Community engagement

An important part of the mission of African American Studies is to serve as a resource to the Richmond community. In addition to participating in community speaking engagements, faculty members have initiated programs for the community. Faculty have helped correctional institutions develop black cultural and historical programs, provided local schools with instruction and guidance, served as consultants to public agencies, offered expert testimony to commissions, and donated countless hours to public teaching activities.

Featured example

The Peep This Project uses documentary filmmaking to facilitate positive youth development in adolescence identified as being “at-risk.” The project was funded by the VCU Council for Community Engagement and is a partnership between the Department of African American Studies (AAS), the Media, Art, and Text Program (MATX), the Department of Photography and Film (P&F), and the Family Resource Center (FRC) in Richmond’s East End. The goals of this project and partnership are: a) to provide youth opportunities for mentoring, b) to expose youth to college as a life course option, c) to develop leadership skills in “at-risk” adolescent males through the use of art (film), and d) to provide role models via engagement with faculty, undergraduate students in AAS, graduate students in P & F, and the MATX Program. The project will seek to partner adolescent males, ages 13 to 17 years, and identified as being “at-risk” by the FRC, with undergraduate student mentors in AAS and graduate student mentors in MATX and P & F.  These partnerships will constitute project teams.  Each team will select a topic for a documentary film, plan, and execute its production. The final project will culminate in a community viewing of the film project. The films will focus on historical issues relevant to the Richmond area that are relevant to student SOL’s (e.g., civil rights, slavery, Virginia government and history).

The first phase of the program will consist of 20 weekend classroom hours of instruction in the following content areas: a) research and preproduction, b) ethics, c) interviewing skills, d) field production techniques, and d) postproduction. Following the classroom component, participants will be placed with a production team and assigned a student mentor and graduate intern. There will be a maximum of 2 production teams. After production teams have been established, project topics will be identified by the members. Documentary topics must be age appropriate, safe to pursue, have some educational, social consciousness, or personal development value.        

Once production begins, filming will take place under the supervision of a graduate intern. Once filming is complete, postproduction will begin and each team will have a faculty consultant available to provide technical support and assistance with editing the final product. Each team will produce a 30 minute documentary film. The final phase of the Peep This program will culminate in an award ceremony and showing of the film projects. We will attempt to schedule the film showing at participants’ high schools. Awards will be given for the following categories: a) most creative film, b) most impactful film, c) best technical film, and d) best overall film. The number of award categories insures that each team is acknowledged for their efforts.   

It is anticipated that engagement through these partnerships will enhance the psychological, social, and academic outcomes for the “at-risk” adolescent males who participate in the project. Specifically, through the use of mentoring relationships, exposure to positive role models, the development of leadership skills, increased literacy through filmmaking, and the opportunity for positive social interactions in a college setting, we expect to see a reduction in the risk for delinquent behavior among participants in the program. Even beyond a reduction in delinquent behavior, it is anticipated that participants will have more favorable psychological, social, and academic outcomes.