
Let’s put the film to work for the good of kids, schools and communities. Join our impact campaign.
The ULTIMATE CITIZENS Impact Campaign highlights the crucial role schools – and school counselors – play in supporting children and families. School counselors provide safe spaces, mental health support, coping skills, and resources that empower children to overcome adversity and thrive.
Why now? It’s a crisis, but you can help.
The U.S. is in the midst of a youth mental health crisis at a time when there’s a dire shortage of school counselors and other support workers in public schools. Challenges faced by kids and their schools include trauma, behavioral health difficulties, and food and housing insecurity. Language and cultural barriers can further burden children from immigrant families. School counselors fall too low on the list of funding priorities, and the public lacks awareness of the work they do linking homes, schools and communities to prevent crises. Together, we can help change that.
In a series of nationwide screenings, dialogues, and creative events, we’ll use the unique intersection of community, counseling, sports and immigrant youth in ULTIMATE CITIZENS to explore how to make schools more healthy and welcoming for ALL.
By the Numbers:
- In 2023, more than 5.3 million youth ages 12-17 years (20.3 percent) had a current, diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition.
- Between 2016 and 2023, the prevalence of diagnosed mental or behavioral health conditions among youth increased 35 percent.
- Among adolescents with a current diagnosis who needed treatment or counseling, 61 percent had difficulty getting needed treatment in 2023, a 35 percent increase since 2018, with a notable rise after 2020.
Meet our impact event speakers

FRANCINE STRICKWERDA, DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
Francine Strickwerda’s award-winning independent feature documentaries including Oil & Water and Busting Out, have screened on Showtime, PBS, Netflix, Amazon and television channels all over the world. With stories ranging from one of the world’s worst toxic disasters, to the politics of America’s breast obsession, and now immigrant kids winning at Ultimate Frisbee, her films explore power, trauma and healing. Francine’s work has been funded by MacArthur Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and many others. As co-owner of Seattle creative video agency Hullabaloo, she directs, produces and writes strategic films for some of the world’s most recognizable brands and non-profits. Francine grew up a teacher’s kid and began her career in journalism, first as a newspaper reporter, and then as a producer at Seattle’s KCTS Public Television (Cascade Public Media). She lives in Seattle where she enjoys watching her son play middle school Ultimate, and she is an avid Salish Sea open water swimmer.

JAMSHID KHAJAVI, MAIN FILM PARTICIPANT
As a school counselor for nearly 40 years, Jamshid Khajavi uses the outdoors, play, and the sport of Ultimate Frisbee to help children find healing and belonging. Born in Tehran, Iran, Jamshid immigrated to the U.S. in 1977 where he received an MBA. After six long months working in an accounting firm, Jamshid quit to pursue a doctorate in education – eventually leading him to become a school counselor working with deaf children in San Diego. Jamshid moved to Seattle Public Schools in 1994 where he is known for his outstanding work with immigrants and refugees. Jamshid is an ultra-endurance athlete who’s run 57 official 100-mile races. He swam the Catalina Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, and around New York’s Manhattan Island, and he’s a three-time grand slam winner of ultra-running. Now retired from counseling, Jamshid cultivates community at festival screenings of ULTIMATE CITIZENS, and while doing volunteer work with seniors in memory care, and while endurance racing and playing pickle ball.
Our partners in this work are Oley, PA-based Bullfrog Films, the leading and oldest distributor of social and environmental documentaries for education in the U.S., and Boston-based impact agency, Twin Seas Media.

