#Growing up poor in america documentary free#

With True Vision Productions, based in London, Lauren served as producer on this hour-long documentary about growing up poor in America in the current economic downturn. Johnson, an Athens native, is a lecturer in the English department at Ohio State Lima.Kaylie, 10, outside her family’s motel room. I have been encouraging my students who are referencing “Growing Up Poor in America” in their final research papers to offer suggestions for alleviating poverty based on what they viewed in the documentary and read from their secondary sources. Many of them said that they want to give more of their personal time and resources - canned goods and clothing - to help in their local communities.Įarlier in the semester we discussed Census Bureau data for poor children in the United States. Nearly 12 million kids under the age of 18 are currently living in poverty, and roughly 40% live in households headed by single mothers. I’m looking forward to reading my students’ proposals on poverty, and I am thinking about what I can do in the Columbus community once the COVID surge goes down.Īs we get into the Christmas holiday season, I am also reflecting on how the Bible commands us to aid those in need, that if we have “two coats” to “impart” to those who have none. I’m sure that I have passed many people like Becky, whose homelessness is concealed, in public places such as a Walmart or Kroger. They should know that they are not alone during this trying time. I don’t have the patience,” Fantasy says, looking distressed. The last family featured lives in a threadbare house in Marietta. Fantasy is a middle-age mother working long shifts at a gas station to support her daughters Laikyen, 12, who has ADHD, and Miracle, 16, who plans to attend college and become a teacher. Fantasy depends on the local food bank to feed her family and gets frustrated when Laikyen struggles to do her homework. “If they keep these schools shut, I’m going to go crazy.

#Growing up poor in america documentary free#

Shawn, a 13-year-old living in The Plains, walks with his brother Edward, 15, to a McDonald's to receive free lunch during the week. Their mother Crystal receives food stamps and HUD pays the rent for her trailer home, but Crystal is concerned about her work hours at the Salvation Army being cut because of COVID-19. She must work a specific number of hours to keep her disability benefits. Mike DeWine shutting down the state for three weeks in March. Becky had been juggling some temp jobs and did not have a stable income. Unable to afford the rent for her apartment, she and her daughters moved in with a family friend. They were sharing one bedroom, and the stress on Kyah was especially evident. Only 14, Kyah mentioned how she held many of her emotions in so that her mother would not worry. The other children featured in the documentary were not homeless, but the anxiety of food insecurity and online schooling were daily challenges.

One of the things that I kept thinking about while watching the film was how these families were in dire straits before COVID-19. Becky, a Columbus single mother of two teenage daughters, Kyah and Kelia, had been out of work prior to Ohio Gov. One student mentioned during her symposium presentation that she cried during several parts of the documentary while listening to the heartbreaking personal stories of kids only a few years younger than she is. Since my students were working on their primary source analysis essays when “Growing Up Poor in America” debuted, I did not have time to show it during class, but I sat down to watch it this week. The hardships these families are going through definitely tugs at your heart and exposes the magnitude of chronic and episodic poverty, particularly for single mothers struggling to make ends meet. Poverty was one of the most popular subjects chosen for analysis. During week three of the semester back in September, 'Frontline' released a documentary titled “Growing Up Poor in America” with a specific focus on children from three Ohio families. The film became the primary source for students writing about poverty, and it opened their eyes to the suffering that is close to home for all of us in the Buckeye State.

As the autumn 2020 semester ends, my English composition students at Ohio State University’s Lima campus have been sharing their research projects with their peers through Zoom symposiums.