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Louis Massiah is the founder and executive director of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, a media arts organization that provides low-cost workshops and equipment access to emerging video and filmmakers and community organizations. He is an independent filmmaker who has produced and directed a variety of award-winning documentary films for public television.

Known for his explorations of civil rights themes and crises in the African-American community, his credits include two films in the Eyes on the Prize II series and The Bombing of Osage Avenue, about the burning of a black section of Philadephia as a result of the police bombing of the headquarters of the group MOVE. He is also the director of W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices. Massiah has received awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the the National Black Programming Consortium, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and several Emmy award nominations. In 1996, he was a recipient of a five year John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship. His current project, Haytian Stories, examines the complex relationship between the United States and Haiti over the last 200 years.

Camden Churches Organized for People (CCOP) is a covenant among Camden-area congregations to work together through collective action in addressing the many problems facing families and congregations in the city.

Centro Nueva Creation's mission is to transform their neighborhood by working with youth and families to create a better community. They believe that the assets of West Kensington outweigh the problems and that the area's youth and families have incredible resources for change. Although our community is often called "The Badlands" by the media, they like to promote it as "The Goodlands," a name more reflective of its current reality as a place where dramatic change is possible.

The Sedgwick Cultural Center, located in Mt. Airy, the heart of Philadelphia's Historic Northwest, creates an experience that enriches the lives of individuals and of the many communities it serves. The Center's broad spectrum of performing and visual arts programs brings together people of all ages and backgrounds and gives voice and venue to both local and national artists. Drawing on teen jazzophiles from both the city and the suburbs, the Teen Jazz Workshop lovingly spotlighted in the video is one of the Sedgwick programs that create a community of artists to celebrate and advance one of the region's rich musical traditions.

Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia builds and rehabilitates houses and neighborhoods by providing simple, decent, affordable homes in partnership with families in need. In March 2003, Habitat Philadelphia formed through the merger of four independent city affiliates, including the West Philadelphia branch of Habitat for Humanity, which co-produced this video. Before the merger, those affiliates had completed a total of 106 houses in a little over 15 years.

The student video makers who participated in this 2005 Documentary History Project for Youth production are: Ahmadu Ekpaji (Philadelphia Mennonite High School), Tahirah Garrett (Germantown Settlement Charter), Kerry Gilbert (homeschooled), Lee Givhan (Central High School), Hannah Horwitz (Upper Darby High School), Brett Johnson (Roxborough High School), Alyssa Kreilick (Springfield Township High School) and Sophavy Phuong (Bodine High School for International Affairs).

Deborah Rudman is Media Coordinator for Drexel University Television (DUTV), an access channel providing diverse cultural programming. She has collaborated in all phases of the video production process, including curating and producing Through the Lens, a showcase of independent work for WYBE. She guided Scribe Video Center's Documentary History Project for Youth in both 2004 and 2005 in her role as project facilitator and instructor.

Rodney Whittenberg is president of Melodyvision, a music and video production studio and community service and education provider. A composer, producer, songwriter, and educator, Rodney has developed a variety of music and art education programs for youth, adults, and senior citizens. He has taught at Temple University, the University of the Arts, and Drexel University and is an active member on the board of the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP), the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). She guided Scribe Video Center's Documentary History Project for Youth in 2004 and 2005 in his role as project facilitator and instructor.

Several local humanities scholars came on board as project consultants, and they met with the facilitators and the student artists to help them map out and focus what often seemed like an overwhelming amount of project research. The Fairmount Park project humanities scholars included: Penny Balkin Bach (executive director of the Fairmount Park Art Association), Ed Grusheski (the Philadelphia Water Department's general manager of public affairs and director of development for the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center), Peter Rose (an experimental filmmaker commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association to produce 1994's Pavilion in the Trees), the late Ernesta Ballard (a former Fairmount Park Commissioner and board member of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance), Fairmount Park historic preservation planner Theresa Stuhlman, and University of Pennsylvania Urban Studies professor Dominic Vitiello. The students also held meetings with biologists at Cobbs Creek Park, and did extensive research at the Library Company and the Urban Archives.