Kids4Cameras is a non-profit in Edmonton, Alberta, that encourages youth from all walks of life to share their voice through photography. Kids4Cameras has established an amazing reputation for enriching the lives of the youth they engage with, as well as the lives of the volunteers who collaborate with them.

Heather Scott is a board director with Kids4Cameras. She knows that when youth are given the opportunity to create with photography that this can be a social connector and bridge the gap to help kids find their way.

Recorded live October 2016

There is a lot that can be learned from Kids4Cameras.

Although Kids4Cameras is experiencing positive growth, it remains a grassroots organization that is propelled by its core values: empowerment, trust, and leadership. These are embedded in every level of K4C, and even act as the foundation for the mandate of their photography program curriculum.

Simply, their belief is this: Create With Passion, Make Change Happen.

Kids4Cameras immediately struck me as a generous and inspirational cause. I caught up with Heather to ask her a few questions:

Heather, what benefits have youth been getting out of the Kids4Cameras program?

The benefits are abundant! On a basic level, Kids4Cameras provides youth with the resources to engage with, and gain a practical, creative skill genuinely interests them. Beyond that, it creates an environment that allows each individual to express their take on their world. The cameras we provide create the opportunity to connect.

Ideally, each youth participant receives a camera for use during the course. With this camera, they work with and learn from one of our volunteer professional photographers, which allows the youth to take up the craft photography at an advanced level, meet local photographers, and display their art at gallery showings. The gallery showings always attract a crowd, and our photographers are excited to share their story with the world.

Kids4Cameras also has a reputation for providing an excellent experience for their volunteers. Why is that?

We actually have several types of volunteers, and we try to create an environment where everybody can contribute the skill that they love to contribute. For our volunteer photographers, we provide them with the opportunity to share their skills, and gain new teaching experience, in a meaningful way. We partner with organizations that believe in providing opportunity to those who otherwise might not have it, and our shared vision has created powerful results for everybody involved– including the volunteers.

The opportunity to work with youth who are enthusiastic about learning to express themselves through photography is not a common one. We are incredibly grateful for our volunteer photographers, and they’re generally quite grateful for us, too.

You mentioned that there were other types of volunteers?

Of course!

The youth engaging with our photography workshops is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a committed team of administrators and board members who are constantly working behind the scenes on turning new elements of this project into a reality.

We have a committed board of amazing minds, all of whom are willing to contribute significant amounts of time, energy, and resources to furthering Kids4Cameras. There are always leads to follow, classes to be organized, local institutions to partner with in all sorts of inventive ways, and events to be coordinated. Without our strong core of administrative volunteers to make all of this happen, and without our board members discussing and deciding on strong, ambitious goals and ways to reach them, there would be no Kids4Cameras.

By the way, we are ALWAYS looking for more volunteers, and often throw mixers so that anybody who might be interested in volunteering can meet with our organization and see what we’re all about. The next one is on February 28 at Cha Island. Check our Facebook page for more info!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Can you donate a digital camera? #Kids4Cameras #YEG ” quote=”Can YOU Donate a Digital Camera? “]

We would love that! Though we do have great relations with local partners who offer us generous discounts, like McBain Cameras–our camera supply depends almost entirely on donations. We have been lucky to have received a lot of cameras from a lot of generous sources since our inception, and we trust that the community will continue to see the value in donating new or used digital cameras.

Donate here: http://www.kids4cameras.com/donate

This webinar is hosted by Jean L. Eaton of Information Managers Ltd.

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