Thanks to the generous support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), leading up to the All the Difference (POV 2016) national broadcast, POV awarded grants to five public television stations to organize high-profile regional activities and screenings featuring Wes Moore, Executive Producer, Best Selling Author and Founder/CEO BridgeEdU, in collaboration with community partners around CPB’s American Graduate Initiative. In total, 13 events were produced by Alabama Public Television (APT), Maryland Public Television (MPT), PBS SoCal in Los Angeles, WHYY Philadelphia, and WTTW Chicago Public Media, drawing more than 2,000 attendees.

Alabama Public Television (APT) | Alabama
APT kicked off the campaign in February with a live webcast of the final episode of its Project C: Lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement electronic field trip series. Over 78,000 students across the country joined via live stream and more than 250 Alabama high school students, youth activists, education experts and community leaders made up a live studio audience for a town hall conversation on race, equality, educational justice and youth activism. Robert Henderson joined the conversation to share his experiences as a first-generation college student, the challenges he faced and the factors that led to his success. While in Alabama, Henderson also visited 3 local classrooms and more than 200 students had the opportunity to view clips from the film and talk with Robert.

Maryland Public Television (MPT) | Maryland
MPT hosted three film screening and panel discussions, two in Baltimore City, and one in Annapolis. The Annapolis event took place at the at the State House during the legislative session, in collaboration with BridgeEdu and Delegate Andrew Platt from Montgomery County Maryland. Delegate Platt brought together a group of honorary state legislators as hosts of the evening’s screening. They were then joined by staff representatives of legislators and members of organizations in the community for this meaningful event featuring a Q&A with Wes Moore and BridgeEdu Scholars. An evite was distributed to all Maryland state and federal legislators and widely to non-profit youth serving organizations.

On September 7th, MPT hosted a sneak-preview screening at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Question Bridge: Black Males. Wes Moore joined the panel discussion on black male students and higher education with film subjects Robert Henderson and Krishaun Branch and director Tod Lending, moderated by MPT’s Karen Gibbs.

A final screening was held at Frederick Douglas High School featuring a Q&A with Robert and Krishaun. This was an especially important location for this conversation, as Frederick Douglass High School is the school where the unrest began that ignited the Baltimore riots in the spring of 2015.

PBS SoCal | Los Angeles, CA
Partnering with City Year Los Angeles, PBS SoCal held a sneak-preview screening at the Ebony Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles in July for aspiring first-generation college students. The event featured a discussion with Wes Moore, Joy Thomas Moore, Robert Henderson and Krishaun Branch and moderator Mary Jane Stevenson from City Year Los Angeles, as well as a special performance by Chicago’s Grammy- and Oscar-winning hip-hop artist and songwriter Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a founder of the nonprofit arts program for youth Donda’s House. The evening opened with a resource fair of local organizations that provide direct services to local students in high school and college, helping students deal with financial aid, mentorship, and transitioning out of college.

WHYY | Philadelphia, PA
The All the Difference screening and discussion WHYY hosted on August 25th was the first community screening they held in Philadelphia and featured a public discussion about the pathway from high school to college for men of color in the Greater Philadelphia area. The panel included Wes Moore; Shanee Garner Nelson, director of policy and legislation for City Councilwoman Helen Gym; Darryl Bundrige, executive director and vice president of City Year Philadelphia; and Sharif El-Mekki, principal, Mastery Charter Schools, Shoemaker Campus. WHYY also hosted a lecture from a Greater Philadelphia education policy group, Research for Action, with a panel that included Wes Moore. The station is hosting additional community discussions and screenings in the winter of 2016, and will be using the discussion guide to facilitate discussion around the film in Philadelphia high schools.

WTTW | Chicago, IL
WTTW, in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, City Year Chicago, Urban Prep Academies and Youth Opportunity United (Y.O.U.), presented a free screening and panel discussion on August 20th at the Chicago Cultural Center. Director Tod Lending introduced the film and the panel, moderated by journalist Sylvia Ewing, featured Wes Moore, Krishaun Branch, Robert Henderson, Rebecca Huffman, CEO of City Year Chicago and Tim King, founder and CEO of Urban Prep Academies. In September, the station continued the conversation by inviting local high school students to the Chicago Cultural Center, where 600 students had the opportunity to meet and talk with Krishaun Branch.

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POV Staff
POV (a cinema term for "point of view") is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 400 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues.