Joey Travolta's Inclusion Films Summer Camps

Every summer, Joey Travolta directs two week short film camps at college campuses all over the country for children and teens with autism. The program is designed to develop self-esteem, confidence, social skills and creativity through acting, improvisation, and digital film making within their peer group. Each age group writes a script, pitches it to the Inclusion staff, then follows the entire process through filming and post production and a red carpet premier of the thesis film in the fall.

Dani Bowman Teaches Animation

This year, Joey added animation to the mix, with classes taught by a 16 year old girl with autism named Dani Bowman, who founded her company, Powerlight Studios at age 14 and has been working as an animator professionally ever since. At the camps in Jacksonville, FL, Edgewood Cliffs, NJ, and Detroit, MI, the campers are divided into three groups by age, from 10-13, 14-15, and 16-17, and the campers are paired up two to a computer to help teach collaboration skills. During each class of approximately 20 students, Dani teaches the basic process of computer animation and by the end of the class, the students have successfully animated a jumping character of their own creation, and work on animation to accompany the camp thesis projects. Toon Boom Software is helping support the camps through sponsor ship as well as providing the Toon Boom Studio software for the camps as part of a new outreach initiative to the special needs community. Many children and young adults with autism excel in the visual arts and exposure to animation software can be the foundation of a successful and self supporting career leveraging their unique skills.