Chicken and Egg grant caps great funding run

Since appearing at the inaugural Good Pitch Chicago in October, our in-progress documentary The Homestretch received over $40,000 in finishing funds from The Chicago Community Trust, the Ebert Foundation, the Baskin Family Foundation, the Vicki and Bruce Heyman Foundation and the Mullen Family Foundation.

These donations are providing crucial funds to keep going through the end of the year. The film, about homeless youth in Chicago, is focused on raising the remaining funds needed to keep editing to a finish in the New Year. An end of the year campaign to raise $20,000 to support their next steps with a composer and to make the film broadcast ready are underway.

All of this is capped off by the news, announced yesterday, that the filmmakers, Kirsten Kelly and Anne de Mare, received a $10,000 grant from Chicken and Egg Documentary Fund. So that means just $10,000 left to raise to make their end of the year goal!

Impact

The Lefkofsky Family Foundation has given The Homestretch Impact team a $25,000 grant to begin immediate impact work with the Chicago Public Schools in preparation for the 2014-2015 school year. The team is working with the Student in Temporary Living Situations Program (STLS) to bring additional tools and strategic footage from the film to training sessions and workshops with CPS Homeless Liaisons, Teachers, Principals and Administrators. These immediate efforts will help to identify students who are homeless or unaccompanied youth and bring them much needed support to stay in school.

Following up on our successful round table discussion, the team held an advocacy meeting this week in NYC with Jama Shelton, of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund and Director of their Forty to None Campaign, and hosted Darla Bardine, Policy Director for the National Network for Youth in Washing DC for an early rough cut screening in New York and subsequent brainstorm meetings on the Impact Campaign. A braintrust with national partners National Network For Youth and The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth is planned in DC for December.

You can support the film here.