We've expanded our footprint in NYC with the latest round of grants awarded through the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund and are thrilled to welcome new members!

• Brooklyn Museum
• Common Sense Media
• Downtown Community Television
• Global Action Project
• The Lamp
• Make the Road
• Museum of the Moving Image
• People’s Production House
• Queens Public Library
• Reel Works
• World Up

In December 2010, The New York Community Trust joined with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to create Hive Digital Media Learning Fund to promote adolescents’ learning anytime, anywhere through digital media. With additional contributions from the Joan Ganz Cooney Fund in The New York Community Trust, $1.525 million has been raised for grants in 2011.

“In order for programs to be successful, they must be intrinsically motivating and relevant to kids and teens,” says Chris Lawrence, director of Hive Learning Network NYC. “This is what drives us to work with subcultures and interests such as skateboarding, gaming, and science fiction, while at the same time increasing young people’s digital literacy and encouraging them as makers.” 

“With this round of grants, we are eager to gather research on our emergent definition of Connected Learning—how we understand the connection between learning and social interactions, passions, educators, and mentors—and to investigate how these projects help us tell stories,” says Connie Yowell, director of education at the MacArthur Foundation, the lead funder of this effort.

“The New York Community Trust’s role is not just to fund these projects, but to bring funders together to magnify impact and use our knowledge about local arts and education to identify effective nonprofits developing digital media learning projects,” says Kerry McCarthy, arts program officer at The Trust. “Together, these funders are helping kids discover their interests, connect with others who share their passion, and tie it back to what they are learning in school.”