**UPCOMING EVENT** — MONDAY, MAY 11TH

Youth, Media, and Educational Justice is a joint initiative between Teachers College, Columbia University and the New York County/Manhattan Family Court. The goals of this collaboration are threefold:

1. to create opportunities to nurture the wellbeing of youth in foster care and juvenile justice using collaborative mentoring and innovative educational approaches;
2. to create multimedia narratives that promote greater awareness about issues affecting the lives of court-involved youth among educators, social workers, researchers, lawmakers, and communities;
3. to study and support the transition of court-involved youth into productive citizenship and adulthood.

This multi-faceted project aims to provide a participatory approach to the study and support of the educational experiences of adolescents in foster care and juvenile justice in New York City. Through the support of a Teachers College Provost Investment Fund Grant, we have continued to build on our exploratory phase of this work undertaken during 2012-2013. As a project team, we are committed to bringing innovative pedagogic and research practices together to create meaningful, educationally-focused, mentoring experiences for the youth, most immediately in collaboration with graduate student mentors who will participate in a yearlong seminar that is being offered at Teachers College.

Project Team
Tara Conley: Doctoral student, CMLTD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Lauren Gunn: Doctoral student, English Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Kristine Rodriguez Kerr: Postdoc, CMLTD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Joe Riina-Ferrie: Doctoral student, CMLTD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz: Assistant Professor of English Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Lalitha Vasudevan: Associate Professor of Technology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Melissa Wade: Court Improvement Project Liaison, New York County Family Court

Funding
Teachers College, Dean’s Faculty Grant (2014-2015)
Teachers College, Provost’s Investment Fund Grant (2011-2013)
Teachers College, Vice President’s Grant for Diversity and Community Initiatives (2013-2014 – with NYREN)

Contact
YMEJ: ymej2013@gmail.com
Lalitha Vasudevan: lmv2102@tc.columbia.edu
Melissa Wade: mwade@courts.state.ny.us