Tomorrow's Hope

TOMORROW’S HOPE brings us into the journey of passionate educators and tenacious kids and their families on the South Side of Chicago, determined to carve out the future despite a sea of incredible challenges. The film follows three present-day high school seniors who had started out in the Educare preschool’s first-ever class, exploring how they’ve navigated foreboding realities past and present, while also delving into the lingering ripple effects from their early childhood education. Through the eyes of audacious educators (originally from the community themselves), we also learn about the school’s harrowing yet remarkable early stages as "The Beethoven Project” located within "Forgotonia” – a name the film’s Portia Kennel uses to describe the environment. At the time, the school was located directly within the largest housing project in the country, in the nation's single poorest census tract. Yet despite a dangerous and discouraging external landscape – then and now – an entirely opposite message emerges from this educational community: “you matter.”