$620
$310
71
0
We all know that "it takes a village," but often we don't think about overlooked youth who lack a consistent, stable village to help them through life. Kids in the Spotlight provides just such a village to help foster youth overcome traumatizing experiences such as poverty, abuse, neglect, and rejection. KITS provides a platform for them to heal and shine in a safe environment where filmmaking is used to teach teamwork, creativity, respect, commitment, and the discipline needed to improve their social capital.
Since 2009, Kids In The Spotlight (KITS) has created more than 80 films with more than 750 youth from foster care where they are given full agency to tell their stories by writing, casting, and starring in their own short films.
Each year culminates in our annual KITS Film Awards, celebrating their films and accomplishments in our version of the Academy Awards.
Your microgifts, joined with others, will help support this work and make a difference!
Using film as a vehicle, Kids In The Spotlight's Script-to-Screen program provides a safe space for foster youth to face their pain and find their power. Film is the vehicle, but the destination is a better life.
KITS' flagship Script-to-Screen program gives 12- to 22-year-old foster and underserved youth agency and decision-making power over the stories they tell as they write, cast, and star in their own short films.
Our youth receive hands-on job training, preparing them for careers in the entertainment industry. From learning screenwriting software, to collaborating on a script in a writers' room, to filming with industry-standard equipment on set, KITS provides exposure to the experiences that future employers require.
Our program year culminates with the KITS Film Awards, where our youth take center stage in the spotlight, receiving the Academy Award-worthy treatment they deserve. From hair, makeup, and wardrobe to limousine rides arriving at a red-carpet experience, this film premiere with celebrity guests recognizes KITS Youth with awards for best actors, screenplays, and films. Screenwriting gives KITS youth a voice, acting gives them an emotional outlet, and the awards show gives them a platform where their experiences and stories are validated and celebrated.
Through KITS Script-to-Screen, foster youth are equipped with workforce skills, empowered to achieve their goals, and emboldened to become leaders in their communities.
Would you give $4 a month to support four nonprofits that are making a big difference? Join forces with other 52andChangmakers to automatically give to every Cause of the Week. Every Monday, you’ll wake up knowing you’ve already made a difference! As our community grows, so does the impact!
Together we’ve become volunteers in places we would have never expected, planted milkweed for butterflies, provided books to kids in need, helped save endangered turtles, helped turn excess food into nutrition, helped bring art to youth, educated one another about how we are connected to our delicate food systems, helped save abandoned horses and given old dogs new hope, watched foster youth shine in the spotlight of movie making, helped clean tires out of rivers… we could go on and on and on. It is an absolute joy to be a part of such an amazing network of humans making a difference.
“ALMA reconnects the lives of the formerly incarcerated back to the fabric of society. Our participants have the chance at attaining gainful employment and becoming self-sufficient. Urban Farming helps everyone involved explore the relationships between plants, animals and humans as a way of creating a profound connection to both nature and their community.” - ALMA Backyard Farms
While we’re writing this and you’re reading it, Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes is out there, finding ways to provide food to more people in need throughout Santa Cruz County, where one of three residents are reported to be food insecure.
ChangeMaker Login
Share