We are DREAM. Every day, we work with youth to provide them with opportunities to recognize their potential and realize their dreams.
In 1991, volunteers transformed an abandoned lot in East Harlem into a field and started a baseball program. Soon, the program expanded into after-school time and added academic work to help kids succeed in the classroom. We opened DREAM Charter School in 2008 to deepen our commitment to youth in the community. We opened in the South Bronx in 2013, and opened in Newark this summer.
But we weren't always DREAM. For 25 years we were Harlem RBI, a name that reflected our community and baseball roots. But as we grew to take on academics and expand into new neighborhoods, our name no longer embodied the breadth nor ambitions of our work.
So, we became DREAM. It's a name that felt true to our history and could carry us into the future. We began on a Field of Dreams, we have a Dreamlist of goals for every participant, and we founded DREAM Charter School.
While this step felt right, changing the name of a 25-year-old organization isn't easy. We needed to explain why this name fit our identity, aspirations, and roots. We knew that a well-made film could do just that.
Our film shares our story and our commitment to helping young people recognize their potential and realize their dreams. It's a new name, but the same game.
We were lucky to partner with an amazing ad agency called Anomaly to help us turn this tricky transition into something inspiring and easily understood by all. Not only did we want to share our new name, but we had to connect it with our work, and use this as an opportunity to share the essence of our organization and inspire people to get involved with us.
With Anomaly, we held multiple strategy sessions throughout our rebrand process and landed on a script that focused on the power of dreaming big while sharing some of the most important dreams of our youth. We asked our participants to share what they dreamed of, what they wanted to be, and worked to tell an inspirational story about our organization.
An architect, an actress, a technical engineer, a child psychologist and so much more. Our kids have big dreams, and our business is to make them real.
We debuted the film at our annual gala with more than 800 guests. After strategically playing the film right before the live auction, we were thrilled to experience one of the most successful live auction in our history raising over $600,000.
In addition, our event emcee, Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC, tweeted out our video to her 995,000 followers to see. In our own posts, we received over 500 views on youtube, nearly 70 engagements on Twitter, and over 960 views on Facebook with 136 engagements (and growing!).
We will continue to show this film at our next events, it lives on our website and our social channels, and even our email signatures. We know that everyone who sees this film will know exactly what we do, and want to join in too.
Come DREAM with us.
