Carrie Steele-Pitts Home

The Carrie Steele-Pitts Home is a private, nonprofit, and nondiscriminatory child caring agency that provides 24-hour state approved residency for neglected, abandoned abused or orphaned. Through the services of caring informed, and responsible staff, the Home aims to maintain a family environment that fosters the physical, social-emotional, mental and spiritual development of each child. (www.csph1888.com)

26-acre wooded campus is landscaped with neatly manicured flowerbeds an d grassy spaces where children can run and play. Birdhouses, made by children, hang from the trees, and playground equipment is tucked in areas between the five residential cottages. In each cottage, approximately 20 children live with their house parents, a team of compassionate adults who provide 24-hour supervision and care. Each cottage has a family room where the children gather after school to finish their homework and spend time with their friends. Sofas and chairs are arranged among the bookshelves, computer learning areas, and tables where the children do their assignments. The children's bedrooms down the hall are filled with stuffed animals; their walls hung with mylar birthday balloons.One of the most important moments of each day is the evening meal, when all of the children and staff gather in the central dining room to eat together and talk about the day's experiences. After eating, there is a time of sharing, where children and staff are encouraged to present readings, songs, funny stories, and personal achievements to the entire group.

In the atmosphere of love and acceptance, CSPH is able to provide the structure and discipline that many children's lives have lacked. Following simple rules based on respecting others, the CSPH staff and children develop a since of community. These bonds have grown have grown more important as children's lives have become increasingly fragmented.

In the Home's early years, the majority of children were abandoned or orphaned. Today many are unable to live with their parents due to abuse, neglect, drug addiction, alcoholism, HIV/AIDS, or other intractable family situations. Children are exposed to unprecedented levels of violence - in their homes, their neighborhoods, and through the media. More and more children are diagnosed with anxiety disorders, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Due to these multiple factors, many children now require specialized classrooms in the public schools to meet their needs, and personalized attention at home.

Ninety-eight percent of the children at CSPH are placed through the County Departments of Family and Children Services or the juvenile court system. A child's average length of stay at Carrie Steele - Pitts Home is 2 ½ years, but children have lived with them for periods ranging from 3 months to 8 years or more. The children usually are at least six years old, but younger children are accepted if it allows siblings to stay together.

The Carrie Steele - Pitts Home is committed to the well being of every child. We work hard to maintain a level of excellence, a high 2.5 to 1 staff-to-child ratio, and a warm, nurturing environment. We are committed to the following: to ensure that every child feels special, to build trust, to encourage self-confidence, and to offer a source of strength, support and love.

Prison Performing Arts Program

1. What makes this field site a good field site in studying this subculture?
Since the subculture is Prison Performing Arts Program then prison is the only place you can go to to observe it and interview people that is part of that subculture.

2. What observations does the author make that is useful in talking about this subculture?
He describes the scenery of the prison and describes what kind of security he had to go through in order to get into the prison. He says that this is a level four high security prison. He is given a screamer which is an alarm for help while he is in the prison. He describes the thick iron doors and the cinder block class room that the prisoners rehearse in. He also describes the huge yard that he walks into where there is thousands of prisoners playing hand ball or lifting weights.

3. What are the norms and values of this subculture?
Big hutch described the hierarchy of prisons as the guppies which are the lowest, the killer whales which are the highest, and himself as the blue whale who controls everybody. There was also another prisoner that put these men into categories of sexuality which straight, gay, and in the closet. Each group knows who to associate with and they need to leave alone. Yet this play brought them all together.

4. What interview techniques work well to understand this subculture?
Talking to each prisoner in the play helped understand them and how things work within the group and to even better understand the play. You received the truth and how they felt about the character they played and if it affected them at all. It was a great way to get a better understanding.

There was one question that I asked myself about this subculture and it was why did these prisoners decide to participate in this play?
One said because he felt human again for just those two and a half hours with Agnes after doing so many humiliating things. Another said that it helped him keep his sanity and he wanted to explore new things. One prisoner said the he discovered that he was not stupid he was just uneducated. Mr. Word, also a prisoner, said he was influenced by his wife because he had been playing the guy all his life.

Topic: Orphans

Sources:
Bai, Xiaowei. "Helping the Least Fortunate of the Next Generation". China Today. March 2008. Vol. 57. Issue 3, p36-37.

Howe, D.K. "Hope Runs". American Fitness. March/April 2008. Vol. 26. Issue 2, p.36.

Lethchworth, William Pryor. Homes of Homeless Children. New York. Amo Press:1994.

Pazicky, Diana Loercher. Cultural Orphans in America. Jackson. Univesity Press of Mississippi:1998. p232.

Tubbs, David Lewis. Freedom's Orphans: Contemporary Liberalism and the father of American Children. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press: 2007.

Reflection:
I decided to write about orphans. My main attraction will be towards the orphans of Atlanta. My research only gave me information for orphans in other countries but this information will still be helpful in my research. I read an article called Hope Run which was a plan to help orphans in Kenya. It kind of shed light on orphans with HIV/AIDS. This gave me an idea of maybe focusing on something like that in my research project. This article also talked about how to help these orphans help themselves, which can also be another aspect of an orphanage. I am excited about this topic and ready to write.