Shine Global is the recipient of the Innovation in Outreach Grant Award from The Chicago Media Project for Virtually Free.  The grant supports innovative approaches to impact and outreach campaigns.

Every year about 300,000 kids are confined in juvenile detention in the US. This in itself is a horrifying thought, thinking of kids spending any amount of their lives in jail.  But when you learn that incarcerating kids doesn’t actually stop crime, and in fact sets kids up to continue in the system, spending their lives incarcerated as adults as well, we knew this was something we had to help change. 

Shine Global makes films to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change and Virtually Free, directed by André Robert Lee, is Shine’s upcoming documentary about unlikely allies in Richmond, VA who partner to transform the juvenile justice system and stop mass incarceration.  With this film, the focus of Shine’s outreach efforts will be on reaching audiences beyond traditional film distribution such as police departments, underserved communities, community arts programs, and legal justice advocates.  We’ll be working with our partners to create the tools and experiences to go along with the film.  Our ultimate goal for the impact campaign is support the movement to stop incarcerating kids and for communities to instead create alternatives to incarceration.