To support The Beat Within - Disconnected Youth Become Connectors, a program designed to strengthen the literacy/communication skills of incarcerated youth and ex-detainees in San Francisco and other cities. The Pacific News Service (PNS) is a 33-year-old nonprofit that began as an alternative news service for mainstream newspapers. Its mission is to create more inclusive communications not only through the content it produces, but also through developing and strengthening youth media and ethnic media outlets that reflect and serve some of the most disconnected segments of our society. PNS's writing workshops with incarcerated youth were first implemented in 1996. Today most of the youth communications staff are ex-detainees and former interns. The Beat Within is currently offering 48 weekly writing workshops that serve more than 6,000 juvenile hall detainees per year in Northern California, Virginia and Phoenix. In 2002-2003 NCF supported PNS's efforts to expand into communities where graduates now reside. In 2003-2004 PNS will strengthen its model for enhancing literacy/communication skills; nurture a network of similar initiatives; formalize its aftercare program for ex-detainees and enhance the opportunities for former detainees by publicizing and broadly distributing their work. PNS has the means and skills to engage in a multi-state organizing effort that involves partnerships with cultural institutions with similar missions.