ID to Spotlight RFK’s Juvenile Crime & Protection Efforts

SILVER SPRING: Investigation Discovery has teamed up with The Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps for the world premiere of Children of Promise: The Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy, shining a light on the efforts of an organization dedicated to rehabilitating and mentoring children of crime, violence and neglect.

The Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps is a non-profit organization in Massachusetts that was founded in honor of the late senator. The center has a proven track record of helping children who have been abused or neglected to keep them from becoming tomorrow’s criminals. Children of Promise, narrated by Mandy Patinkin, features archival footage and new interviews with Kennedy family members. The interviews, including with RFK’s daughters, connect the life and work of Robert to the stories of young people whose lives have been changed by the organization. Debuting with is world premiere on May 20 at 8 p.m. on Investigation Discovery, the documentary tells three stories of tragedy turned triumph.

"As Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy chaired the president’s committee on juvenile delinquency and youth crime," said Kerry Kennedy, the president of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. "He saw delinquency as a cover word for poverty and racial discrimination. He interrogated the experts, visited the projects, and talked with youth gangs in the streets of East Harlem. He believed that institutional change was necessary, and that the best hope for change lay in citizen participation and community empowerment. He saw his responsibility through the lens of the duty imposed on every member of an extended family, to care deeply for those who are troubled." She continued: "Today, the RFK Children’s Action Corps provides the love and support that so many of these young women and men have been denied by poverty, race and the failure to provide the community of care, which every person deserves by virtue of being born into the human family." 

"It’s been well said that ‘vision is the art of seeing the invisible’ and, in that regard, we are honored to give our network’s audience this rare glimpse into Robert F. Kennedy’s enduring vision for our nation’s youth," added Henry Schleiff, the president and general manager of Investigation Discovery. "This is an initiative which RFK first started to champion as Attorney General of the U.S. in the early 1960s and, today, this organization fuels the power of change and the strength of the human spirit, a legacy that indeed well reflects Robert F. Kennedy’s original vision."

"We have a broken child welfare system, but organizations like ours do exist and work to help children and families live better lives," commented Edward Kelley, the president and CEO of the RFK Children’s Action Corps. "It’s really a milestone when you’re able to help children see their full potential—that they can become the architect of their own success, which is the founding belief behind the RFK Children’s Action Corps, a straight inspiration from the words of Robert F. Kennedy himself."