We Are Here to Learn

On March 31, Pamela Pate met with the Project C team to educate and inform the group of the most dominant social issue affecting Athens and surrounding counties in Southeast Ohio: poverty. As an AmeriCorps Vista, Pate currently works for Ohio University's Campus Involvement Center. She has not only experienced poverty firsthand through her fieldwork, but has started the Jethro Project, an after-school community to tutor poorly performing middle school children, eat a nourishing meal together, and enhance social skills.

As storytellers and documentarians, Pate urged the group to hone in on one-on-one experiences with the subjects of our documentaries. Because of the intense level of poverty in some families and areas, she urged caution and gave words of advice when speaking with others. She believes that we are "not here to save, but here to learn."

Her charismatic personality and true passion for helping the people of Southeast Ohio deeply inspired the group to step beyond the boundaries of the university and experience the true culture of Appalachia before our time at Ohio University has gone.

Project C hopes to help sustain the Jethro Project by documenting the stories of the people involved. This will be one of four non-profit organizations that we cover.