Focusing on Poverty

Lewis Hines Fellows

When Lewis Hine traveled to early twentieth century sweatshops with a camera, his photographs became a major tool in the fight to pass child labor laws.  Today, at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, young people called Lewis Hine Fellows are trained to make documentary studies in his spirit.  The Fellows capture the stories of children and parents who are deeply affected by poverty. They use a camera as Lewis Hine did, but they also employ podcasts and oral histories. The Fellows document the work of tenacious community problem solvers.
 
Last year, this international program came to Boston thanks to small grants from an anonymous TPI client. The pilot fellows were with Julie's Family Learning Program in South Boston and Project Hope in Dorchester.  Now, three new fellows are coming to Boston.   Two are with ROCA, a vibrant youth leadership organization based in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The third Fellow is working with the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation. These two organizations were selected from among nine community groups that applied to host a Fellow.

The Hine Fellows Program is an example of an initiative that can have a major impact with a relatively minor philanthropic investment.  The donor is paying for stipends for the Fellows as well as the costs of managing the program, a total philanthropic investment of approximately $40,000 per Fellow.  TPI’s role is to serve as liaison with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, home of the Hine Fellows, and to identify the best sites for placement of the Fellows.  Thanks to the ongoing commitment of the donor, work on important social issues will be well documented and stories of families and young people in Greater Boston will reach a large audience. Most significantly, this project is helping low income women and young people find their voices and take the first steps in the process of transformation.  In the words of Sister Margaret Leonard, Director of Project Hope, “They change themselves and their families. They transform their understanding of their world and begin to see themselves as agents of social change, in their kids’ schools and in their neighborhoods, and in their larger community.”