Promoting healthy lifestyles through digital media skill-building: The Youth Empowerment for Success YES! Sí Se Puede project

Background: Compared to the large proportion of Latinos living in the U.S., Latino presence in science and engineering careers, particularly in information technology-related fields, is quite low. Educational pipelines for Latinos in science fields are lacking, limiting the number of Latino professionals who could potentially address academic and health concerns which are disproportionately represented in Latino communities. The Youth Empowerment for Success (YES!) Sí Se Puede project aims to reduce academic and health disparities through a university-middle school-YMCA alliance. The YES! project addresses academic reinforcement, computer and technology use, self-esteem, mental health, and career development for a group of at-risk Latino middle school youth, a key age in child development. Methods: Two times per month, youth participate in digital media classes, learning to utilize state-of-the-art computers, printers, still and video digital cameras, microphones, and lighting equipment as well as non-linear video and music video editing software. Participants gain professional digital video technology skills as well as “real world” job skills such as sequential and critical thinking, research, as well as team work. The health-related public service announcements they create are shared with family and community members. Participant demographic information is combined with pre- and post-intervention data to evaluate project effectiveness. Results: Findings with respect to technology knowledge and use, measured from baseline to 6 month follow-up, will be presented, in addition to demographic characteristics of the youth. Select public service announc