Growing Tennessee: Rural Youth Cultivate Common Ground

Growing Tennessee: Rural Youth Cultivate Common Ground is a project of Telamon Corporation, a non-profit organization that operates Head Start, job training, and other initiatives in 11 states. Since 1995 Telamon has been the only provider of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start in Tennessee. See http://www.telamon.org/

Growing Tennessee is a multi-cultural Youth Initiative for children, age 11-18, who are from both migrant farm worker families and rural Tennessee families. Since 2005 over 50 youth from rural West and East Tennessee have participated in photography and storytelling classes. The youth have shared their work with a wide audience at numerous public exhibits and their photographs have been featured in several publications, including Tennessee Arts Commission Magazine, Johnson City Press, Erwin Record, Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville Voice, Metro Pulse, & Blast Magazine.

The project is funded by Office of Head Start, Tennessee Arts Commission, PeyBack Foundation, and East Tennessee Foundation.
Made possible by generous donations from Olympus & Fuji Camera Companies and numerous private individuals.

Project Goals:
Enhancing self-esteem and critical thinking skills
Promoting literacy through arts and technology
Increasing cross cultural awareness
Encouraging youth to continue their education