"Standing in the Gap" is a social-first docu-series set within the healthcare deserts of the United States, where systemic policy failures and economic collapse have stripped 120 million Americans of their access to healthcare.
The Problem: 80% of U.S. counties are now considered healthcare deserts, impacting over 120 million Americans. (Source: KFF)
- These deserts overlap, creating a nightmare of zero-access zones. Over 30% of Americans lack adequate access to services like pharmacies, primary care providers, hospitals, and trauma centers.
- 35% of counties in the U.S. are classified as maternal health deserts, meaning they lack access to hospitals or birth centers providing obstetric care. These areas are home to over 2.3 million women of reproductive age and suffer from a lack of obstetric providers, leading to higher risks for mothers and babies. (Source: March of Dimes)
- Rural hospitals, where 50% of births are covered by low-reimbursement Medicaid, are financially unsustainable. When a maternity ward closes, the entire hospital—often the largest employer in town—is at risk of collapse. This isn't a healthcare issue; it's an economic extinction event for American towns. (Sources: NIH, KFF)
- Health deserts are concentrated in areas with high poverty, low insurance rates, and chronic underinvestment. Over 90% of patients in desert clinics are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. (Source: GoodRx)
The Solution: The Storytelling Engine
We will produce a series of short, powerful documentary films (90-120 seconds), each telling a story of the gaps in access to care, and the helpful heroes.
As a social-media first campaign, we have garnered over 4MM organic video views across social media platforms since we started releasing short videos in February 2026.
Each film will be packaged and targeted for two key audiences:
- "Sarah" (The Suburban Mom): Reached on Instagram & TikTok with emotional, character-driven stories that answer the question: "Is the system I trust for my family becoming unreliable?"
- "Mark" (The Rural Business Owner): Reached on Facebook & YouTube with credible, pragmatic stories focused on community impact that answer the question: "Will my local hospital be there when I need it?"
The Characters:
- The Second Victim | Rural OB-GYN: "People talk about burnout. I talk about moral injury. It’s knowing what the right thing to do is, but not having the resources... or being afraid you'll go to jail. We have high rates of guilt. People leave the profession and kill themselves over second victim issues."
- The System Analyst | Policy Expert: "The fact that Medicaid pays less than private insurance is a form of structural racism... we're entrenching inequities there."
- The Consistent Storyteller | Rural Doula: "We are the consistent storytellers... we're following up to see how you are feeling emotionally, physically? This is normal, this is not normal. Our maternal mortality rate... it works. So we've been proposing solutions... could we train doulas to be like a satellite care center?"
- The Last Five Miles | Rural Pharmacist: "We're 45 miles away from everything else... In the past, patients have had to travel long distances and wait weeks. Now, pharmacists are increasingly able to step in and provide these services directly, which has been a very big game-changer for access."
- The Frontline General | Rural Women's Clinic: "We're still being punished for providing abortion services... [but] what happens when we have a government that decides it doesn’t need to take care of its poor? We are a great net and we are very strong, but we can only hold so much."
The Goals: Every story will drive to three calls to action.
- Click-to-Donate: A direct link to support the organizations standing in the gap.
- Resources: Free and low-cost healthcare resource guides
- Click-to-Register: A direct link to register to vote
The Costs & Reach:
Phase 1: Shorts That Build The Audience:
- Produces and distributes 140+ short, daily videos that create engaged audiences across platforms.
- Delivers hundreds of thousands of targeted impressions, giving us robust data on message resonance and audience engagement across the country.
Phase 2: The Feature-Length Documentary/Streaming Series and Investigative Podcast:
The funds raised go toward the following:
- Production, which includes filming on location in Tennessee and Alabama for 96 days over a period of three years with a crew of three.
- Post-production, which will include an editor, a colorist, a sound engineer, and more for a period of five months.
- Legal and administrative fees.
Click here to view the full budget.