FYI is working to address another factor: Los Angeles' social divide.  The region's most dominant, visible, and fastest growing industry, motion picture/TV production employs more than 204,000 County residents (source: Los Angeles Country Economic Development Corporation: Los Angeles County Profile, May 2006) and exerts tremendous influence on world culture.  Tens of thousands of at-risk youth live in the shadow of the Hollywood sign.  Yet many entertainment industry training programs - and the good-paying jobs that follow - are out of the reach of minority and low-income youth in the greater Los Angeles area.

Moreover, filmmaking equipment is costly to rent and purchase and presents a formidable learning curve to the uninitiated filmmaker.  To put it succinctly, this powerful and pervasive means of self-expression, civic identity, and economic empowerment is unavailable to at-risk youth at a time when those very needs are critical to personal development.

We believe that an expanded FYI program has the programmatic potential and institutional support to touch many of these young people and prepare them for the challenges of successful employment and citizenship.