Bridges Out of Poverty participants continually ask if anyone has helped Tammy Crabtree and her son, who were featured in the People Like Us documentary from The Center for New American Media. The documentary is a series of interviews with and stories about people from a diverse sampling of class systems in the United States. The segment on Tammy Crabtree and her son Matt takes place in Waverly, Ohio, where Tammy walks ten miles to her job at Burger King, lives in a mobile home with no furnace, and needs to get her car fixed and is about understanding poverty. Her son Matt is achieving well in school and plans to go to a nearby community college. Tammy has five children.
After several unsuccessful attempts to find Tammy, I resorted to typing her name into a search engine. To my surprise, I discovered that the film’s producers are accepting all correspondence on behalf of Tammy Crabtree and Matt Heid. The Center for New American Media’s website (www.cnam.com) states that Matt is no longer in college and is working at a factory. He has a son. Tammy still works at Burger King, but she now lives much closer to her job.
According to the website, if you’d like to make a monetary donation, you may send a check or money order made out to the person you wish to support, Tammy or Matt, care of the address below. You may enclose a note if you like, and the producers will forward the envelope to Tammy or Matt. Tammy loves to hear from people who have seen her in the film, and any correspondence will be forwarded unopened.
You can also e-mail people@cnam.com or contact The Center for New American Media, 589 8th Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10018. To donate goods or services, please contact Marianne Freed, Community Action Committee of Pike County, 941 Market St., Box 799, Waverly, OH 45661
-Terie Dreussi-Smith
About the consultant:
Terie Dreussi-Smith, M.A.Ed.has served as Supervisor of Prevention Services at a community alcohol/other drug treatment and prevention organization for over nine years, and was instrumental in the organization’s redesign of programs and services for prevention and early intervention clients from generational poverty. She also co-authored Bridges Out of Poverty; Strategies for Professionals and Communities. She is a former public school teacher with years of experience. Terie served as adjunct faculty for several colleges focused on empowering adult students transitioning out poverty. In her recent consultant work as a grant writer and social program manager for youth-based service agencies, community coalitions and schools, Terie assisted communities to embed Bridges Out of Poverty concepts in redesigning policies and services for families and youth in generational poverty. .
