Integrity

Twenty years ago, I founded Film Your Issue, with Walter Cronkite as its founding elder statesman, to encourage young people to speak out on the issues that mattered to them — and to believe that their voices mattered.

Over the years, Film Your Issue brought together an extraordinary mix of young people, journalists, public figures, educators, civic leaders and major organizations. Jurists included Barack Obama, Tom Brokaw, Anderson Cooper, George Clooney and others; partners and media participants included USA TODAY, the Associated Press, Nations, Google, YouTube and Microsoft.

Several years later, through the What’s Your Issue Foundation, I created Everyone Matters, built around another simple belief very close to my heart: that every person deserves dignity and respect, and respect to be who they are without judgment or abuse.

Everyone Matters grew into an international campaign involving schools, cities and public figures. Fifty mayors and more than 100 schools participated, and supporters included Paul McCartney, the Dalai Lama, Tom Brokaw, Hugh Jackman, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and many others.

The projects have changed over the years, but the impulse behind them has remained remarkably consistent: to create ways for people to speak personally, be heard, reflect on who they are, and engage more deeply with one another and the world around them.

The New Integrity Generation is the newest chapter in that history. I’m proud and grateful to have the counsel of people including Hal Plotkin, former Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education in the Obama administration, and Jim Kennedy, former Clinton White House Deputy Press Secretary and News Corp Chief Communications Officer. We’re also grateful for the early support of national voices including Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and author, and Brad Rourke, Chief External Affairs Officer and Director of DC Operations at the Kettering Foundation.