Collaborating with The Confluence Center

Partnership

Paul Clifton and The Confluence Center are YEBO’s longest running partners. Learn more about how our partnership helps to amplify the voices of BIPOC-identifying youth in our communities.

Student of the Confluence Center engaging in a mural project

Student of the Confluence Center creating a multi-media family memoir

A Longstanding Partnership

Our longest running partnership at YEBO has been the Confluence Center @ McGlone Academy. Since 2018, the Confluence Center and YEBO have been collaborating to explore how to design impactful media arts-based experiences with young people.

The Confluence Center is a media arts maker-space located in the heart of the Montbello community in Denver, Colorado, and is led by artist and teacher, Paul Clifton. The center is a vibrant and dynamic space where students create media rooted in their identities and tell their stories to bring together the community and speak truth to power.

From 2018-20, YEBO facilitated its program in the Confluence Center, collaborating with Paul and his students to learn how to leverage the power of media and storytelling to support young people with exploring themselves and their community.

“

The center is a vibrant and dynamic space where students create media rooted in their identities and tell their stories to bring together the community and speak truth to power.

VOM youth producer interviewing Jeanette Vizguerra

The Voice of Montbello Podcast

One of the Confluence Center’s staple initiatives is The Voice of Montbello (VOM), a podcast written and produced by Montbello youth to build their power and advocacy skills through storytelling. For over seven years, The Voice of Montbello has invited artists, politicians, and community members into the Confluence Center to engage conversations that bring awareness to local issues young people face. In 2021, The Voice of Montbello earned honorable mention in NPR’s student podcast contest for its “I Am Black Excellence” episode.

YEBO partners with The Voice of Montbello by providing its youth producers with essential infrastructure, including recording equipment and software, to ensure they can produce stories from anywhere in their community.

With YEBO, The Voice of Montbello formed the YEBOpod Network, a podcasting platform centering and celebrating the voices of BIPOC-identifying youth across Colorado.

By publishing our stories on the same platform, we’re better able to amplify the unique experiences and perspectives of BIPOC youth, while building safe and affirming spaces where young people can fully express themselves and explore the power of their voices.