Teach Girls Media Literacy and Sexual Health Through Filmmaking

If you've been on the interweb at anypoint in the last month you have probably been asked by someone (or lots of someones) to support a project or idea in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Contest. I've seen ideas I thought were good and ideas I thought were not-so-good, but I just learned of one that is blog-worthy. I think I have little to add to what Monely Soltani and her team have written. I've included that below, but the bottom line is, they are in 16th place right now and rising. They need to get to 10th or better to get funding, so if you want to empower young women to educate themselves and their peers about reproductive health, give it a vote:

imMEDIAte Justice is a summer program that empowers young women from LA to share their experience of reproductive justice through film. With film mentors, young women write & direct films that offer a fresh take on sexual health education.

imMEDIAte Justice trains youth in media literacy and reproductive health with a gender-conscious lens. Professional filmmakers provide the mentorship, tools, & distribution teens need to share their vision with the world.

The focus for summer 2010 is to create positive sexuality education films by LGBTQ youth. We envision sexual education as an inclusive, exploratory, youth-driven process that utilizes new media as a tool to share and safely access information. Our online community, CALIBODYPOLITIX, keeps young women informed about reproductive health and justice in California with the largest network of national and local reproductive health resources for youth.

The program and retreats foster positive self-image, supportive female alliances and media literacy skills, as participants graduate through a two-tier leadership development program that increases their influence as filmmakers and leaders of the next generation of women.