Current & Pending Projects

Public Space / Public Health
Hosted by public health innovator and pediatrician, Dr. Richard Jackson, this special two-hour PBS documentary and national outreach initiative, will help to inform the American public’s understanding (and ultimately decision-making) about the beneficial and deleterious relationship between the built environment and the country’s overall public health. Tracing some of the pathology of our restrictive built environment, and its impact on our increasingly inactive and obese citizenry, the project will provide best practice models and step-by-step community-based outreach strategies to achieve a more healthy population.

America's Children
America’s Children is meant to act as a wake-up call for the nation. The proposed multi-hour PBS Series and community outreach effort will focus on the current State of Health of Our Nation’s Children---physically, emotionally, and psychologically---as it examines the existing conditions and circumstances that affect the quality of life---and health---of our children. The project will highlight best practice solutions from around the country. We will hear from the children themselves, acting as on location journalists or on-camera subjects. Dr. Irwin Redlener, who twenty-years ago with musician Paul Simon co-founded the Children’s Health Fund, will be our host for this most important PBS series targeted for broadcast in 2009.

Edens Lost & Found: Overseas
Edens Lost & Found tells the stories of individuals who are catalysts for change and committed to restoring their urban neighborhoods, improving public health and re-establishing the art of community through the creation of sustainable urban ecosystems. In our first season, residents in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle demonstrated that they have the wisdom to reverse long-standing urban practices and engineering dogma to improve quality of life. In our second season, Edens Lost & Found Overseas presents innovative “best practices” from around the world that can be adopted in cities throughout America. The original Edens Lost & Found project, broadcast nationally on PBS in 2006 and 2007, consists of 4 one-hour programs, a book published by Chelsea Green, two academic symposia, a 20-unit interdisciplinary academic courseware for high school and college supported by a series of 20 twenty-minute videos, all introducing the myriad aspects of sustainability to their audiences.

And Thou Shalt Honor II
This two-hour PBS outreach special will "turn back the clock" on some of those people profiled in And Thou Shalt Honor, to ask them, and other actual and potential caregivers, whether they "had a plan" or "have a plan" about how they would cope with the challenges and opportunities associated with the care of their Loved Ones. Subjects such as personal responsibility, consequences of not having a plan, financial planning, reverse mortgages, prevention and wellness, long term care insurance, and "family plans" will be raised as we again seek out those compelling stories among the 44 million---and increasing---caregivers in our country. The original And Thou Shalt Honor project consists of a two-hour PBS special broadcast in October 2002, a book published by Rodale with Foreword by Rosalynn Carter, 1,500 community-based grassroots coalitions, 58 national outreach partners, a 15-volume Caregiver Video Resource Library still in distribution through Aquarius Health Care Media, an interactive web site, additional films about the GreenHouse Project (Tupelo, Mississippi) and elder transportation alternatives (Getting Around), and a continuing 10-city series of local and regional caregiving town hall meetings, stressing local solutions and providers with local experts, televised through PBS stations into 17 states

If I Were President
With NPR's Scott Simon as on-camera Host, this PBS television and NPR radio special will invite high school and college students from across the country, as well as young members of the armed forces to submit entries on what they would do if they were elected President of the United States. Winning essays will be selected through a national competition and will be the basis for the hour special.

Which Way American Education
This multiple-hour series looks at the state of American Education today to offer best practice models, discovered here and overseas, to our American citizenry.

Bitter Tears
A feature length special that features Johnny Cash's immortal 1966 album Bitter Tears, celebrating our Native American heritage and culture.

Media & Policy Center Foundation’s mandate:
To create, organize, and produce innovative film, public television, print, multimedia, and software programming dealing with the emerging issues of social welfare, public policy, education, healthcare, and the environment.