Community TV Network of Chicago

Community TV Network (CTVN) empowers urban minority youth by providing access to and training in media arts. Speaking with their own voices and through their own images, our youth create solution-oriented videos, new media works, and television programs about their urban experiences while developing the leadership, academic, and job skills needed to create a positive future for themselves and their neighborhoods.

CTVN provides free in-school and after-school video production classes 5 days a week year round, including paid apprenticeships, hands-on job training, and the flagship "Hard Cover" program, in which teens write, direct and produce peer-to-peer TV programs examining issues in their communities.

Since its founding in 1974, over 9,000 Chicago youth have participated in CTVN's media literacy programs. Each year, CTVN youth and their work are recognized in youth media competitions and film festivals across the nation.