Cartoon Network Studios is teaming up with Baltimore-based prodco Outlook Company to discover new artists and storytellers from underrepresented backgrounds.

Running as part of Outlook’s existing Nero Projects animation incubator, the program has already selected a first group of six participants. They’ll now work with creative execs from Cartoon Network Studios and elsewhere in the industry to develop bibles for their original animated series concepts, at least one of which will be selected to move into formal development. The initiative’s goal is to give participants experience in collaborating with creative partners and developing ideas.

In the first wave are: Briana Bolden, a writer from Delaware; Jared Allen, an artist and recent graduate; Rebecca Stern, an artist; kids book author Chiêu Anh Urban; Marina Khatin, an animator who works at Outlook; and Stephen Church, a 16-year-old rapper.

Former NFL defensive lineman Trevor Pryce founded Outlook in 2007, and the studio has produced an original kids series for Netflix called Kulipari: An Army of Frogs, based on Pryce’s novel series An Army of Frogs.