Welcome to Bueno Kids, LLC, home to the original Shoot With Cameras - Not Guns® program.  Since 1998, we have helped children express themselves safely and creatively through the art of photography. 

Bueno Kids, LLC was founded in 2004 by Alina Bueno Nadsady, MPH who created the Shoot With Cameras - Not Guns® curriculum in 1998. The curriculum was conceived based on the technique called Photovoice as a medium for elementary school children to tell stories of their surroundings through the art of photography. The appeal and power of the Shoot With Cameras - Not Guns program has led to its many awards, featured articles and media stories.

Bueno Kids, LLC feels strongly about giving children the opportunity to express what they feel about their community in a safe and creative manner.  Children absorb so much from their surroundings by what they see and hear everyday, but most are never asked about what they think is happening.  Many children with whom we work agree and tell us an adult has never asked them what they think or feel about their daily experiences.

It is important for children to develop critical thinking skills about what they experience in their surroundings and to discuss their experiences with a caring adult that can help them understand the world around them.   Shoot With Cameras - Not Guns allows this to happen using photography as a medium.  After many years of working with young children, we are still delighted by the insight and honesty that they bring to our world through the lens of a camera.

Shoot With Cameras – Not Guns® is a community awareness and violence prevention curriculum designed for elementary school children. Alina Bueno Nadsady, MPH created and implemented the curriculum for the first time in 1998 while she was studying for her Master's Degree of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.  The curriculum was initially piloted at Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington, CA with Mrs. Fran Brown’s 5th Grade students.  Since that time, the curriculum has been implemented at many Los Angeles area schools and replicated in other cities throughout the United States.

The program was first funded in 1998 by Bob and Marion Wilson, through a donation to the UCLA School of Public Health. From 1999-2001, the program was funded by the Pacificare Foundation and the Lennox School District at the Childhood Injury Prevention Center (CIPC) of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Center. As part of the CIPC’s affiliation with the Injury Free Coalition for Kids®, the curriculum was used as a model for other photography-based programs throughout the United States.

Through Bueno Kids, LLC, the program has received funding from the Gang Alternatives Program and the Harbor Gateway Weed and Seed (A partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department and the United States Federal Government that strives to reduce gang violence). In 2006, Shoot With Cameras - Not Guns® received international recognition when it was awarded the Körber-Stiftung Foundation’s USable Transatlantic Idea Award in Berlin, Germany.