Roberta Osborne
[Bobbie Osborne] Since becoming a dabbler on the Net, my inspiration comes from many sites as well as people. Mostly though, sites that show their personality and make an experience personal, and people that don't always follow the trends. You know the ones, they constantly push the envelope of learning, while remembering to have fun. My inspiration comes from the people that are willing to put themselves out and take risks with their creativity.
But, if you're going to pin me to those I want
to grow up to be like when it comes to design work, then the main ingredients for my
inspiration recipe come from:
Glenn Davis — ProjectCool and now
Astounding Websites
Joe Jenett — jenett webthings
Wally Gross — Surfers Choice
Jeffrey Zeldman — Jeffrey Zeldman Presents
Kevin Doyle — Doc Ozone
Kitty Mead — 24-7cool
and of course the Internet Brothers. Then,
I'd have to throw in a pinch of Gazoo's Gold while
sipping tea at the RSVP
and playing with the Pixeletas.
[IB] A portion of your site is dedicated to teenagers. In a previous career you used to work directly with youth. You provide an entertaining forum for their creative writing and personal development. How is that going?
[Boz]
Teen-Graffiti is something I could talk about forever, so please excuse me if I
begin a passion filled run of the mouth on this subject. The history of teen-graffiti
is one that can be traced back to about 1995 when it began as a project of the (501c)
non-profit agency I ran in California. Family Alternatives to Drugs, Inc. (FAD) embraced
the motto "...let's start a new FAD." Our agency was a community drop-in center
that also ran peer support groups for families caught in the addiction cycle. The more
we became involved with our community as an agency, the more we discovered that although
youth were offered a voice, they often were not heard.
It became the goal of our agency to reach out to those youth that were getting lost in a system that separated them by good kid/bad kid and subsequently made judgment calls on them. What our adult leaders tried to do was create a structured, positive safe harbor for teen expression in whatever form.
What the teen support group became was a creature of it's own making. With the help of agencies like our local health department, child protection services and mental health, as well as many other community and state organizations, business's and individuals, we were funded to create a peer based community program. Using non-judgmental support, we encouraged the teens to be more community oriented by involving them in creative projects. Projects like "Christmas graffiti" where they painted the windows of downtown businesses for the holidays, or the "Letters from Santa" campaign, where they not only answered dead letters to Santa from the post office, but also raised thousands of dollars for families in need.
With successes like these, as well as the publication of a teen written and produced newsletter called "sobering news" (circulation went from 1000 a quarter to 5000 a quarter within a year), the original youth support group became empowered. These teens made a dent in our community's view of "troubled youth." Suddenly, it was cool to be part of the teen support group in our community.
Mentoring was embraced and schools started forming peer support centers. These teens impacted in a big way. They in essence became mentors, and with the agency backing them, they thrived. (POTS) Part Of The Solution as they called themselves, are the ones that deserve credit for creating the original teen-graffiti, even if it was for the selfish motivation of staying in touch with each other as we moved on with our lives. A few remain today as my faithful teen advisory group.
"My inspiration comes from the people that are willing to put themselves out and take risks with their creativity."
"It became the goal of our agency to reach out to those youth that were getting lost in a system that separated them by good kid/bad kid and subsequently made judgment calls on them."
"These teens made a dent in our community's view of "troubled youth." Suddenly, it was cool to be part of the teen support group in our community."
"Mentoring was embraced and schools started forming peer support centers. These teens impacted in a big way."