I just added my photo essay to PhotoPhilanthropy's website click here. I'm honored to have my work and the work of True Light Family Resource Center be shown there. Please take time to browse and view also their impressive collection of works by photographers working with all types of non-profits.

Tom Sawyer Ballet Dress Rehearsal at Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Tom Ryan's review of the world premiere Tom Sawyer Ballet rehearsal

Mary Moore's Back to the Table Workshop

http://janevision.tumblr.com/post/7457238285/mary-moore-founder-of-a-workshop-called-back-to

http://janevision.tumblr.com/post/7457265246/regina-sang-and-shared-her-story-with-the-people

Father's Day is just another day for Peggy and her family

I visited Peggy the other day at her home.  She spoke of Father’s Day.  She said it doesn’t mean much for these kids,  like many people she knows, there is no father around.  She said that her sons’ father was killed by gunshot before they could know him.  She has since been searching for a male role model for them.  Her youngest son had a role model who was his football coach at Derrick Thomas Academy up until he was killed in a motorcycle accident this year.  Derrick Thomas Academy was named  in memory of a football player who was a role model for many inner city children.   Derrick Thomas died from a car accident in 2000.

Peggy currently lives with many members of her extended family, including her sister and several neices with their children under one roof.  They all work together to provide and take care of the children.  The only adult male in the house is her brother. 

Peggy's youngest son, age 13, comes home from visiting friends.






Peggy's neice, who lives with her checks her phone by the door. 




The youngest in the household, Peggy's neice's daughter.  Extended family live together in one house and together take care of the children.





Friday's slideshow was a big success!

View the slideshow

Friday: Slide Show Benefit for Emancipation Station, A Women's Shelter

Please stop by anytime between 7-9:30 pm on First Friday, tomorrow to see the slideshow!

There is no fee to attend, but tax-deductible donations will be accepted with 100% of the proceeds given to Emancipation Station. (Pastor Alice Piggee-Wallack will be set up at a table underneath the photographic display to give interviews and receipts for donations.)


*special thanks to Tom Ryan, Evan Ashby of Mildred's Coffee House, Christina Boveri Realty, Suzi Aron Realty and Mary Pepitone 

Starting Salaries for Teachers in KCMO School District is Low

After reading an article on teacher's salaries from the New York Times today, I decided to look how KCMO schools faired.  What I found is that KCMSD has one of the lowest starting salaries of approximately 100 districts surrounding it.  The salary range meets the average as the pay scale increases with time.  But the lifetime average that a teacher earns is less because of the starting salary. Read More Research Here on KCMO Schools

With the research from the New York Times article, "McKinsey polled 900 top-tier American college students and found that 68 percent would consider teaching if salaries started at $65,000 and rose to a maximum of $150,000. "  it is evident that teachers salaries, especially Kansas City, Missouri Teacher's salaries are not attractive to top scholars as job choice.


"At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible." NYT Article on Teacher's Salaries

My mother was a teacher when I was growing up.  She once told me that they were making the same salary as the people who take out the garbage.  Not much has changed.

Gun Violence in KC's East Side

Missouri ranked No. 1 in black homicides in the United States for the second time in four years, according to the Violence Policy Center’s annual study of victims.  http://www.vpc.org/press/1101homicide.htm

© 2011 Rachael Jane
Peggy, an East Kansas City resident gave testimony in church about her fear of her oldest son getting shot.  He bought a gun last week for protection.  Many kids his age are dying every week in gun battle on the streets of KC's East Side.

Homeless Woman Pleads Not Guilty to Stealing Son's Education

Read the Article


I wonder how many upper class people who suddenly lost everything and were landed in a neighborhood like this woman or like Kansas City's East Side would also lie to take their kid to the other side of the tracks to get a fair chance in school?

KC's Food Desert Cont'd

Abandoned Country Mart grocery store on 31st and Prospect
© 2011 Rachael Jane

Abandoned Country Mart on 31st and Prospect
© 2011 Rachael Jane

Yesterday, I spoke with the receptionist at Operation Breakthrough.  I asked her if she knew of any grocery stores in the area that closed.  She recalled "Country Mart" on 31st and Prospect as being one.   It was her favorite store.  "It's terrible because old people and people without cars or means no longer can get the groceries they need easily," she said.

Food Desert in Kansas City's East Side

Today while sitting in on a nutrition class at Emancipation Station women's shelter, I was thinking about "food deserts".  There is a disparity in the number of grocery stores on the East Side of Kansas City.  The choices for food for anyone who walks or rides the bus is limited to pharmacy type stores, convenience stores, fast food chains and liquor stores.  A fresh vegetable or fruit is hard to find.  It seems ironic that the woman speaking to the homeless is trying to teach nutrition and good choices for food.  But with this new knowledge, these women have very little chance of actually practicing it.  The food stores that supply the produce and non-processed foods have already evacuated the neighborhoods.  Some clients mentioned that there was a "Piggly Wiggly" store that went out of business last week over on the Kansas side.  Their experience with shopping there was that things were expired.  Often over 2 months expired.

Why are there no grocery stores?  Was there no demand?  It seemed from my small sampling of the poorest of the poor in Kansas City, that these women had a desire to cook with these raw foods.  They shared tips on how to handle chili peppers and store homemade soups and prepared meats.  It seems they had the knowledge.  Was the food simply too time consuming?  Too expensive for a population who individually must work several jobs to make ends meet?

Kansas City has more than 40% dropout rate in schools...

"... Research shows that high school dropouts are three and a half times more likely than graduates to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated. Nearly 70 percent of all inmates in our nation’s prisons failed to earn a high school diploma.

In Kansas City area schools, more than 40 percent of students fail to graduate from high school on time.... "

Kansas City Area:Dropout Rates Fueling Violent Crime

Stories from the East Side

Lizzie was a prostitute in the 1980's on the East Side of Kansas City during the same time serial killer Terry Blair was killing prostitutes. One of his victims was a friend of hers. She tells a story of a hard childhood, struggles with addiction, abuse and nearly losing her life before coming clean at a recovery house. Her one year anniversary for being sober will be August of 2011.

Happy Birthday Pastor Alice!

Human Rights Campaign and Soulforce held a Vigil and Delivery of 70K Petitions to Lou Engle

Last weekend, Human Rights Campaign and Soulforce paid a visit to the world headquarters of International House of Prayer and The Call ministries in Kansas City to ask Pastor Lou Engle to restate his position on the "kill the gays" bill in Uganda.

© Rachael Jane

Read More Here

Daily life, Kansas City's East Side

Emancipation Station, a day shelter for women.

Daily life, Kansas City's East Side

A homeless child crawled off the couch in search for a more comfortable place to nap on the porch of Emancipation Station.  Emancipation Station is a day shelter for women.

Midwest Blizzard 2011

Succotash

Slideshow

Tom Ryan's write-up

Party Arty 2011, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

click view slideshow

coming soon in Present Magazine...

Tom Ryan's Write-Up

Miss you Kodachrome...

Jacquie- Sycamore, Illinois, scanned slide of K64 processed by Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas in 2007.

The last roll of this kind of film was processed by Dwayne for the National Geographic photographer, Steve McCurry.

A Dress Rehearsal of "One Flea Spare" by Naomi Wallace Directed by Karen Paisley at Metropolitan Ensemble Theater

click right lower corner to expand

Read more on Tom Ryan's blog