ABOUT THE MOVIE - FINDING HOPE NOW

It all began on an airplane flight to New York City when Harold "Skin" Mead read the book Gangs to Jobs by Rev. Roger Minassian. He couldn’t put the book down, and when he finished reading he couldn’t understand why this effective program working with gang youth, with an amazing 85% success rate, isn’t found in every city in the United States.

When he arrived back in Fresno he was surprised to find out that not only do other cities not know about the organization “Hope Now for Youth,” but the city of Fresno itself, where the program was founded, didn’t even know. Something had to be done.

Skin had the idea that a full-length feature film should be produced to raise the awareness throughout the country, as well as Fresno, that an effective program exists for changing the lives of gang youth, so the writing of the screenplay Finding Hope Now began.

We will produce a full length feature film that raises public awareness about gang youth. Gang members

are NOT irretrievably evil and lost.

They are, in fact, totally redeemable.

We will raise the awareness that the Fresno organization “Hope Now for Youth” program has transformed

*1,608 gang members. These former Fresno law breakers have become husbands to their wives; fathers to their children; reliable employees; and tax-paying citizens.

We will fashion the production of our full length feature film after the model created by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. They produced Facing the Giants for a little over $100,000 using actors comprised entirely of volunteers. Only five film professionals were hired to fill key technical positions. Over five hundred community volunteers and church members supplemented the film crew.