On Sunday, the CBS news show "60 Minutes" revisited the "I Have a Dream" Foundation, a program they first reported on in 1986. According to their website, the "I Have a Dream" Foundation helps children from low-income areas reach their education and career goals by providing a long-term program of mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment with an assured opportunity for higher education.
The "I Have a Dream" Foundation was founded by businessman Gene Lang. While giving a speech at the grade school he had attended, he pulled inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which Lang witnessed in person while attending the 1963 March on Washington.
The backbone of the "I Have a Dream" Foundation is their individual sponsors who make a long-term personal and financial commitment to a class of 60 to 80 Dreamers that they "adopt" from a public school or a public housing project. The sponsor provides or raises the funds necessary to run the project from the start of the program through the students' high school graduation.
The foundation also relies on volunteers who serve as tutors, mentors, chaperones,
office assistants, fund raisers, special-events coordinators, and many other
roles.
A Chicago connection to this story: Arne Duncan, current CEO and superintendent
of the Chicago Public Schools, sponsored a group of sixth graders for the "I
Have a Dream" Foundation 12 years ago. He now credits some of the ideas
he is implementing in the Chicago Public Schools to what he learned working
with the "I Have a Dream" Foundation.
Duncan told "60 Minutes", "What we were trying to do is prove
to the outside world that when you give these children concrete opportunities,
when you give them guidance, there's a world of possibilities out there for
them. And they will achieve."
Today, the Foundation is working with a group of third grade students in Lake
Bluff. They currently report 180 projects in 64 cities across 27 states and
have served over 13,500 students since 1981.
In 1998, following the successful model of the "I Have a Dream" Foundation,
Congress founded the GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate
Programs) program. (http://www.ed.gov/programs/gearup/index.html). According
to their website, GEAR UP provides five-year grants to States and partnerships
to provide services at high-poverty middle and high schools. GEAR UP grantees
serve an entire cohort of students beginning no later than the seventh grade
and follow them through high school. GEAR UP funds are also used to provide
college scholarships to low-income students.
Please take a moment to learn more about the "I Have a Dream" Foundation by visiting their website or by reading the excerpts from the 60 Minutes profile on their website.
Catholic Connections
"The natural law also gives man the right to share in the benefits of culture, and therefore the right to a basic education and to technical and professional training in keeping with the stage of educational development in the country to which he belongs."
Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth)
Pope John XXIII, 1963
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