25 Prospect Street is the amazing true story of the Prospector Theater - a first-run movie theater with the mission of meaningful employment for people with disabilities.
The Prospects are taking their documentary on the road to Dartmouth College to screen 25 Prospect Street, the film that shows the sparkle, struggle, and start-up of the first year of operation.
On Saturday, January 19, prospects will meet with the President of Dartmouth, and speak to students from the Entrepreneurship Center, and Center for Social Impact. The screening is at 5 pm at the Hopkins Center for Film, with a Q and A hosted by Prospects to follow.
"Prospects have been to college before," says Prospector Theater founder and visionary, Valerie Jensen. "We have screened 25 Prospect Street at the University of Texas, Austin; Houston Community College, School of Art Institute Chicago," she adds.
After each screening, Prospects serve on a panel and Q and A with the audiences. "Audiences watch 25 with wonderment and awe. Their questions are deep, passionate, and practical. The audience's wonderment and awe reflect the necessity, urgency, and extreme need to make competitive and integrated employment for adults with disabilities. The outlook for competitive employment for adults with disabilities in grim," says Jensen.
The Case for Inclusion Report 2019 states that participation in competitive employment has dropped from 24% to 19% of adults with disabilities. The US Census Bureau says nearly 1 in 5 people have a disability or about 57,000,000 people. Jobs are urgently needed, and Prospector Theater shows people that creating meaningful competitive employment is not only possible but also good for business.
Audiences laugh, cry, and cheer as they watch the Prospect's struggle and Sparkle. "I have a good life and a sparkling job at Prospector Theater," says Prospect Rachel Wise. Elements of this brutally honest documentary are hard for Rachel to watch, and the experience is, "sometimes embarrassing, sometimes not," she admits. Rachel has taught herself to meditate through the difficult scenes. "Watching 25 has given Prospects a perspective of our own selves that many of us had never seen," she says.
The Prospector Theater has received dozens of requests for screenings of 25 Prospect Street. The next scheduled screening is February 27 at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville.
For more information on 25 Prospect Street, or to request a screening please visit prospectortheater.org and friend us on Facebook: 25 Prospect Street: The Documentary Film @25prospectstreet
Learn more about 25 Prospect Street and find out how you can bring a screening to your town, organization or place of employment.