PHASE 1
Children’s Institute, Inc. (CII) serves more than 22,000 children and their families in Los Angeles’ most challenged neighborhoods, and trains more than 9,000 professionals in the realm of child development, mental health and welfare. In 2008, CII approached Inception with a goal to produce a fund-raising campaign for a much needed 48,000-square-foot campus expansion. This would enable CII to serve an additional 5,000 children and families, but they needed over $20 million in funds in order to rebuild the facility.
Inception created a powerful one-hour documentary, “Keeping Children Safe”, to be the focal piece and help raise funds to support construction of the new Los Angeles campus. Celebrated actor, Angie Harmon, narrated the campaign, which lends special credibility to the story’s powerful images while taking viewers into a glimpse of the troubled lives of children of Los Angeles.
The film was instrumental in securing a $6 million grant from the Otis Booth Foundation, which supported construction of their new Los Angeles campus, later naming it after this benefactor. CII then secured an additional $15 million it needed for the project completion.
PHASE II
With the pressures of the ever expanding need to support more families in crisis, CII teamed up with world-renowned architect Frank Gehry to design and build a new $35 million campus expansion to support another 5,000 children and families in Watts, a high-density area with the highest percentage of single parent families.
Inception was again called to develop another fund-raising campaign. The film, “A Community of Hope”, is narrated by television, film, stage actor and director Blair Underwood, who has been committed to helping the children and families of Watts. In addition the documentary features the hit song “Lovely Day” by three-time Grammy Award winner, Bill Withers.
Additional projects for the campaign include: Radio and Television commercials featuring Angie Harmon, custom-packaged DVDs for donor cultivation events and philanthropic groups.