My First Recession

I recently heard about MPR's "My First Recession," project and received a request (below) to help expand outreach to the younger demographic. As they tell it, "For young people, recessions can be formative experiences, marking them for the rest of their lives. As part of a special project, MPR News' Public Insight Network partnered with the Neighborhood House and local artists to help teens tell the stories of their first recession." Explore the project online and feel free to contribute or pass it along to your fellow Minnesotans!

I’m writing today because we just launched a project called My First Recession.

The goal was to give kids a creative outlet for expressing the toll of the recession in their lives -- and to use the teens' stories as a catalyst for a deeper conversation about how recessions shape our lives.

As someone who works with teens, you are in a unique position to help us gather more stories from teenagers to feature on our website.

We’ve created this form that kids 13 and older can use to share their experiences with us: http://tinyurl.com/teenstories

We’d really appreciate if you could help get this in the hands of as many teens as possible, and encourage them to participate. Stories can be submitted as short essays, songs, videos or in any format of their choosing.

With your help, we can give kids a creative outlet for expressing what’s happening in their lives and to see that they’re part of a larger story.

Please feel free to call or email with any questions. I look forward to hearing from you and to hearing the teens’ stories.

Many thanks,
Molly Bloom
Analyst, Public Insight Journalism
Minnesota Public Radio News
mbloom@mpr.org // 651-290-1370