Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), the signature philanthropic initiative by the Adobe Foundation celebrated the completion of seven successful years of the program in India by screening over 25 short films created by children from underserved communities. Ranging across topics including women’s empowerment, education and environment protection, these films represent their views, aspirations and triumphs over adversity and their need to effect change in society.  The AYV program saw a significant expansion over the last year, working with 90 sites reaching over 2700 children and 100 educators, and helping produce over 120 short films across a wide array of formats. 

The foundation also announced the second edition of the Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards, a global online media festival honouring young people who creatively communicate their vision for change in their communities and their lives. Students aged 13-19 are invited to compete across eight sub-categories – animation, narrative, collaboration, photography, documentary, poetry, music video and graphic design and can submit their entries by April 2013. Students of Christel House, Bangalore bagged the Audience Choice Award under Music Video category last year to global acclaim.

AYV is a partnership between the Adobe Foundation and The American India Foundation (AIF) and empowers youth to comment on their world using multimedia and digital tools, share their ideas, demonstrate their potential, and take action in their communities. The program is aimed at imbibing creative confidence in them.  The AYV global network includes more than 750 sites, grantees, and organizations, across 52 countries engaging over 150,000 youth and 8,200 educators in schools and out of school programs. The program is expanding at a rapid pace and will reach out to 200,000 youth worldwide in the next three years. In India, the program is currently operating through partnerships with The America India Foundation, Global Fund for Children and Taking IT Global and has reached out to about 7500 youth across the nation since its inception. It has received wide recognition from industry bodies like NASSCOM and Businessworld-FICCI CSR awards 2012. Movies produced by the children have gone to win awards at prominent international film festivals like NCERT National Children’s Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival 2012 to name a few.

Speaking on the occasion, Tridib Roy Chowdhury, Senior Director- Products, Adobe India said, “We are overwhelmed with the brilliant thought-provoking work put together by these young creative minds. Adobe is delighted to provide a platform for the students to voice their opinion to the society. Adobe Youth Voices enables young people to think creatively, communicate effectively and work collaboratively using multimedia tools to raise a voice on issues that matter most to them.”

Commenting on this collaboration with Adobe, Roopak Chauhan, Operation Director – AYV, American India Foundation said, “AIF, in partnership with Adobe, is extremely delighted to witness the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) program entering successfully into its seventh year. We are happy to see that through AYV, the underprivileged youth are getting a stage to voice their views by using the powerful tool of digital media technology. Over the last year, we have trained over 120 educators, who have spent significant time in nurturing these students. We now look forward to the upcoming Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards, where the talent, creativity and social conscious of educators, students and communities in India will be celebrated.”

Nagarathna, a student from Government High School, Kadabagere, Bangalore, says, “I am glad that through AYV program I got an opportunity to work on and present my film and in addition also learn the usage of some great set of multimedia tools.”

“It is extremely overwhelming to see our students express their ideas and creative talent on a such a good platform. We thank the educators who spent a great deal of time in cultivating and brushing up the skills of our students. We are glad to have partnered with Adobe Youth Voices and hope to receive similar support and encourage in future”, added Nazma Bhanu - Educator, Government High school, Koira, Bangalore Rural.

The Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards is an international juried media competition that recognizes projects that best illustrate the programs ‘Create with Purpose’ philosophy. Submissions need to be original, youth-produced multimedia created to address critical issues. All entries need to be submitted for students by an educator already registered with the AYV program. Educators not registered with AYV can submit their entries by registering with Adobe Youth Voices Essentials, at http://essentials.youthvoices.adobe.com/ . An international panel of judges will select first and second place winners in each subcategory, while viewers will choose the Audience Award. The judges’ panel currently includes: Joel Sartore (National Geographic), Meredith Lavitt (Sundance Film Festival), Calder Zwicky (NYC MoMA), Sarah Kay (Spoken Word Poet/TED Talks Speaker), Louis Gossett Jr. (Actor, Officer and a Gentleman).

For more details visit: http://www.youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/

About Adobe Youth Voices 

Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) is the Adobe Foundation’s global philanthropic initiative that empowers youth from underserved communities with digital media skills so they can comment on their world, share their ideas and take action on issues that are important to them.  By harnessing the energy and insight of young people 13-19 years old, Adobe Youth Voices aims to inspire a dialogue for change in their communities. The program teaches youth to express themselves through documentary film-making, photography, print journalism, radio diaries, animation, Web communications and other media.

For more information, visit www.youthvoices.adobe.com

About the Adobe Foundation

The Adobe Foundation is a 501(c) (3) private foundation created and funded by Adobe Systems Incorporated to leverage human, technological and financial resources to drive social change and community improvements.

About American India Foundation

Founded in 2001, the American India Foundation (AIF) is dedicated to catalyzing economic and social change in India, and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through collective philanthropy and strategic, innovative programming. AIF has positively impacted lives of more than 1.7 million marginalized individuals in India through programs in education, livelihoods, and public health while working in partnership with over 225 local NGO’s. For more information, visit www.aif.org

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com/in.

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