The Austin Youth Safety Project challenges teens to use personal photography to share their perspectives on security, which aims to influence local policy.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A group of Austin teenagers is helping reshape how the city thinks about public safety \u2014 not through statistics or policy papers, but through their own lived experiences.<\/p>\n
The effort, known as the Austin Youth Safety Project, is led by University of Texas at Austin professor Michael Hames-Garc\u00eda and brings together young people from some of the city\u2019s most underserved neighborhoods. The goal: to better understand what actually makes them feel safe \u2014 and use those insights to influence future policy.<\/p>\n
At La Pe\u00f1a Art Gallery in Downtown Austin, those perspectives are now on display. The exhibit showcases photos taken by the teens, offering a deeply personal look at safety through their eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically just take a look at it, and look at one of us, and see what it\u2019s doing to us \u2014 what it is doing to our families,\u201d participant Jayden Martinez said.<\/p>\n
\nSafety, seen through a different lens <\/p>\n
Rather than focusing on policing or crime data, students were given a simple assignment: photograph with their phone what makes them feel safe.<\/p>\n
The results were revealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of pictures of family members,” Hames-Garc\u00eda said. “There were pictures of closed outdoor spaces. Pictures of trips out of town,\u201d Hames-Garcia said.<\/p>\n
For Bailee Martinez, that sense of safety came from an unexpected place \u2014 her first trip to New Orleans during Mardi Gras.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I didn\u2019t know anyone, I felt safe and I felt like I belonged,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody needs someone, and everybody needs a break from whatever they have going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCentering voices from high-risk communities <\/p>\n
The project specifically engages teens living in ZIP codes with high incarceration rates, in partnership with organizations like Austin Justice Coalition, PODER and Tomorrow\u2019s Promise Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are communities that have high rates of people being taken away to prison,\u201d Hames-Garc\u00eda said. \u201cThey\u2019re low-income communities \u2026 where there\u2019s a lot of food insecurity, where infrastructure might not be as strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some students, the project has also highlighted the impact of Austin\u2019s rapid growth.<\/p>\n
Jayden Martinez shared a photo of his childhood home in the Montopolis neighborhood \u2014 a place filled with memories, including agave plants his family once planted together. But rising housing costs forced his family out.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I can remember, my parents were paying about $1,000 a month,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore they turned it into this, they wanted about $3,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home has since been converted into an Airbnb rental, a shift Martinez said reflects broader changes across East Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to choose something that more represented what\u2019s going on all over Austin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nFrom photos to policy <\/p>\n
The exhibit at La Pe\u00f1a will remain on display through the rest of the week, giving the public a chance to engage with the students\u2019 work firsthand.<\/p>\n
But the project doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
The next phase will be to translate these personal insights into policy proposals that students can present directly to local leaders, including Austin City Council members and Travis County Commissioners.<\/p>\n
Organizers hope those in power will take note \u2014 and that the voices of young people will help shape a safer, more inclusive future for Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Austin Youth Safety Project challenges teens to use personal photography to share their perspectives on security, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-620458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}