 The MediaSmart Youth Workshop is the product of a long and careful development process. For more than two and a half years, the program was written, reviewed, tested and refined by experts in media literacy, youth development, nutrition and physical activity. But perhaps the most influential in the development of this program were the youth participants themselves, who served as our experts in the field of fund. An early draft of the curriculum was pilot tested by youth serving organizations in seven sites around the country. After careful revisions, the workshop was then retested. We learned a great deal during these pilot tests, and the facilitators at these test sites might well be described as the voices of experience. Here's what they have to say about MediaSmart Youth. Okay, you guys, how about the Snickers bar? How many servings do you think are in the Snickers bar? One. Three. Good. Three servings. Many times as youth workers, you get overwhelmed with all the different curriculums that are out there, and a lot of times you think about what should I use and what shouldn't I use. Well, speaking from my own experience, this is definitely a program that I would continue using. The great part about this program is that you don't need a background in health, in fitness, in nutrition, or in media to teach it because everything is there for you. If you have the desire to work with these kids, that's what you really need. The program stands for itself. If you really take it lesson by lesson, it's really laid out for you, and it gives you the information that you need. The most important thing is to have fun with the curriculum. Let the kids take the lead with most of the activities. Let them run with it. What really makes us fun is that it's really all about the kids. It is probably one of the fastest 90 minutes of my life, and they think it goes by fast and they're having fun too. The curriculum is very adaptable. It can be done in an after-school venue once a week for two months. It can be in a camp setting. It seems to be working for us anyway. We feel like adapting the curriculum to meet our needs and what the kids' schedules are like. We recruited kids through our after-school program, through the newspapers, through a YMCA brochure. Letting children know that they're going to have the opportunity to be creative is a key in recruiting children for the program. There's no question that children really want an outlet for their creativity. Keep in mind, the program is set up for 10 to 15 kids, and you really want to keep that as a core group. There's so much that the kids are learning and they need to have some time to ask questions. There are sensitive issues. We don't ever say diets, but we're saying, here's the information, we want you to look at the information, and then hopefully you can make some of these changes, but we're not pointing to anyone and saying you need to make these changes. Media Smart Youth is very sensitive to diversity. It easily embraces the different ethnicities found in your group, and there's a lot of help to guide us around those issues. Big production gives the children an opportunity to creatively share what they've learned, and it can take many forms. What you're going to end up with is kids taking all this wonderful knowledge and all these terrific skills that they've gathered over the 10 lessons, and they're going to put it into something that reflects what they've learned, and it's going to be something that's going to appeal to kids of their own age, and that's what you want. We're not working towards a highly polished production. We're working towards something that reflects what Media Smart Youth has meant to these kids and what they've learned from it. This message is about not to starve yourself or stuff yourself, but to eat healthy. They can make a video, they can make a magazine ad, they can make a newspaper ad, they can make posters. They can go and pretty much make a message and send it anywhere. Keep it simple. If it's simple, then you'll have enough time. To do so, think of higher concepts like a neat way to convey a message and focus right in on that single neat cool way and do that really well because you're not going to have much time. To do the fancy way. Stop! What are you doing? I'm taking the stairs. The way the curriculum is set up, we're learning about media. It would be great if you had a media partner. A partner that wanted to be involved in the community. Maybe a local newspaper, a local television station, a local radio station. Maybe your high school has its own television or radio station. Your school's newspaper. Really try to keep it on a local level. Never say, oh, don't do the program. We didn't have a media partner. The curriculum really fills in beautifully when you don't have a media partner. When it came time to do the big production, we did a very low-tech video. The children were able to do themselves using a small video camera and it worked well. You can do it without it. The results will be terrific. Here's our PSA on physical fitness. I remember, get out and have fun. I really think these kids are taking the program home with them. I had one girl come back to us and say, I know something that we could do for our family and I can make a change in our family for the better and I'm willing to try that. And I think that's empowering. It affects their decisions that they're making from the moment they wake up until they're going to bed. The change in the kids after they go through this program is incredible. They're looking at television differently. They're looking at what they're eating differently. They're looking at what they're doing differently, their activity and how much exercise they do or don't get that day. That's exciting. That's why we do this. They're definitely adopting the media smart youth philosophy and they're using it in their everyday lives.