A Black student taking a picture with a camera

WIDE ANGLE HAS PROVIDED MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION TO OVER 8,295 YOUTH IN BALTIMORE.

MISSION

Through media arts education, Wide Angle Youth Media collaborates with and amplifies the voices of Baltimore youth to engage audiences across social divides. Our programs inspire creativity and instill confidence in young people, supporting them to navigate school, career, and life. Since 2000, Wide Angle Youth Media has worked with over 8,295 youth from across Baltimore City who have produced thousands of media projects about their lives and communities.

Wide Angle Youth Media is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Tax ID #52-2276602
Maryland Charity Campaign #522276602

 

VISION

We envision that a new generation of media makers, particularly youth from historically minoritized and marginalized communities, will flourish through creative expression and equitable access to professional resources and skill-building opportunities. All levels of the Baltimore-area media arts and communications fields will reflect the full spectrum of residents.

VALUES

  • Sustainability: Promote work/life balance and maintain capacity without overworking staff, so that everyone can do their best work in service of the mission.

  • Relationship-building: Foster a sense of belonging, value the whole self. Honesty and storytelling are part of the “connective tissue” that builds and sustains healthy relationships for all stakeholders and promotes brave spaces at WAYM.

  • Life-long Learning: Prioritize education, career, creativity, and professional development opportunities of students, staff and board.

  • Authenticity: Act with intentionality and integrity across the organization as well as with current/potential partners and funders.

  • Compassionate Accountability: Staff, students, and board fulfill their roles and responsibilities with empathy and understanding at all levels. Implement equitable accountability to ourselves, one another, and the mission through open communication, collaboration, and autonomy.

OUR COMMITMENT TO ANTIRACISM & ANTI-OPPRESSION

At Wide Angle Youth Media, we dream of a future where the people in front of and behind the camera reflect our city and society. We believe that our stories and media should reflect a full spectrum of voices, acknowledge our complex history, and move beyond whitewashed plotlines to depict every individual with nuance, care, respect, humility, and humanity.

Wide Angle is committed to working towards anti-racist, anti-oppression tenets at all levels of our organization. This work begins with understanding and acknowledging the historical, systemic minoritization of communities labeled as “other” or “different” from the centered white culture, and continues with rooting out common practices and policies based in white supremacy. We seek to ensure that all voices are valued and our hope is that our classrooms, workplace, partnerships, workforce clients, and supporters reflect a commitment to moving towards antiracism, equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion.


OUR SHARED LANGUAGE

Words and language matter. In an effort to build greater clarity and intentionality, our staff has defined keywords in Wide Angle’s mission statement as well as terms that shape our approach to youth development and social justice. Wide Angle operates at the intersection of media arts, creative youth development, and social change. Our organization believes providing access to free, high quality, media arts education to Baltimore’s young people promotes social justice. Our staff aim to create spaces where young people can tell their own stories with authenticity, confront stereotypes (often ignited by the mainstream media), preserve and present counter-narratives, address historical injustices, and dream of solutions.

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Wide Angle is committed to amplifying youth voices and uplifting stories that are often unheard. As an organization, it is important to acknowledge that as a nonprofit based in Baltimore City, we occupy the traditional, ancestral territory of the Paskestikweya people. We humbly offer our respects to the elders, past, and present citizens of the Cedarville Band of the Piscataway Conoy, the Piscataway Indian Nation, and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, all Algonquian Peoples.

We have a vibrant vision for a new tomorrow, but it will not become a reality until each of us examines our relationship to the story of colonization and reflects upon the ways in which we may be its beneficiaries. We encourage each of you to research the history of the sacred land you reside upon, in order to start a new chapter, rooted in healing and reconciliation.

 
 

IMPACT REPORTS

Click on the links below to view and/or download copies of Wide Angle Youth Media’s impact reports.  If you would like any additional information for past years, please contact info@wideanglemedia.org.

 

TACTICAL ROADMAP

The Tactical Roadmap will guide operations during a 3 year period of transition (1/1/2024 - 12/31/2026), as Wide Angle moves its operations to Wide Angle’s Studios at the Service Center in 2024. To develop this plan, staff met over three 1-2 day retreats (fall 2022 - spring 2023), to create a new Vision statement, refine organization values, and build out plans to operationalize those values. These planning sessions provided the foundation for the Tactical Roadmap. Throughout the Roadmap development process, staff and board set priorities around achieving the intended impact of goal advancement; identified necessary organizational capacity and financial resources; and established the benchmarks that will make it possible to define success.

 

FINANCIAL FACTS

Click on the links below to view and/or download copies of Wide Angle Youth Media’s financial statements. 

If you would like any additional financial information for past years, please contact info@wideanglemedia.org