We invite the larger community to "travel" with us in the exploration of these very important issues through an online journal reflection on events posted throughout our travels. This blog is available at http://pitttimmersion.blogspot.com/. Course materials are also available through this site.

On January 3-11 students from seminaries, colleges, universities, religious congregations and community organizations from across the country, along with members of the Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Scholars Program and members of the Media Mobilizing Project will learn about the realities of poverty in Appalachia and the work communities are engaged in to end poverty.

Our journey will include discovery, reflection and relationship-building with people living in Appalachia who experience and organize against conditions of poverty.  Participants will also engage in reflective discussion about the purpose of immersion courses and the principles of the Poverty Initiative.

The course is being planned through a partnership with the Direct Action Welfare Group. We will visit such groups as World Vision-Appalachia, WV Council of Churches, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and a number of Head Start locations. 

Please consider inviting one of the course participants, Poverty Initiative staff and/or a Poverty Scholar to speak to your congregation or class about our experience.  Also, please consider donating to the Poverty Initiative to help fund this trip as well as other programs, including another immersion to Mississippi and Tennessee to commemorate the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.

Course Readings:
Alan Banks, Dwight Billings and Karen Tice, "Appalachian Studies, Resistance, and Postmodernism" in Fighting Back in Appalachia (download as pdf)

Pem Davidson Buck, "Making Sweat Trickle Up: Organizing the First Steps Toward Underdevelopment in the U.S. South" in Worked to the Bone: Race, Class, Power, and Privilege in Kentucky (download as pdf)

Guy and Candie Carawan, "Sowing on the Mountain: Nurturing Cultural Roots and Creativity for Community Change" in Fighting Back in Appalachia (download as pdf)

Myles Horton, selections from The Long Haul (download as pdf)

Brigitte Kahl, "Reading Ruth in Appalachia" in Appalachia: Listening With Our Hearts (download as pdf)

Jan Rehmann, "Poverty--What's Neoliberalism Got to Do With It?" in Appalachia: Listening With Our Hearts (download as pdf)

Anne Shelby, "The 'R' Word: What's So Funny (and Not So Funny) about Redneck Jokes" in Back Talk from Appalachia (download as pdf)