Vibe Check: An Audio Storytelling Program For Teens (Fall 2026—Spring 2027)
How are art and creative practice an antidote for challenges you face? When mental health and wellness are buzzwords, what are actual tools to navigate an overwhelming world?
Go on a journey to explore the role creativity and the arts play in health and wellness and document stories from your community around important issues that matter to you in our teen audio storytelling program.
Learn to interview, write scripts and record all the elements needed to create compelling audio pieces about mental health and wellness. No experience is necessary — just curiosity and a willingness to explore the world through sound.
To listen to audio from our past podcasting programs please visit www.chapter510.org/soundspace.
Get paid a $350 stipend!
Program Details:
When: Every Tuesday, 4:30pm—6:30pm
Dates: September 22, 2026–May 4, 2027
Age Range: 9—12th graders
Youth Stipend: $350
Location: Chapter 510, 546 9th Street, Oakland
Teaching Artist Bio: Elena Botkin-Levy has worked at the intersection of audio production, education and media-making for over 20 years. With a focus on amplifying queer voices as a storyteller. Elena started in community radio and learned that holding space, asking questions and documenting is powerful. Drawn to oral histories as an opportunity to map our own narratives, she founded GEMS Oral Histories & Audio Storytelling to support individuals and communities in saving and honoring stories that matter. Working with institutions such as Women's Audio Mission, YR Media (formerly Youth Radio), outLoud Radio, ZUMIX Radio, Elena has led educational programs in the audio sector with a focus on creativity, innovation and change-making. Elena is an alumni of Temple University where she studied in the Geography Urban Studies and Education departments.