Breaking the Cycle

Education and Opportunity

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  breaking the chain

  Mother: Shearine M
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  All her doors be open

  Mother: Shearine M
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  Policymaking in Washington, DC

  Mother: Erica S
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  Zharae

  Mother: Whitney H

  "This is me breaking the cycle with my daughter. I don’t want my daughter to go through nothing I went through."

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  Potential

  Mother: Crystal S

  I think all children have potential for anything, to be anything, to be anybody. living in this neighborhood, it strips them of their innocence and their ability to be whatever they want to be, just living in an urban neighborhood.

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  Samira happy

  Mother: Crystal S

  She said, mom, can you take a picture? I feel happy right now. I want people to know that we’re like everybody else, the same needs, the same wants… we want the same chances, just like everybody else.

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  Youth program

  Mother: Melissa H

  He's in a program for teens like eighteen to twenty-five, who have a problem with selling drugs and getting locked up and stuff like that. And they help them get jobs. They train them to do like either construction, cooking, housekeeping, whatever it is that they wanna do. They get them into that training for free and they make sure they have their high school diploma or GED and then they send them to work. He went for construction so pretty soon he’ll be working for construction.

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  On the bus

  Mother: Janelle R

  I just want them to grow up to be the best that they can be.  I want them to finish high school. I want them to either go to college or take up some type of trade.

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  Tired

  Mother: Angela S

  This is about survival of the fittest. I had to eat out of people's leftovers and I had to wash up in people's backyards in the winter time out of their little faucet, out in the cold. I’ve really struggled. And I’m tired. When do I get a break?

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  Locked door

  Mother: Tangela F

  That’s my door. It's like all of us--just all locked up. And sometimes I feel like the welfare, that’s what it is, a locked door. Like tryin’ to get through a locked door.

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  City of brotherly love

  Mother: Tangela F

  When I took that picture I was thinking that they say Philadelphia’s the City of Brotherly Love. But if it’s the City of Brotherly Love why can't anybody even get a job in this city? The people that are really trying to get a job can’t get one. 

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  Peace and Graduation

  Mother: Monique E
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  Cap and Flower

  Mother: Monique E