Organization Description
Spy Hop offers hands-on, project-based programming in Salt Lake City and across the state of Utah for students ages 9-19 of all skill levels and aspirations. They meet young people where they are in their lives and invite them to tell their stories through film, music, audio, and design. Spy Hop’s model combines youth development, arts education, and career preparation, empowering young people to gain the skills they need to be successful.
Impact of SCE Support
Brave Voices, a youth-led participatory research, design, and media project, engages 400+ Utah youth in challenges, podcasts, and data storytelling to foster digital mindfulness and collective resilience. As digital auto-ethnographers, producers, and audiences, youth will create an open educational resource sharing evidence-based insights and recommendations for building a better digital ecology.
The goals of Brave Voices span three areas of impact: a) learners, b) Spy Hop’s youth communities and audiences, and, c) adult leaders and decision-makers in the fields of youth development, digital literacy/citizenship and education. Youth participants in the program will gain new skills, mindsets, and practices that foster digital mindfulness—the ability to take part in online and social media spaces with self-awareness, peer awareness, and digital spatial awareness. Secondly, Spy Hop will increase its own capacity to foster collective resilience across its youth communities by empowering youth to innovate and advocate for new solutions around their own digital well-being. Lastly, the Brave Voices Guide to Digital Resiliency will help adult leaders increase their awareness and understanding of the lived perspectives of young people who are most involved and impacted by the digital world around them.
Spy Hop is a member of SCE’s Youth Voice Challenge cohort. This group of exemplary organizations seeks answers to the question: How can young people inspire their peers to use technology in healthy ways and make digital spaces better for everyone? Learn more about the Challenge here.
Why We Invested
Brave Voices poses SCE’s Challenge to youth themselves and then gives them the media production and storytelling training they need to find their own solutions. We envision this project as having multiple levels of impact on youth, their communities, and the field of youth development, and see potential for scale across the state.
