no media foundation is a not for profit organization we provide communication services education and tools to individual non profits and government we believe that social conversations drive social values who want to make sure that everyone has a chance participate in a new kind of media conversation we knew that technology was absolutely key absolutely critical in terms of that communication tool but we didn't know exactly how to go about it in nonprofit we all know we're trying to do more with less all the time but you simply can't cut corners if you want to cut through the marketplace you have to have good at messaging good digital tools to convey your mission to your audience the days of pamphlets and those things are really gone you can talk about a program all day long you can talk about how cool it is that a kid is learning in a blended learning lab and that means nothing to anyone if you can pull back the curtain and show someone what a blended learning classroom looks like which in reality means integrating technology and digital learning platforms all of a sudden blended learning makes sense and it is something you want to know more about it's something you want to invest in hindsight i actually wonder when it's truly open media foundation is a resource to this entire community and puts within reason the things that we all need to do to fulfill our mission wow there's this organization out the media foundation that has a passion about communications and using contemporary tools to communicate the passions we have don't have to know the ins and outs of all the technology and it was more about understanding our community and open media kind of turned that very quickly and into a real powerful tool to connect with them differently so it was it was awesome it was an amazing experience the open media foundation has been absolutely incredible to work with i think the creativity the level of creativity and the level of commitment to the project has exceeded anything else i've experienced and the result has been phenomenally more impactful people came to us and said i understood that you were saying this after school program is really important and it gave kids dinner and i watched those kids talk about what it's like to go home with an are still talking about a year and a half later they're still talking about the video it's not just a website it's a communication and outreach tool that we hope can really create a dialogue with each other and with the community and it's provided us the platform to do cool for people who want to do it themselves we offer classes like field and studio production animation graphics and video editing and tools like high end equipment for the sole use of web and t v distribution via denver arts and it's actually today the only formal training i've ever had i took in the field production class and adding us i then i was like full on i'm going to do this this is great i can do it the film takes place in a shanty town in brazil and i was actually living down there working with kids at the time when i heard that the government had plans to demolish this shanty town and displace the people i just picked up a camera and started shooting knowing that this resource is here allowed me to really dive in and go to places i've never been with a camera and feel like i could really tell some one story then i started doing a lot of videos with immigrants and refugees and we started this program where we teach photography to refugees and we give them that platform to tell their story and to feel like they're being heard having access to them around it transforms lives i needed partnership i needed advice on how to go about this project and you know i thought a big piece of bad at the open media foundation course we had our world premiere in competition at south by southwest we won the audience for bear and then we've gone on to thirty or more festivals internationally i'm really thankful  open media existed and i was able to take those classes so easily and the four of li and it's here i am with my own video production company four years later when i first came here i kind of suspected this to be an opportunity for me to you know get on t v and like you know show my friends like hey you know watch my show and channel fifty six and pretty quickly i realized that the work that we do here isn't about being seen getting appl you know there's too much of that attitude in society already you know like what can i do to get the most attention the most applause and what i've really come to respect about you know several media and spot on students is that this is a place where we really value the us and that's why i keep coming no matter who is watching i feel empowered i got myself into a lot of trouble when i was a kid because i grew up in a communist country i unable to express myself and i made it up if i express myself it's going to hurt my head stream i'm going to make friends all over the world and i'm going to interview very interesting people foundation has i couldn't possibly on that myself so the impact of doing your passion with me is that i'm free and freedom i  can't think of anything more important in the world that to have freedom and girl scout troops and we give them these trainings about how to run a studio show these girls the youth group that produces a monthly show called spiral out of the students actually leaves this workshop i think when you get kids in front and it's finally coming through so it's really nice everyone can tell their story and feel like they're being heard and put it out into the world and that's very important the temper of media the power of this media into their hands of anybody who has an interest in learning how to share their voice