Community Champions: Kids in the Spotlight (KITS)

KITS is a "Script-to-Screen program teaches youth in foster care to write, cast, & star in their own short films; leading to healing, growth, & viable employment."

Lights Camera Action! Youth who experienced foster care are finding their voice through film. Kids In The Spotlight is this week’s Community Champions story on FOX 11.

Nathanial Patterson, who’d been in foster care, gave a tour of the Van Nuys property. Sets include a classroom, a kitchen, an apartment with bedrooms, a jail and a courtroom. There’s a room for makeup and hair. Of the hospital room set, he said, "Everything is functional. Even the bed."

Kids In The Spotlight founder Tige Charity said "It's called KITS Production Studio With Purpose." The sets are rental space and with each job, two foster youth must also be employed. The NFL just shot a project there.

KITS is about uplifting youth impacted by foster care through their own movie-making and storytelling, mentoring by industry leaders and on-the-job training. Film posters line the top of the wall for some of the 90 short films written, acted in and produced by youth in the script-to-screen program. November 4 is the KITS Film Awards celebrating films made by foster youth alongside Hollywood entertainment mentors like Ty Burrell of Modern Family fame. Charity calls it "our version of the Academy Awards."

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To inquire about studio rental space contact: https://www.kitsinc.org/

Kids In The Spotlight was selected in 2021 as a nonprofit Legacy Champion, given a $10,000 grant and was honored during Super Bowl LVI's festivities.

In FOX 11's Community Champions, we showcased grant recipients leading up to Super Bowl 2022 in Los Angeles. For more information on the Super Bowl LVI Legacy Program and the selected nonprofit organizations, click here.