by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Several key words keep popping up in a conversation with Ju’Coby Pittman.
Concern, involvement, opportunity, responsibility, destiny.
“I think this is a way for me to maximize my potential, being here and helping people that are in need,” said Pittman. “When I go home at night, I know it’s been a job well done.
“I’m just an ordinary person helping ordinary people that need a hand up. For me, it’s been a great opportunity.”
At one time, the CEO-president of the Clara White Mission on Ashley Street wanted to go into business.
“But my grandmother and my mother had a real strong influence on me because they were helpers and kind of like keepers in the community,” she said. “It was kind of like my life was destined.”
The Mission began as a soup kitchen in 1903 at 233 Eagle St. In 1932, it was moved to 613 W. Ashley St., where it expanded under the guidance of Eartha White. She named it for her mother, Clara.
“Although Clara White doesn’t get a whole lot of accolades,” said Pittman, “she basically is the person that initiated the vision of the Mission, and Eartha took it to the next level.”
The Mission serves anyone who needs help, “people from all walks of life,” said Pittman. “I think, in the past, the Mission has been looked at as just a soup kitchen. We’re really a community development corporation where we not only feed people every day, but we train people, we house people.
“We also have a museum where we’re preserving the history and the cornerstone of the community.”
All the attention that comes her way for the Mission’s growth needs to be spread around, Pittman said:
“I really have to praise my staff and our board of directors for supporting the vision that I have as well as carrying on the mission of Eartha and Clara White. If [the Whites] were here today, I hope they would be pleased at what they’re seeing.
“Although they were helping people over 100 years ago, the needs and the gaps of services are still the same. They really haven’t changed. Poverty has been with us since the beginning of time. It’s going to be with us until the end of time.”
Pittman raised money for the United Way and worked at the YMCA before coming to the Mission 10 and a half years ago.
“I could really appreciate the importance of volunteers and the contributions from companies that give to agencies like ours just to keep the doors open,” she said.
She ran for City Council twice, both times coming within a hair’s breadth of winning.
“I was really able to meet a lot of people, the people in the community that shared issues with me,” said Pittman. “People are concerned about education and the well-being of their families.
“I really thought I would have an opportunity to be part of the administration. I think, in hindsight, I am a part of that already.”
She said she has “moved on” and is not interested in running for office again. That doesn’t mean she’s given up on politics.
“If there was anything else I could do I would really like to be an advocate for someone,” she said. “I think I could be helpful to whoever decides to run, no matter what party. I’ve always thought it should be the best person gets the job.”
The Mission serves meals to at least 450 people a day, three times the number being served when Pittman began directing it.
“Usually, by the time individuals come to the Clara White Mission, they’ve probably been to every mission, every program,” she said. “I think the new programs we have, helping veterans and ex-offenders, is a way for me and my staff and the board to reach back and help those individuals.
“We, as taxpayers, have paid for the recidivism, in and out of jail. This program can help them get vocational training and transitional housing. This program allows that person to gain that confidence and go out in the community and become part of the economic structure, giving back what they may have taken at one point.”
Through her work and the two campaigns, Pittman has gotten encouragement from her co-workers, friends and, especially, her husband, Kenneth Peele, “who is a big supporter of my efforts.”
That support was vital last year, when she had brain surgery for a tumor.
“I came this close to death,” she said, with two fingers nearly touching. “It was really scary at first. But, you know, I realized this was a testimony to what I’m doing, what I believe in, how God can really bring you through the toughest situations.
“I guess the surgery has made me even stronger in my faith. I am at peace with what I’m doing, and I know it’s the right thing.”