Redwood Voice would like to congratulate one of our local, dynamic youth facilitators/freelancers, Jacob Patterson, who was one of 12 young journalists in the state of California selected for Fusion’s Rise-Up and Be Heard journalism fellowship.

On their website, Fusion is described as, “a joint venture between Univision and Disney/ABC, built to embrace and embody diversity from the inside out.” Fusion’s mission is to “champion a young, diverse, and inclusive America through the stories we share, the voices that tell them, and ways in which we bring them to the world.”

The fellowship, made possible in partnership with The California Endowment, gives 12 young Californians (ages 18-25) an opportunity to take part in a 7-month journalism training and mentorship program. Each youth will be working closely with an editorial advisor and a journalism mentor from Fusion.

The goal of the fellowship is to “empower a new generation of leaders and media makers through journalism training, access to media production tools, and a publishing platform to amplify their voice and the voices of those in their community around issues of health and social justice.”

Jacob Patterson is a 24 year old, vegetarian, Queer activist living in Crescent City who has a passion for social justice, women’s health, domestic violence prevention, mental health, substance abuse prevention, sex education, racial equality and gender equality. She is highly involved in the community, being currently involved with work in Building Healthy Communities, Wild Rivers Community Foundation, Opportunity Youth, Coastal Connections, and leading Redwood Voice, in addition to facilitating a community program called Gender Talk, which includes a weekly radio show on KFUG.

“I got involved in journalism because I care about telling stories,” Patterson says, “The power of storytelling is something that we cannot sell short. Our stories and our lived realities are priceless and they are what make us human and what make us identifiable to others. Having a pre-established audience and knowing people are listening is also really powerful, especially for young people who often don’t feel reflected in the media presented to them.”

Patterson says she wants to write hard-hitting content for the fellowship, “Journalism has the power to motivate. It can make people angry and it can inspire them to change. What I hope to do is to make people here who feel marginalized, who feel victimized, who feel the system and its status quo level of operation are not serving them; I want to give these people a voice and I want them to feel like someone out there is listening and that they are heard.”

Are you a young person in Del Norte interested in journalism or multimedia production? Redwood Voice is looking for youth interested in writing, photography, video production, social media campaigns, and creative media. For more info and to keep up with Jacob’s work, visit RedwoodVoice.com or visit Redwood Voice on Facebook at www.facebook.com/redwoodvoice.dnatl/

You can also visit Gender Talk on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GenderTalkCC and tune into Gender Talk’s radio show on KFUG 101.1 FM or kfugradio.org, Thursdays 7:00pm-9:00pm.