Black and Brown Solidarity | Creative Dreaming, Second Session

We hosted our second creative dreaming session last night on black and brown solidarity. After dinner, we opened up with reminders of our values on what creates a safe space. The youth then answered some of our reflection questions on black and brown communities, some of the biases we may have, and what we can learn from them. Then we continued building on ideas and topics we came up with last session. For inspiration, Maya showed the youth some of the past creative projects TFD has done. Each youth took one topic we came up with last time and brainstormed some creative projects that related to the topic. After, they shared their ideas and commented on others they found interesting.

Thank you so much to everyone who came yesterday! We are still looking for more youth who are passionate about black and brown solidarity. Contact Maya (maya@thefirehousedream.orga) for more information. Our last dreaming session is March 6th, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM.

Photoshoots & Fun

In today’s mentorship, our mentees held photoshoots for their products! They accomplished so much in a short period of time and are nearing the end. This is another big step in the process. The mentees took their own headshots and product photos for their websites. Some mentees even brought in models to showcase their hard work. All of the photos are turning out great and creative! There’s still a bit more to get done before the brands and websites are completed but it will be done before they know it! We are so proud of our mentees here at TFD and all they have accomplished in their time here!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Working Towards Goals

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Our mentees are getting closer each day to completing their brands. Today, they worked on their website design through Squarespace. They planned how it will be laid out, as well as incorporating colors that represent their brand. The Mentees have made so much great progress and we are very proud! Some have even completed orders for samples of their products. We also helped guide them in how to print stickers and cut them out. Brand creation is a long process with a lot of hard work but they have been pushing through! The next steps would be taking photos of their products and headshots to use on their websites and throughout social media, then completing their websites!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Learning About Youtube

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

For a portion of last Saturday’s mentorship, our mentees were visited by Kevyn, or KevoNobody, to learn about YouTube. Kevyn was in our summer mentorship and is the second past mentee to lead a workshop here at TFD. He has a YouTube channel where he creates content about self-discovery in an entertaining way.

Kevyn came out to teach our mentees about the creative process behind making YouTube content, as well as a bit of what editing looks like for something like this. The creative process he referred to is: An idea that calls, initiation (creating a plan and a script), the structure (the intro, good pacing, and flair!), and the execution. Once the video is completed, the next steps are creating an eye catching thumbnail and a title that works well with what the topic of the video is. It is also very important to add tags to your video with things that are relevant to the topic and including your channel name. When it comes to a cover photo for your YouTube page, you want to make sure the colors are on brand and represents you and your content well.

Kevyn then showed our mentees a video of his own as an example and ended with telling us anyone can do it! In the end, everyone learned so much and we are grateful to have the chance to support our past mentees and for them to come back and teach!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Independent Projects

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

On Monday, our mentees split up into groups to work on their brands. We have 4 mentees who want to start things like clothing brands, baking businesses, stickers, merch, etc. We even had Dakota from Funny Bunny Stickers come down to explain how she creates her own content on an iPad to help with another group. Everyone made a lot of progress in their business and had a lot of fun interacting with one another to get new ideas! We can’t wait to see where they take their exciting ideas and the awesome businesses they will create!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose