LETS BREAKTHROUGH INC

Breakthrough is a global human rights organization driving the culture change we need to build a world in which all people live with dignity, equality, and respect. We do this using a potent mix of media, arts, and technology with an intersectional feminist approach to dismantle cultural norms that lead to violence and discrimination. We inspire and equip people everywhere to lead change, by taking actions both individual and collective. Our work, and the work of our nexus of changemakers, challenges the status quo through bold, creative action.

Breakthrough plays a significant part in the broader movement for social justice in the United States. We are a hub for creatives, cultural workers, artists, and media makers who use their talents to spark social transformation. We inspire people to fight for human rights by catalyzing leadership in communities to change deep-rooted cultural norms by harnessing the power of media and popular culture to spark conversations and transform norms around gender and racial justice, LGBTQ, disability, and immigrant rights, and more.

Partner influencers look to Breakthrough as a leader in leveraging media, the arts, pop culture, videos, and storytelling for social change/justice. In all our programming, we aim for maximum reach and replication so there is not only an impact on individuals or local communities, but a national, transnational, and global reach. Our digital tools, videos, and toolkits are accessible online for anyone to access, and allow people all over the world to replicate actions in their own communities.

As a society, we consume culture. It's an integral part of every-day life. Culture consumption is where Breakthrough seizes the opportunity for change. We reject cultural norms, practices, and products that perpetuate violence and discrimination. In their place, we produce and amplify media, arts, and technology that promote core human rights, dignity, equality, and respect.

Our cutting-edge multimedia campaigns equip everyone to challenge the status quo and take bold action for the dignity, equality, and justice of all.

Breakthrough harnesses the power of arts, pop culture, media, and technology to build movements and reach people where they are, making human rights real, relevant, and requiring of urgent action. We forge partnerships beyond traditional NGOs and set agendas that seed and steer public dialogue around human rights, norms and culture change. We use these tools to set public agendas that transform narratives and make human rights everyone's business. Our partners include artists, influencers, activists, bloggers, and media companies as well as traditional NGOs.

Breakthrough is an expert in designing initiatives that have both local tactics, relevance and impact, and global appeal. We are innovators in the digital space, recognizing that it is through immersive democratized mediums that we can reach young people to ultimately shift cultural narratives, and grow the power of movements for future social change. Organizations around the world look to Breakthrough’s model to create cultural change in their own communities. Over the years, we have built a rich archive of media products and storytelling campaigns that we continue to expand and share with audiences across the world, from campaign partners to youth filmmakers to executives in the writers’ rooms of major television studios and online streaming platforms. All our products, including campaigns and toolkits, are open source and accessible online.

To influence global agendas and for reciprocal learning opportunities, we work with an array of collaborators, including national and global networks, through high level global policy platforms to inform the agendas of influential stakeholders

Breakthrough has won numerous awards and accolades for its videos and media work. In 2016, Breakthrough was one of six recipients of the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Other awards include the Silver Lion, Cannes Film Festival, and Avon Global Award for Excellence in Communications.

Since 1999, our work has helped to support long term shifts to transform culture and norms that support values of human rights and dignity. Our highly visible and participatory multimedia campaigns and deeply transformative on-ground interventions, such as our global 2013 Ring the Bell campaign that reached millions worldwide. The campaign called on men to challenge gender-based violence. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the campaign as a “powerful way for men and boys to make a difference.” The follow up, “Ring the Bell: One Million Men. One Million Promises,” rallied men and allies worldwide to challenge violence against women, with participation from high profile people, such as Sir Patrick Stewart.

Breakthrough most recent major initiative, Our Stories: In Vivid Color (“Our Stories”) amplifies the lived experiences of girls and gender non-conforming youth of color featuring storytellers between the ages of 14-24 across the U.S. (and Puerto Rico), in collaboration with 70+ partners: grassroots organizers, artists and cultural influencers from BIPOC communities. Our Stories was born from an overwhelming demand from marginalized storytellers to see themselves reflected, and their stories heard -- the stories that we are not hearing, or only at a low volume, that need to be magnified, and broadcast to the larger culture.

Additionally, Breakthrough is growing fee-for-service media productions, in close partnership with movement leaders and social justice-minded philanthropists to bring stories of impact to life. For example, together with the Monarch Foundation, we are spearheading a dynamic storytelling campaign to document the impact of grantees and programs, such as a cash assistance program in New York City, directly benefiting low-income immigrant women and their families. In California and Texas, we are developing a powerful campaign featuring the stories and grassroots activism of Latinx, Afro-Latinx and Indigenous farmworkers advocating for labor and immigrant rights, sustainable agriculture, and an end to gender-based violence in the industry. Breakthrough not only produces and directs these media productions, but also provides strategic guidance based on decades of experience at the vanguard of narrative and culture change. Partners are increasingly seeking Breakthrough out for this expertise, and we look forward to deepening these partnerships in the coming years.