Free Spirit Media

Free Spirit Media (FSM) is a Chicago-based youth development and media organization that provides teens and young adults on Chicago’s south and west sides with a comprehensive foundation in media literacy and hands-on media production. This grant provides general operating support for FSM to conduct in-school arts education, offer after school and summer digital media programs, and provide advanced creative workforce development opportunities. Through its programming, FSM is committed to helping youth find their individual potential, and it strives to create professional pathways for youth on Chicago’s south and west sides into the media and creative arts industries.

Free Spirit Media (FSM) is a Chicago-based youth development and media organization that provides teens and young adults in communities of color on Chicago’s South and West sides with a comprehensive foundation in media literacy and hands-on media production experience. This grant strengthens and expands Real Chi Youth, FSM’s new experimental "learning newsroom" for young adults, ages 18 to 25 who are interested in learning to produce high-quality, solutions-oriented, community journalism. Its goal is to provide reporting that is relevant to historically underserved communities on the South and West sides of Chicago while training a new generation of journalists and media professionals living and working in the communities where they grew up.