One Heart Project

More than 2 million teens are arrested every year in the US, and some 200,000 youth are incarcerated each year. 85% of these teens come from fatherless homes, 60% from poverty. 45% have reported being victims of abuse. 40% are under the age of 16, and 53% have incarcerated family members. There are almost no programs available for these youth, who have become a forgotten population in our culture. Over 70% of these youth will be arrested again within 6 months of release. Many will never graduate from high school; they will merely graduate from the juvenile justice system to the adult penal system where much of their lives will be wasted, costing taxpayers $149,000 per youth, per year to house and feed them, with a lifetime cost of about $235,680 in criminal justice, welfare payments, food stamps, and medical care per youth. Multiply that across the full 6.7 million cohort, and the cost to society is nearly incomprehensible: $1.6 trillion. The One Heart Project will change the trajectory of these young lives. The One Heart Project will be ‘introduced' to America by the major movie, One Heart, projected for nationwide release to theaters in the fall of 2016. The movie is based on the true story of a football game in North Texas between teams from Grapevine Faith High School and The Gainesville State School, a youth prison, where the home team's fans cheered for the boys from Gainesville. At the game, described by ESPN's Rick Reilly as “the oddest game in high school football history”, the extension of unconditional love from Grapevine fans and community has literally become a “game changer.” See for more about the game: http://www.oneheart.com/video.html One Heart is partnering with nonprofits, community groups, sports teams, state and county juvenile justice authorities, corporate partners and faith-based organizations to carry out the mission to rescue and restore troubled teens with little hope. Current partners include The Salvation Army, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Dallas Cowboys, Juvenile Justice Ministry, Prison Fellowship, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Sagamore Institute, Baylor University and hundreds of others.