YR Media Receives Transformative Grant to Expand Post-Pandemic Support for Young BIPOC Content Creators and Grow its National Presence

New funding will allow award-winning youth media organization to expand workforce development opportunities and mission-critical mental health and wellness support in the Bay Area, Midwest, and Beyond

OAKLAND, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#YRMedia—YR Media today announced a significant grant from Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates company, to support its ongoing efforts to amplify the voices of young people from underrepresented communities, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ members, across media, music, and creative fields. The award-winning media, technology, and music training center plans to use the gift–which is one of the largest unrestricted grants in the history of YR Media–to expand its workforce development programs and mental health and wellness services for young people as they learn to operate in a post-pandemic world.

In addition to supporting the growth of the organization’s Bay Area headquarters, the multi-year funding will allow YR Media to equip its virtual-to-physical Midwest hub based in Chicago with state-of-the-art facilities, critical wellness supports for the 14 to-24-year-old emerging content creators served, and a dedicated staff to provide mentorship, guidance and industry-standard career training.

The organization will also use the new grant to continue to provide students and youth content creators with on-site and virtual support. This includes access to therapists, academic advising, and healthy food.

“In order to transform the industries that have historically shut out or suppressed Black and Brown professionals, we have to focus our efforts on supporting and centering young people of color in these fields,” said Kyra Kyles, CEO, YR Media. “This generous investment from our long-time partners at Pivotal Ventures allows us to create more robust platforms and career opportunities for populations outside of the pipeline of privilege. YR Media is excited to expand its reach through new creative hubs in areas, similar to Oakland, where communities bustling with talent lack access to equitable work-based learning programs and career opportunities. We are beyond grateful to the team at Pivotal for their ongoing support and partnership to make this a reality.”

The gift will also allow the Edward R. Murrow and Peabody Award-winning organization to begin planning for future hubs in underserved areas of the country, including the South.

The perspective that YR Media’s talented youth employees and contributors lend to the mainstream media is undeniable, as evidenced in a recent journalism, music and creative partnership with The Washington Post that netted a Gracie Award. In addition, the young people at YR Media produce ongoing, high engagement daily multimedia coverage on important topics ranging from mental wellness, the impacts of systemic racism, the evolving nature of education, to profiles of emerging talents not often centered by other outlets.

This new support from Pivotal Ventures follows two previous investments from the organization. In April 2022, YR Media announced a high-impact grant, which allowed the non-profit organization to begin plans to expand its Chicago-based virtual program, and provide on-site and virtual mental health and wellness support to content creators. Prior to that, in spring of 2021, Pivotal Ventures made an investment in YR Media’s Beyond Self-Care editorial and social storytelling effort, which culminated in a multi-day virtual event that helped provide young writers, producers and artists develop tools to report on mental health and well-being.

For more information on YR Media, visit https://www.yrmedia.org/.

About YR Media

YR Media (formerly Youth Radio), is an award-winning leading media, technology, and music training center and platform for emerging BIPOC content creators, who use their voices to change the world. Headquartered in downtown Oakland, California, the non-profit has invested almost 30 years in helping future generations build foundational skills in journalism and multimedia content creation. They produce journalism, music, graphic design, podcasts, and documentaries that disrupt and shape the mainstream narrative. For more information on YR Media, visit yrmedia.org.

Contacts

Heath Meyer

pr@zmcommunications.com
858-768-1527