Keith Hefner

{{Infobox person | name = Keith Hefner | image = 300px | image_size = | caption = Hefner on CUNY TV's Urban Agenda (1998) | birth_date = | birth_place = Ann Arbor, Michigan | death_date = | death_place = | education = | occupation = Nonprofit executive | spouse = | parents = | children = }}

'''Keith Hefner''' is the founder and executive director of Youth Communication, an influential nonprofit organization publishing magazines and books by and for youth. The magazines are ''YCteen'' (formerly known as New Youth Connections), written by New York City teens, and ''Represent'' (formerly known as ''Foster Care Youth United'' or ''FCYU''), by and for foster youth. He is also a founder of Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor, a youth rights organization in Michigan.

==Biography== After growing up in Ann Arbor, in eleventh grade Hefner was inspired to become involved in the youth-led media field after seeing a high school principal censor the school newspaper. Soon after he started a magazine for local youth activists called ''FPS''.<ref>(nd) [http://www.wcstonefnd.org/pdfs/spotlight_hefner.pdf An Interview with Keith Hefner of Youth Communication] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701073929/http://www.wcstonefnd.org/pdfs/spotlight_hefner.pdf |date=2007-07-01 }}. W. Clement and Jessie Stone Foundation. Retrieved May 8, 2007.</ref>

From 1971 to 1979 Hefner ran Youth Liberation, a youth-led organization that became a national publisher for the youth rights movement. Youth Liberation Press published several of his publications, including ''How to Start a High School Underground Newspaper'', ''Students and Youth Organizing'', and other books about youth rights.<ref>Hefner, K. (1998) "[http://www.youthcomm.org/Documents/Youth%20Rights.htm The Movement for Youth Rights: 1945-2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320221539/http://www.youthcomm.org/Documents/Youth%20Rights.htm |date=2007-03-20 }}," ''Social Policy.'' Spring 1998. Retrieved May 7, 2007.</ref>

In 1979 Hefner moved to New York City, and after gaining inspiration from a new youth-driven newspaper in Chicago, founded Youth Communication.<ref>(nd) [http://www.wcstonefnd.org/pdfs/spotlight_hefner.pdf An Interview with Keith Hefner of Youth Communication] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701073929/http://www.wcstonefnd.org/pdfs/spotlight_hefner.pdf |date=2007-07-01 }}.</ref>

==Recognition== Hefner has received a great deal of recognition for his work in the fields of youth development, foster care and youth-led media. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989. In 1986 he was a Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of New York City at Columbia University. In 1997 he received the Luther P. Jackson Award for Educational Excellence from the New York Association of Black Journalists.<ref>(nd) [http://www.youthcomm.org/WhoWeAre/Staff.htm Youth Communications Staff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519202856/http://www.youthcomm.org/WhoWeAre/Staff.htm |date=2011-05-19 }}. YouthComm.Org website. Retrieved May 8, 2007.</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hefner, Keith}} Category:Living people Category:American nonprofit executives Category:American children's rights activists Category:Youth rights people Category:American activists Category:People from Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:History of youth Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:20th-century American people