Foundation for Newark’s Future
The Foundation for Newark’s Future was one part of a $200 million campaign for Newark’s public schools with a goal to provide the “shot in the arm” necessary to create systemic change in the city’s educational system. It was established in part as an initiative motivated by Senator Cory Booker who was in 2010 able to create a partnership and secure a $100 million matching challenge grant from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The organization was designed to be a five year initiative, and officially ended operations in 2016. The Foundation worked in a partnership with a cross-section of the Newark community to bring excellent education opportunities to all of Newark’s children. The Foundation approached our team to create a video package that told the education stories of how these funds directly impacted students, teachers, families, and community-based organizations across Newark.
After a lot of research, casting, planning a with the Foundation and it’s partners, we filmed so many inspiring scenes and stories of education partners in action whose lives were directly improved majorly by this fund. It was an incredible opportunity for our team to capture the “moments” and color and context of what it really takes to build a strong sustainable education system for Newark’s children.
From the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, to the South Ward Community Schools Initiative, to a citywide literacy campaign, to new, excellent school models across the city, much happened in five years and it was lot of ground to cover. We produced one longer form overview video for high level stakeholders, the city and key partners. We also produced a few shorter versions for social media shares as well as a variety of very short social media videos of “moments” to help build and connect community around these new initiatives.
We were moved by the passionate community of educators, city leadership, school district leadership, faith leaders, and community based organizations who worked well beyond their job descriptions, and worked tirelessly to improve educational outcomes and continues to not rest until every child in the city of Newark has access to a high-quality education.