P.O.V.'s Youth Views is a peer-led initiative, offering new models for working with youth and the media to encourage civic engagement that can be replicated by youth-serving and issue-based organizations across the country.

In leading public screenings, young people engage their audience to
examine, investigate and determine solutions to community-based issues.
P.O.V. Youth Views is an example of giving young people a platform for
voice, recognition of their ability to lead, and value of their
inventive tactics to social change. The leadership young people gain
through P.O.V. screenings--public speaking skills, critiquing
films/media literacy, engaging viewers to a particular community issue,
and encouraging dialogue with adults and peers to create solutions--is
paramount to organizations that truly support a future democracy.

Begun as a pilot project in 2000, Youth Views works with youth-run and youth-serving organizations, with a particular emphasis on groups working on behalf of communities of color and marginalized communities. 

It focuses on two primary areas of activity:

    * Nationally, P.O.V. films and resource materials are offered free-of-charge to youth-service organizations to organize screening and discussion events around issues presented in the films, to enhance their outreach efforts in their communities.

    * Locally in the New York City area, in addition to offering screenings, the annual Youth Views Institute and Advisory Board works with youth leaders to provide them with training and materials for using media as a tool in community organizing.

In addition, Youth Views collaborates with the Advisory Board to select films from the P.O.V. archives and develop accompanying facilitation materials, which are made available to youth organizers nationwide through the Youth Views Library.