Pamela James
Pronouns | she/her/hers
Member Since | 2021
Pamela was born in Hollywood, Florida and raised in Buffalo, New York. She is a veteran of the United State Army and was honorably discharged.
She earned a Bachelor's of Science degree from Buffalo State College Criminal Justice Department in 1999. In 2001, Pamela graduated from the University of Buffalo with a Master’s Degree from the School of Architecture and Planning. In 2014, Pamela graduated from the American Business Technology University with a certificate in information Technology. She earned a certificate from the school of School of Management Allstate Emerging Entrepreneur Program in 2015. James has completed all of her doctoral degree course work in Cultural Studies; she plans to finish her dissertation in the near future. She presently teaches Social Sciences courses at Houghton College EastSide Campus in Buffalo, New York.
Pamela D. James is President and co-founder of J&W Planning Group, LLC (JWPGLLC) that was created in September 2017 to teach individuals and families financial concepts. James Co-Founded LifeSource Systems, Inc. (LSSI) in 2015. She teaches health and wellness principles to community residents in WNY. She lost about 100 pounds eating fresh fruits and vegetables. James desires to help others who want to learn more about good nutritional values.
JWPGLLC was created because she realized that many community members in Buffalo, New York were not financially literate and did not understand how to start a business.
To date, she has co- taught over 500 entrepreneurs that reside in urban communities. JWPG has assisted over 300 low to moderate income individuals start new businesses in the Buffalo-Niagara region.
In 2018, she co-spearheaded the Youth Entrepreneur Marketplace (YEM), in which she teaches entrepreneurship to children ages 5 to 18. Children are taught to be business owners and how to sell their products. Over 100 children have attended YEM; 50 have started business and sell their products.
In the speech Dr. King made on May 8, 1967, he stated that he had to reassess his strategy for helping poor people and black reach equality. According to Dr. King the real issues were mainly economic, not just social. Today, Black and poor people are still feeling the economic stresses that Dr. King pointed to in 1967.
African American have the highest rate of poverty in the USA 18.8%, over 25,000 children in the City of Buffalo are in poverty out of 58 percent and 44% that reside in the inner city. Our goal is to help lift people out of poverty. We believe as MLK stated everybody can do something great and be great because everybody can serve. Poverty may not cause crime, we believe that these two phenomena are in some ways directly related.
