The line that separates parents from advocates is often paper-thin. Latara Isom, a 27-year-old single mom lived this, long before she could ever express it. As a teenage mother growing up in a Chicago housing project, she says all she wanted was to make a better life for herself and her children. She moved to Milwaukee to do just that. More than a decade later, she's raising four children, working at Head Start and planning to someday open a shelter for teen mothers. This year, she graduated from nursing school with honors.

A year ago, Isom could be found touring her Milwaukee neighborhood with a video camera, asking neighbors questions like, "What are some of the things you'd like to see changed in our neighborhood?" and "What do you think you can add to the community if you want to see a change?"

It was for a documentary film called My Family, My Neighborhood, My Story. The movie chronicles the lives of Isom and four of her neighbors, but with a twist—the four women, none of them professional filmmakers, shot the footage themselves using video cameras provided by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families and the Annie E. Casey and W. K. Kellogg Foundations.

For more than two weeks, they documented their lives, 24 hours a day. An 8-minute short version of the film is included in the 2002 MediaRights.org film festival, which selects the year's best films inspiring action for social change. Connect for Kids honored this excerpt of My Family, My Neighborhood, My Story with our first-ever Fight Family Poverty award.

This film takes a look at ordinary people finding motivation to transform their families' struggles and strengths into action for their neighborhood, in big and little ways.

In addition to Isom, who is featured in the short version, the hour-length film profiles Emma Harring Smith. Smith has two grown daughters, and is raising five grandchildren. Her only son was murdered in 1991. Bao Vang, a student at the University of Wisconsin, is the daughter of Hmong immigrants who came to the United States from Thailand five years ago. Anne Hazelwood is a single mother of two who was a victim of sexual abuse and struggled with drug addiction. She now runs a transitional program for women and is a vocal advocate for low-income families in her neighborhood and beyond.

We spoke with producer Eileen Littig of Northeastern Wisconsin In-School Telecommunications and project manager Tamara Grigsby of the Wisconsin Council of Children and Families (WCCF) to get a sense of what the project has meant for those in the field.

How did the idea come about?
Grigsby: The WCCF [the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families] is more a policy and advocacy organization and not a direct service organization. So we always wanted to do a documentary on the families we advocate for. Our executive director Anne Arnison … thought it was a nice fit to join efforts with Annie E. Casey's Making Communities initiative.

Instead of just coming out with another film that shows how bleak and dreary things are in the inner city, the film highlights the many strengths the people in the neighborhood have, that are often overlooked. They're just like other families. They have the same goals and aspirations for their kids, there are just a few more barriers and obstacles in their way. Often [advocates and service providers] come in and diagnose people in neighborhoods. We say, "Here's your problem, here's what you need." This gave them voice and opportunity to say what they thought was most needed in their communities.

Littig: You know we always say well, you never get low-income women at the table … well now the women are and that's what was so fascinating. You heard directly what the issues were. It's interesting because people think this neighborhood in Milwaukee is very violent, that's got to be the main concern, but the main issues [raised by the participants] happen to be sanitation and housing. There's not enough coming from the city.

What was the most surprising aspect of the project?
Grigsby: I was very nervous going into it, feeling like, wow, I'm intruding on people by having them record everything. It's so personal. But the participants actually took it and really ran with it. Almost everyone told me, "I learned so much more about my family and my life by actually paying attention to what I do." Anne Hazelwood told me she learned great things about the assets she was taking for granted, she said, "I have a lot of rough things but I don't think about the supports from friends and family I have on a daily basis."

Also, the attention has been surprising. Since the film aired on public television, people have called wanting to donate computers, or sit and talk, or offer different resources. Latara Isom says people come up to her and tell her how touched they were by her story and her strength.

How will you build on what you've learned from this project? How will it change or affect your work?
Grigsby:
I think that for us, it can kind of help direct our advocacy efforts. For me, I can look at this and say, "This is what the real families are saying they need. We may explore more areas we may not have initially looked at as a result. People talked a lot about having a safe place for their kids to play. At WCCF, we look at bigger policy issues, welfare reform for example, but this brings it more local, and [shows us] how policies affect immediate needs. Participants all talked about their kids needing to play or socialize with other kids, but they were scared to death to let the kids out of the house to play in vacant lots with broken glass. There was no safe place for them.

A lot also talked about jobs, that there are very few available for families in the neighborhood. If we want people to work, we have to have jobs available for them to work at. It's not that we hadn't thought about it, but it was good to hear it first-hand.

It's advocacy that I hope will continue to be a legacy of this film. After all is said and done, it's about making sure families have ability to advocate for themselves. Learn More

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is hosting screenings and discussions in various communities. To host a screening in your home town, you can rent ($50) or purchase ($195) the film and accompanying materials by contacting Kristel at 920-465-2599.

Screen the film online. Look for My Family, My Neighborhood, My Story.