The brand film commemorates the 20‑year anniversary of Freedom School, tracing its evolution from a single summer camp serving 100 children at Piedmont Courts Community Center to a multi‑site program that has reached over 11,000 scholars. Through a series of testimonials from staff, site coordinators, parents, grandparents, and former participants, the video highlights the program’s core integrated reading curriculum paired with afternoon enrichment activities, the dramatic improvements in children’s love of reading and literacy, and the ripple effect of alumni who now serve as coordinators, young professionals, and board members. The speakers express pride in past achievements, describe the caring, community‑focused environment, and articulate a hopeful vision for the next two decades—expanding reach, deepening impact, and fostering a new generation of servant‑leader interns and families within the Freedom School community.
Chapters
So it's really hard to believe that it's been 20 years, and it's really exciting when you think about the fact that we have served more than 11,000 scholars over that time and made an impact on their lives and also made an impact on the community.
And then this class is going to be me over here today.
We started with a single site at Piedmont Courts Community Center, And we were serving 100 children with a summer camp program. And since then, we have expanded site by site to serving hundreds of children each summer.
Last year, my oldest son, who really struggled with reading, and after his first summer with Freedom School, he actually found the joy for reading and wanted to go to the library and pick out books and was reading all the time. He's not stopped reading since.
Grandparents come to me saying like, I don't know what it is you did, but I've never seen this child so like ready to read to me. I mean, we read, you know, 2 and 3 books last night before bed, and the impact is huge.
What we're going to do next is we are going to make a step-by-step guide of something new we learned how to do.
We are always striving to create more connectivity between what we do in the morning with our integrated reading curriculum and what we do in the afternoon with enrichment. To extend the learning, extend the fun, and also to really extend the opportunities for our scholars.
I think when folks get in, they understand what's happening. They see the magic, they see the love, they see the care that adults have for these students, and they see these students who grow and develop, and they want to be a part of that in some way, shape, or form.
We now have young professionals, and adults who were exposed to this amazing work because their parents were doing it.
This is my 8th summer doing Freedom School overall and my 5th summer being a site coordinator. Yeah, I'm going into my 8th summer.
Yeah. Like most teachers, I was looking for a summer job, and Freedom School Said, okay, yeah, let me try this. And that summer I actually really liked it. From there it's like, okay, I can get Amaya involved.
With Freedom School, it's really like students feel more open and love to read because they have the opportunity to do different various things as they're doing it.
It is my hope that 20 years from now, we're still doing this work, we're doing it better, we're doing it bigger, and that we're seeing that next generation of scholars come back as our servant leader interns and site coordinators and board members and parents who are welcoming their own children into our Freedom School family.
I am brave. I am hope. I am my ancestors' wildest dream. And without a shadow of a doubt, I am worthy to be loved. I am worthy to be loved.
