Today some children make dangerous choices: Surrounded by crime, they chose gangs, drugs and violence. Other kids feel lonely and isolated, especially in broken families, and end up filled with despair. And every year, thousands of teens get so tired of struggling in school they chose to drop out. Gangs, depression, dropping out - could all three have something in common? A single word that is both the cause and the solution? “Without hope, life is not worth living. You lose the essence of who you are. Why am I here? Do I belong here? Do I have value?” says Cali Cali Vallejo. He works for Project MPACT, Miami Partnerships in Action and Community Taskforce. It is a small, but growing, experimental program on the front lines of a war against hopelessness. “Because when you give them that hope, and when you give them that carrot for opportunity, they take it,” he says. These true stories are profiled in the TV special, Children of Hope. George Kolonias, 22, grew up in a dangerous part of downtown Miami. At 12 he joined a gang, at 14 he was selling drugs, and by 17 it was guns. His life changed when he got involved with Project MPACT Alexandra Reyes, 18, is a child of divorce. She hasn’t seen her father since she was 4, and her mom spent so many hours working to provide for the family, Alex says she felt abandoned by her mother as well. She has tried to kill herself more times than she can remember. Lora Goudey, 17, used to be an A and B student. But then she started falling farther and farther behind in class, and soon she thought it would be so hard to catch up - that she just gave up. Connect with Kids programs feature real kids, true stories, experts and educators … a way to help parents and kids start a conversation about the tough topics kids face every day.