YC, similar to EVC, allows young people a chance to be heard, which is a first for many of the young people in the program. To illustrate, Hefner walked Forum participants through an example of how an article moves from an idea into a finished product, a process which takes approximately three months of progressive detail and analysis of a topic of interest in a teen's life. The focus is on helping young people create many drafts of one story, rather than a few drafts of many stories. Once an issue is identified from these responses, students focus on preparing a first draft, which usually ends up being no longer than three or four paragraphs. Working closely with each student, the editors then teach participants how to add detail and narration to a story, culminating in the published product.
People think of New York City as wide and broad, but there is a lot of isolation.
YC introduced me to many different areas and backgrounds as I visited different people and neighborhoods to research articles. Writing for YC also allowed Parmar to expand her horizons and focus her interests on immigrant life and issues, with the editors guiding her through this complex process. EVC's videos and YC's publications serve as a voice of the young people of New York City on issues of concern to them, such as youth violence, education, the foster care system and their place in the community. YC publications are distributed, free of charge, to public high schools in the city, and each EVC video is viewed by approximately 100,000 young people across the U.S. through their classrooms or school libraries. Both programs are also working closely with junior high school and high school teachers to encourage them to replicate these processes and products in their schools and classrooms.