Director's Message
 Welcome to our new digital newsletter. This Spring edition provides a quick foray into the many exciting projects, partnerships and special events that have occurred over the last several months. It also celebrates the individual achievements of staff, Leaders Corps members, and participants. As the stories highlight, we have partnered with many excellent organizations on community building projects (Penrose Playground, Teen Health Cafes), have provided numerous trainings and workshops for organizations, practitioners and students across Philadelphia, have worked with a large number of wonderful young people helping them to develop media projects, anti violence campaigns, and community based initiatives, and have once again partnered with the Experiment in International Living to support 6 teens from Philadelphia to spend part of the summer in a foreign country learning about other cultures. This spring also saw the expansion of our credit bearing P.O.W.E.R Internship Project for high school juniors and seniors as well as the VOICES after school program. We are thrilled to be serving larger numbers of youth and to be working with more high schools across the city.
Amidst the joys of our accomplishments, there is one sad note. After nine years of tireless commitment, unrelenting passion, endless hard work, and unbounded energy, Catie (Cavanaugh) Wolfgang is leaving the UCCP to complete her PhD in Urban Education. Fortunately for us, she will be at Temple University where we will continue to seek out her wisdom and input. On behalf of the staff, board and participants, I want to extend the deepest possible gratitude for her work in helping to build the UCCP and to offer her all of our support as she embarks on the next phase of her journey.
In closing, I want to thank our supporters, partners and friends for being there for us. Have a wonderful spring and summer and remember to keep an eye out for our newswires. ☺
Warmly,
Barbara Ferman
Here are some highlights of the season...
(Follow the links for complete stories on the UCCP Newswire)  Penrose Playground >> The UCCP worked with the Love2Serve program of Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and several community organizations to renovate and beautify the Penrose Playground on 12th St & Susquahannah Ave. Only a couple of blocks from our home at Temple University, the Penrose Recreation center provides a safe haven for many children, youth and adults in the community, yet for a long time lacked critical resources and institutional support. Working with Johannah Bennett (a former LC member!) at Love2Serve, we mobilized a lot of collective love and effort to clean and paint the inside of the center on Martin Luther King Day of Service (read more) and partnered with City Year Greater Philadelphia and Teens for Good to paint a mural and plant a garden on the outside (read more). Penrose has since served as a space for our Teen Health Cafes, and we are in the process of working with a small group of youth from the Rec Center to develop their media skills and form a youth advisory council for the community.
 Teen Health Cafe >> This spring was the launch of the first two very successful Teen Health Cafés on healthy relationships and HIV prevention. The Teen Health Café emerged from a series of conversations between the UCCP, Temple faculty, Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and Greater Philadelphia Federation of Settlements. Under the guidance and mentoring of UCCP staff and Temple students, youth participants from these organizations have been meeting weekly to develop the Teen Health Café. (read more)
 Project Based Collaborations >> Fueled by our expanded staff, this spring the UCCP rhizomically spread its reach to several other organizations and youth in Philadelphia. From December to March, we worked with PA BUSTED! to help a group of youth from the program develop media literacy and production capacity and create an anti-smoking PSA (read more). In March, we partnered with PHENND to offer Philadelphia high schools seniors a 6 week workshop series in which they created a media piece to accompany their senior projects (read more). For 8 weeks, the UCCP partnered with Vare Beacon's Skills for Life program to help a group of 15 youth develop an anti-violence workshop for younger children. For the third year, Temple students interning at the UCCP advised civic action groups at the Dwight Evans Civic Leadership Summit (read more). We also worked with Victoria Holmes to develop the first ever Alumni Chapter at YOUTHadelphia, a youth philanthropy board at the Philadelphia Foundation.
 Experiment in International Living >> The UCCP is immensely proud to announce the six young VOICES participants (our biggest group so far!) who will participate in the 6 week Experiment in International Living this Summer, for free. The excited experimenters are: Fred Shields (going to China), Alexis Duprey (Japan), Alexa Benjamin (France), Isaiah Smith (Italy), Ameera Young (Belize) and Jamia Hill-Bell (Spain). This opportunity would not be possible without the amazing support of our sponsors and hard work of the EIL alumni group who helped to fundraise the money for the trips (read more).
 The POWER of VOICES >> Under the coordination of two amazing ladies, Ieshia Nelson and Alie Huxta, the UCCP has nurtured and grown its youth engagement programs: the Temple Youth VOICES Project and the P.O.W.E.R. Internship. With more participants, interns and organizational partners than ever before, our biggest victory is in having the young people who develop their leadership and critical thinking skills at VOICES take them back to their communities, schools and into the future. Read about our powerful VOICES final showcase and the POWER Partnership Breakfast!
Special Video Feature
 We promised this email newsletter would be short, but there's just so much we want to say! For a more entertaining Spring review, check out this short video on Making of the PSA with BUSTED!. If you do not see the video in your email, CLICK HERE.
|
SPRING 2009
Welcome to the new, digital edition of the UCCP newsletter, Partners for Change. Made for the digital world, this version is shorter, greener and more interactive. You can always find out what the UCCP is currently up to through our Newswire Blog, but this newsletter, which will be emailed three times per year, gives us a chance to publicly thank our supporters (YOU!) and reflect on our accomplishments. Enjoy. UCCP Home >> http://www.temple.edu/uccpFUNDING The UCCP received funding from Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, PA BUSTED!, Maximus Foundation, the Patricia Kind Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, PHENND, the Philadelphia Foundation, the Philadelphia Youth Network, and the William Penn Foundation. PARTNERS We would like to extend gratitude to our organizational partners this Spring: Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and Love2Serve, PA BUSTED!, City Year Greater Philadelphia, Dwight Evans Civic Leadership Summit, Enterprise Management Consulting at the Fox School of Business, Mariana Bracetti Academy, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Pennsylvania Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development, Penrose Playground, Philadelphia Youth Commission, Teens for Good, and VARE Beacon. WORKSHOPS & EVENTS Feb 14, 2009: Genisha Wallace and Catalina Gonzalez led a workshop on Youth Leadership for the CityLights Coalition in Southwest Philadelphia. April 11, 2009: With support of the UCCP's staff, LC members and youth participants, Susanna Bergin from Bryn Mawr College organized and facilitated a 6.5 hour diversity retreat called "Blurred Lines." ( read more) May 7, 2009: The UCCP hosted a "POWER Breakfast" for current and prospective schools and organizations partnering with the UCCP through our POWER internship. ( read more) May 9, 2009: The Temple Youth VOICES Project held its annual Spring Showcase, celebrating the fantastic social change projects and campaigns of our youth participants ( read more). On the same day, Aaron Kennedy and Natalia Smirnov led a workshop on "Youth, Media and Identity" at the Busted! Media Conference, held at Temple University with the support of the UCCP. LEADERS CORPS  The UCCP is proud to recognize the important educational milestones of our Leaders Corps members. Graduating from Temple University: Bo-Stacey Nicholson, Brian Porter and Genisha Wallace; graduating from Community College of Philadelphia: Earl Joseph; graduating from Bryn Mawr College: Susanna Bergin. And our high school graduates: Mariah Butts, Kianni Brooks and Nastassia Harewood. In addition, we are proud to report that Malikka Saeed and Victoria Holmes have been accepted to nursing school for Fall 2009! |
