Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Thursday he’s partnering with Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation on a yearly multimedia program in Metro Detroit.
Ford Motor Co. will sponsor an annual nationwide video challenge that’s part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Institute for Visual History and Education. The “IWitness Video Challenge” integrates testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocides, including the Holocaust.
Ford will donate $40,000 a year for two years to the video program; prize money will be used in the form of scholarships to regional and national winners. The automaker’s philanthorpy arm, the Ford Fund, will donate $100,000 to expand the IWitness video program in Metro Detroit.
“The work of USC Shoah Foundation is incredibly inspiring, as it is making a huge difference in so many people’s lives,” Ford said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with USC Shoah Foundation to engage young minds, bring history to life and encourage today’s youth to build a better future.”
Ford made the announcement along with Ford employees and Spielberg at Henry Ford Academy. They met with students who are participating in the IWitness program and recently completed projects on the subject of tolerance.
About 450 teachers across Michigan use IWitness, including about two dozen schools in Metro Detroit.
“I am so pleased that USC Shoah Foundation will be joining forces with Ford Motor Company to not only bring IWitness to a growing number of educators and students across the Detroit region,” USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen D. Smith said in a statement. “but also support the nationwide IWitness Video Challenge. I have seen how previous IWitness Video Challenges helped students gain insight, develop their values for a more tolerant world, and learn how to participate in their communities.”