Beyond the Block is a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit organization.  The mission of Beyond the Block is to improve global awareness, increase intellectual curiosity, develop critical-thinking skills, and encourage completion of high school and post-secondary education in at-risk youth through the production of educational travel documentary videos, an accompanying curriculum, and other educational opportunities and materials.

Our first video, Beyond the Block: The Dominican Republic, profiles students from a small mountain village outside the city of Santiago.  We examine their everyday lives, cultural values, education, dreams, and goals. 

Though we sell our current video, Beyond the Block: The Dominican Republic, and its accompanying Activity and Discussion Guide here on our website, our favorite way to get our materials to the public is to travel to schools and present directly to students!  Our founder and CEO, Debbie Ribera, uses her considerable classroom experience to engage and inspire students as they get to know the students in the Dominican Republic.

We love being able to share the inside stories from our trip with the kids and answer all their questions about the students profiled in the video.  By forming these relationships with schools, we’re able to guide and advise on follow-up activities, such as service learning projects and ongoing communication with the kids in the DR. 

We are currently working to bring internet connectivity to the school we visited in the Dominican Republic, so that the students there can be connected to the over 1000 students here who have seen the video!