Asian Media Access

Description

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW Incorporated in August 1992, Asian Media Access (AMA) is a non-profit media arts and education organization dedicated to using media arts and technology as tools for social betterment. AMA recognizes that media arts and technology are essential tools for education and communication. By effectively utilizing these different tools, AMA creates and presents programs that educate and enrich our community. Centrally located in the Midwest on the Minneapolis campus of Metropolitan State University, AMA is one of only five national media organizations situated outside the east and west coast devoted to serving Asian American & Pacific Islanders' media needs. 1994 marked a mile-stone in the development of Asian Media Access. AMA established an affiliation with the Metropolitan State University's College of Arts and Sciences and Center for Community-Based Learning to create programs and services for inner city communities. Since then, AMA has developed a broad community network throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. Over the years, AMA received several awards recognizing its accomplishments including 1993 and 1994 "Community Television Awards", 1995 "Nonprofit Mission Awards" for Anti-Racism from Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, 1998 "St. Paul Neighborhood Network's Access Producer's Award", and 1998 & 1999 "Award for innovation in the Arts" from 3M. The mission of Asian Media Access is to connect the disconnected. AMA aims to use media arts and technology as a means to inspire the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community and to foster positive social change. AMA strives to achieve its mission through three distinctive program areas: Film Exhibition, Media Education, Media Production, and Media Technology. PROGRAM AREAS: 1. Asian Film Exhibition AMA's innovative outreach activities include using film as a tool for promoting inter-ethnic communication among local AAPI and main-stream audiences. AMA develops a variety of outreach activities using Asian films as a mean of education and cultural enrichment. Emphasizing grassroots needs and participation through diverse film exhibition programming and the incorporation of a variety of educational events, the goals of our film exhibition programs are: 1) to promote cultural understanding, 2) to promote Asian arts and cultures, and 3) to facilitate community expression and development. 2. Media Education: Asian American Youth in Media Education Program This program area consists of after-school and summer activities offered on a year-round basis focusing on multi-media technology application & production. AMA's Media Education program offers a variety of training workshops to teach media production, video editing, leadership skills, analytical skills, and critical thinking to AAPI youth, particularly to youth from immigrant, disadvantaged or low-income families. Currently AMA's main Media Education program, Asian American Youth in Media Education Program consists of a Youth Media Camp focusing on journalistic skills, a Video Arts Training Lab focusing on more artistic pursuits, and Web site creation and development skills, which allow the youth participants to be involved with maintaining the Web site and hosting on-line chats with other youth, and biweekly editing sessions to finish post production work on projects. After youth have completed their media works, they often use them to do peer-to-peer education, and conducted community outreach activities. 3. Media Production AMA has produced a variety of educational video and television programs. The goals of our production are to bring important messages and education to the underserved Asian American community in a sensitive and culturally relevant way in order to increase the understanding and raise awareness of many important issues which have been neglected among the AAPI communities or by the mainstream, and to bridge the gap between them. Our past and current productions include the award-winning cable access show, "East Meets West", the pilot show for "Color-Aberration", a bicultural parenting video and curriculum "Helping Youth Succeed" for the University of Minnesota, tobacco prevention public service announcements (PSAs) for Minnesota Department of Health, a cultural sensitive "Media Campaign for General Crime Victims" for the Minnesota Crime Victim Center, a "Bicultural Tobacco-Control Video Program and Discussion Guide for Pan-Asian Youth, a "Compulsive Gambling Educational Video" for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, and a documentary "Creative Video Diaries: Asian American Youth at the Millennium" which documents the lives of several at-risk AAPI youth. 4. Media Technology Media Technology is a newly formed division that focuses on promoting technology usage among AAPI community, which includes: AMAConnect a computer service program a low cost for other non-profits; Asian Pacific American Community Network (APA ComMNet), an internet network to connect all AAPI community agencies in MN together to share health and social service information on the web. 5. New Initiative - Moving into a New Location The APA ComMNet ("Asian Pacific American Community Network") project involves a virtual and physical site of facilities that serving Pan Asians community. o The Physical Site: The space will serve as an active gathering place, and where a sense of community will be bound with an identity that reflected a unique AAPI culture and character. o The Virtual Network Site: An interactive health and mental health web site in Asian languages and will serve as a catalyst for AAPI community information distribution.