The Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial Foundation

As its 2nd project, mhomf decided in 2017 to produce a movie about The remarkable efforts of judge stephen leifman of miami-dade county, Florida to decriminalize treatment of those with serious mental illness and to serve as a template for other locales wanting to replicate The judge's work. After 3 years of effort with found object films, "The definition of insanity" opened at The miami film festival in march 2020 and in april, aired on pbs to a large national audience. Though in-person screenings had to be cancelled due to covid, mhomf has been able to conduct many remote showings followed by panels with judge leifman, others on his team and often local officials or representatives of sponsoring groups. In this way, mhomf has reached large and diverse audiences and generated thoughtful discussion on timely issues such as police and criminal justice reform, inequities in our penal system and escalating rates of mental illness. Mhomf continues to receive regular requests for showings.

Mhomf's 1st project, established with The Washington urban debate league which mhomf helped to revive, was creation of The Matthew Harris Ornstein summer debate institute in summer 2015. The institute has been held annually since then, growing from 5 days for 30 students to 200 students attending for 2 weeks, varsity debaters for 3. During his life, Matthew was passionate about policy debate, was a national champion debater in high school, and credited debate with much of his success in college and beyond. Mhomf's summer institute, patterned after one that Matthew attended at The university of Michigan during high school, is for public school students, largely from title 1 schools, 6th grade and up, in The dc area. Its rigorous program teaches research, advocacy, and public speaking, expands students' knowledge of The world, develops their confidence, fosters teamwork, civility and generally prepares students for success in their future endeavors in a fun and challenging environment.

To further our work promoting and sponsoring debate for public school students, we have spearheaded a documentary on The value and importance of debate, tracking several students who participated in our debate camp and The urban debate program and examining how debate has affected their lives, in and out of school and debate tournaments, while also pointing out how debate is an essential tool for civil discourse in a divided and fractious society. Our filmmakers have followed several students through two years, filming them and their families and also filming debates and talking to their coaches and mentors. We expect The documentary to be finished sometime in 2025 and broadcast then, followed by screenings around The country.