This book focuses on a group of philanthropists who invest in poor kids through the I Have A Dream Foundation by promising that if the kids finish high school, the philantropists will pay for their college education. After many years of investing time, heart and money, these people end up feeing that they get more out of their experience of sponsorship than the kids. As the kids and their families become permanent fixtures in the lives of the sponsors, they can no longer imagine what their lives would mean if they hadn't had that first dream, taken that first step, promised to stand by children until they finished high school and moved into their college ecucation.
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Editorial Reviews
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I have just finished your extraordinary book, "Promising Futures." It is terrific in so many ways: -- It has your wonderful, infectious, optimism that the most intractable social problems can be successfully attached, and this makes the reader more optimistic about the possibility of change in the terrific world that surrounds all of us; -- It's a call to individiual responsibility . . . to do what one can, even if you don't have the "big bucks" to adopt an IHAD group; -- It's very well written and totally engaging . . . quite a page turner; -- It makes even Republicans and evangelicals look appealing (and gave this reader a little more respect for the true commitment to the poor that some of those types can have -- I'll watch my sweeping, negative, generalizations a bit more in the future); -- It is a vivid picture of poverty and how truly heroic are the children who make it out of the ghetto to stable lives -- with or without help; -- By combining the "learning" of the (mostly) privileged sponsors as they confront the reality of poverty, both the sponsors and the dreamers become real people and not just so many additional statistics. But the book is not just anecdotes. You put all those examples in the context of the broader challenges to philantropy, to public schools systems, and to government. You bring a scholar's expertise (without overloading it with jargon) to eacho f these areas and make the book especially valuable -- not just to those who care about the IHAD approach. Indeed, anyone who cares about poverty or failing public education should read it to see what changes they can help make in either a personal approach or to mobilize political action (or the philanthropy of others). Any, that you so much for undertaking this really important project. I will gladly recommend the book to those who care about engaged philantropy, or poor kids, or education. Everyone will get a great deal out of it. --President Emeritus of Colby College,
About the Author
Margot Welch, Ed.D., has worked as a psychologist and educator in school, community, and court settings for more than three decades. She founded the Collaborative for Integrated School Services at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she has taught courses about school-based services and full service/community schools. She has always been interested in "thrivers," people who succeed at doing the kind of public service work that seems impossible to many--relentless helpers who, like the philanthropists in this book, are determined to equalize opportunity and wellbeing for us all.
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