Children Of Promise: The Legacy Of Robert F. Kennedy

World Premiere: Friday, May 20 at 8PM ET

According to the Children's Defense Fund, every 42 seconds a child is abused or neglected, and every three hours a child or teen is killed by gunfire in the United States. The stakes are incredibly high — without proper intervention, children of abuse or neglect become two and a half times more likely to commit a crime, or become the victim of a crime.

In Massachusetts, there's a non-profit organization that may prove to be a model for a national child welfare system in trouble. In the new world premiere of the documentary, CHILDREN OF PROMISE: THE LEGACY OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, Investigation Discovery (ID) explores the work of the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps in Massachusetts, founded in honor of the late senator, which has established a proven track record for successfully rehabilitating and mentoring children of crime, violence and neglect.

Narrated by Tony Award-winning actor Mandy Patinkin, CHILDREN OF PROMISE features archival footage and new interviews with Kennedy family members, including RFK's daughters Kerry Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. These rare interviews connect the life and work of RFK to the powerful stories of the young people whose lives have been turned around through the work of the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps.

"As Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy chaired the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime. He saw delinquency as a cover word for poverty and racial discrimination. He interrogated the experts, visited the projects, and talked with youth gangs in the streets of East Harlem. He believed that institutional change was necessary, and that the best hope for change lay in citizen participation and community empowerment. He saw his responsibility through the lens of the duty imposed on every member of an extended family, to care deeply for those who are troubled," said Kerry Kennedy, president of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. "Today, the RFK Children's Action Corps provides the love and support that so many of these young women and men have been denied by poverty, race and the failure to provide the community of care, which every person deserves by virtue of being born into the human family."