62-328: Using Photography to strengthen ties between children and incarcerated mothers
In this mini, we will work with Lydia¿s Place, a social service agency in downtown Pittsburgh. Lydia¿s Place¿s mission is to ¿help female offenders and their children rebuild their lives.¿ As of this writing,15% of children in Allegheny County have a parent in jail ¿ 7,000 children are affected in our county.Lydia¿s Place is working closely with the warden to strengthen ties between mothers who are in prison and their children. In prison, mothers see their children only once a week. Lydia¿s Place recently created a playroom in the prison where children can hang out while they are waiting to see their mothers. Working with Lydia¿s Place, we have an opportunity to explore how photography may be used to create better communication between the mothers and these children. For example, we might work with the children when they are in the playroom and collaboratively make photographic portraits that they will share with their mothers. The mothers could respond to the portraits in writing. In such a way we can start a verbal/visual correspondence between the two. There is much to explore to see how photography can play a major role in maintaining a relationship between mother and child during this difficult time of incarceration. Prerequisite: A college level photography course, Familiarity with digital photography and a digital camera
| A | F | 08:30 am - 11:20 am | MM 121 | Brodsky |