The Breakfast Story

It started over breakfast at Sabrina's on Callowhill (back when that was the only Sabrina's). In the early days of the Philadelphia Youth Media Collaborative, there wasn’t a big plan or a fancy conference room. There were just people who cared deeply about young people and media — sitting around a table, sharing breakfast, swapping stories, and realizing just how much they had in common. Youth media educators, filmmakers, teaching artists, journalists, and community organizers began finding each other. They talked about what they were making with young people, what they were learning, what was challenging, and what they wished they didn’t have to figure out alone. Those breakfasts became a place to connect, dream, share resources, and build relationships. And slowly, those relationships became a network. Today, PYMC brings together organizations across Philadelphia that believe young people should have the opportunity to create media, tell their own stories, think critically about the media around them, and have their voices heard. We strengthen the people and organizations doing this work, connect them to one another, and make space for new ideas and collaborations to grow. At its heart, PYMC is still about what happened around that breakfast table: people coming together, sharing what they know, and realizing that we can build more when we build together.