The YMP's origin story: The seeds went into the ground for the Mississippi Youth Media Project almost a decade ago after Jackson Free Press co-founder and editor-in-chief Donna Ladd spoke to a group of Jim Hill High School students and teachers at the Jackson Zoo about the unfair and incomplete way that most mainstream media cover young people, especially young people of color. After telling them about a youth project in the Bronx in New York City in which young people examined how The New York Times covered young people, the group started meeting in the Jackson Free Press offices to brainstorm on how to teach media literacy in Mississippi and, ultimately, help young people learn to "be the media" in the state to positively affect the public narrative about their own lives.

Over the years, what was called "YMP" took a variety of forms. One summer, a diverse group of young people examined local media coverage and producing a special issue of the Jackson Free Press. In other summers, high-school students came together to learn media skills and publish a blog, engage with mentors and speakers, study professional and soft skills, and have many in-depth discussions in the JFP offices.

In June 2016, YMP grew up into something bigger and separate from the Jackson Free Press in the first full-time summer intensive project with its own inspiring newsroom in the old Associated Press offices. Then a W.K. Kellogg Leadership fellow, Donna Ladd joined with four other fellows to introduce the new YMP as their leadership project, with a diverse team of teachers, trainers and mentors. The project offered writing, video, podcasting, photography, web design, soft skills, and entrepreneurial media training and mentoring. The YMP "school" included a variety of workshops and speakers in those areas with the goals of teaching standards that help the teens in their academic success, while giving teens the experience of participating in the startup atmosphere of a student media project and eventual launch of their own web publication, which the students named jxnpulse.com.

In Spring 2017, YMP piloted its first school partnership program with the Wingfield High School (WHS) Fine Arts, Athletics, Mathematics and Engineering, or FAME, program, an initiative that provides an alternative to the traditional school day for students who have discipline issues or are behind on credits. The FAME program aims to prevent school dropout—approximately one-third (76 students) of the 226 students who dropped out of JPS in 2008-2009 were from WHS. To combat high dropout rates at WHS, YMP served around 15 FAME students from 9th through 12th grades each week to learn career technical skills with a focus on technology innovation and multimedia skill development. In the first three months of the program, WHS students published completed photojournalism packages online at the jxnpulse.com site. Three of the students also helped organize Jackson’s first Youth Mayoral Forum, with two in the media panel on-stage interviewing candidates.

A number of YMP students, like those from Wingfield High School, are young people living in poverty at the highest risk of committing crime, which many have witnessed from a young age. Students use media tools to connect with peers, adults, and their communities through constructive dialogue, collaboration, and navigating differences, biases, and conflicts to build strong relationships in a safe environment of empathy and forgiveness. YMP uses real stories to change the larger media and public narrative, and thus policies, that affect young people in Mississippi, and YMP promotes race dialogue, teaches equity principles and historic truths, and fosters positive relationships in an open, safe environment. YMP training is free to students and families. 

---

Request info

---

Youth Media Project Leaders

Donna Ladd
Founder, Executive Director and Editor

Neshoba County native Donna Ladd is CEO, co-founder and editor of the statewide Mississippi Free Press and the Jackson Free Press, and is the director and founder of the Mississippi Youth Media Project. Her journalism focuses on white supremacy, race violence and systemic inequity (which she calls “systemic reporting”). Donna, raised by her illiterate mother, is a 1983 graduate of Mississippi State with a degree in political science and received her master's in journalism at the Columbia Journalism School in 2001. Since returning to Mississippi in 2002, her investigative journalism has helped put a Klan murderer in prison and a Jackson mayor on trial … twice. 
Contact: [email protected]
​601-966-0834​

Torsheta Jackson
​Program Manager

Torsheta Jackson is MFP’s award-winning education-equity reporter in partnership with Report for America who is passionate about telling the unique and personal stories of the people, places and events in Mississippi. The Shuqualak, Miss., native holds a B.A. in Mass Communication from the University of Southern Mississippi and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Mississippi. She has had bylines on Bash Brothers Media, Mississippi Scoreboard and in the Jackson Free Press. Torsheta lives in Richland, Miss., with her husband, Victor, and two of their four children.
Contact: [email protected]
​601-983-6813

Imani Khayyam
​Assistant Program Manager, Photo-Video Trainer

Previously a staff photographer with the Jackson Free Press, a freelance photographer for MFP and assistant director of the Youth Media Project, Photo Editor Imani Khayyam has a long history with the Free Press. Imani is a photographer from Jackson, Miss.  who has a passion for documenting people’s authentic vibrancy. His work has been featured in The Observer, New Review, The Guardian, Reveal News, The Bitter Southerner, Scalawag Magazine and recently The New York Times. He’s also shot influences like Drake, Cardi B and Dapper Dan to name a few. His work can be viewed on www.imanikhayyam.com Instagram @i.khayyam.
Contact: [email protected]
​601-421-9932
​

Erica Powe
Executive/ Marketing Assistant, Parent Liaison

Erica Powe is the Executive / Marketing Assistant at the Mississippi Free Press, where she brings over 16 years of experience in marketing and operations for major nonprofits and large corporations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Belhaven University and is currently pursuing her MBA with a concentration in Project Management. A detail-oriented problem solver and passionate communicator, Erica thrives in roles that allow her to blend structure, creativity, and service.
Contact:  [email protected]​

Kiden-Aloyse Smith
Editorial Programming Coordinator

Kiden-Aloyse Smith is a graduate of Jackson State University with a degree in  Multimedia Journalism and Media Studies. Through her pursuit to promote liberation through representation, Kiden has worked with Teen Vogue in its Teen Vote 2020 Project; won numerous awards such as The Student Voice Award for her editorial articles, and launched an online publication entitled Sublimity Magazine in 2022. In February 2023, Kiden participated in The Driving Force Internship with the Black Automotive Media Group and Nissan and completed a summer internship as a Junior Producer at HEC Media in St. Louis, Mo. She also worked with MFP in the fall of 2023 as the Google Poynter Misinformation Fellow.
Contact:  [email protected]
​314-600-5643
​

Taylor Hathorn
Project Editor

Taylor McKay Hathorn is a two-time alumna of Mississippi College’s English program. As an undergraduate, she won the university’s Perry Medal for academic excellence; as a graduate student, she won the graduate research symposium for her work on religion in Anne of Green Gables. Taylor is currently enrolled in a second Master’s program at Louisiana State University and serves as the Assistant Director of Strategic Planning Support at Mississippi College. Taylor also teaches college composition courses and has published numerous short stories. Contact:
​[email protected]
601-433-1428

YMP Mentors + On-site Chaperones

Illan Ireland
Report for America/MFP Mentor

Environmental Reporter Illan Ireland is Mississippi Free Press’s bilingual environmental reporter in partnership with Report for America. Prior to joining the Mississippi Free Press, he completed a fellowship with The Futuro Media Group in New York City, taking on projects related to public health, climate change and housing insecurity. His freelance work has appeared in City Limits and various Futuro Media properties. Illan holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.S. from the Columbia Journalism School, where he spent a year covering the drug overdose crisis unfolding in New York City. He’s a Chicago native, a proud Mexican American and a lover of movies, soccer and unreasonably spicy foods.
Contact:
​[email protected] 

Shaye Smith
MJEG/MFP Chief of Staff, Pay Liaison, Onsite Chaperone​

Chief of Staff Shaye Smith is a native Mississippian who grew up in Soso. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Mississippi, and master’s degrees in marriage and family counseling and religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, she spent most of the next two decades primarily focused on raising her two children, with stints working in the nonprofit world, as well as occasional freelance work in writing and editing, along the way. Shaye lives in Clinton with her husband, where they are enjoying their empty nest, surrounded by what sometimes seems like entirely too many animals. 
Contact: [email protected] 601.362.6121

Tami Jones
​MFP Director of Revenue Operations, Onsite Chaperone

Director of Revenue Operations Tami Jones is 1995 graduate of Jackson State University, holds a bachelor’s degree in  criminal justice and a MBA from Belhaven University, and recently earned her Doctorates in Business Administration with concentrations in Leadership from Capella University. During her under-graduate years at Jackson State University, Tami majored in criminal justice and fully expected to become an attorney. But a funny thing happened on her path to taking the bar examination. She fell into sales shortly after graduation and can’t imagine doing anything else but sales and revenue generation. She began her career in sales at the Clarion Ledger Newspaper where she held many positions, which led her to management duties there before she left 14 years ago. Tami previously served as the Publisher for the Mississippi Business Journal, where she ran the day-to-day operations of the company, a position she held since January 2010 before joining the Mississippi Free Press.
Contact:
[email protected]
01.362.6121 ext. 23