'' presents a radio play written by a Young Storytellers student and starring

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for Dustin Hoffman filmography, his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable charac ...

Non-profit organizations based in California Arts organizations based in Los Angeles Charities based in California Arts organizations established in 1997 1997 establishments in California