Weavers Way Co-op (WW), a consumer-owned cooperative retail food market, opened in 1973 in the West Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia.  By 2005, WW had grown to over $7.5 million in retail sales in a small 3,200-sq-ft corner store format.  WW is owned by member-owners, and in 2005, the membership was 2,200 households, about 5,000 individuals. By 2006, revenue exceeded $8 million.

Drexel University'€™s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships took its inspiration from the hundred-year-old tradition of cooperative extension to build a neighborhood-based hub of programming that is designed to fulfill ambitious local goals for transformation. The Center relies on stakeholder planning to coordinate knowledge and academic resources from across the university together with nonprofit program partners to create integrated programming that meets the needs and interests of neighborhood and institutional participants. The strength of the model lies in the combination of participatory planning with a comprehensive institutional commitment to its success.

Through the Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises (CCE), The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation (TEC-CDC) uses food as a means to spur community economic development in West Philadelphia. A commercial kitchen facility, the CCE is both a business incubator for early-stage food entrepreneurs and an important component of neighborhood revitalization. Through the CCE, TEC-CDC comprehensively addresses interrelated issues of access, knowledge, affordability, convenience and economic opportunity to empower food choices among West Philadelphia residents.

Earlier this year, NewCourtland Senior Services, a nonprofit provider of healthcare, affordable housing and supportive services for low-income seniors in Philadelphia, opened its newest LIFE (Living Independently for Elders) Center while also breaking ground on a new, 60-unit affordable senior housing complex next door.

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a number of people believe there finally are some hopeful opportunities to address the long-term issues that have challenged the mental healthcare arena. Still, besides incurring a significant healthcare expenditure ($125+ billion in federal dollars a year), it also competes for funding against other worthy disease ailments and continues to face unique challenges of stigma and misunderstanding.  The following interview with R. John Repique, CEO of Friends Hospital, reveals a strategic initiative that has recently been launched and which can support continued success of an entity that was founded in 1813 by Quakers.

This article describes a unique hospita­‐based intervention for trauma, violence, and adversity in healthcare settings. Healing Hurt People (HHP) was built on the foundation of the Sanctuary Model that uses a trauma informed conceptual framework to address organizational approaches to helping victims of violent injury heal (physically and emotionally) from trauma. HHP is a collaborative model that brings together caregivers from multiple disciplines and systems that touch the lives of victims of urban violence. With support from the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual DisAbilities Services (DBHIDS) this program is being replicated at Philadelphia level I trauma centers.

HHP provides an innovative approach to providing behavioral health services for a marginalized population that would often not otherwise seek such services, despite their dire need. HHP'€™s approach relies on trauma-‐informed practices that hone in on that very trauma that our young people (especially boys and men of color) and their families experience, which unfortunately feeds the cycle of violence. This humanistic innovation helps to heal that trauma. As HHP has grown and continued to identify the ever‐present need for trauma-‐informed interventions for violently injured youth in Philadelphia, we have also seen the positive impact that this work can have on young people and their families.

Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that builds healthier communities through partnerships with government, foundations, businesses and community-based organizations. Since 2008, PHMC has served as the administrative entity for the Out of School Time System funded by the City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services (the OST System).  As administrative entity, PHMC provides contract and fiscal oversight, program quality supports, and data management on behalf of DHS.  Below is an infographic overview of the OST System and PHMC’s role with the OST System, as well as a narrative outlining program quality supports and assessment approaches.

Methodist Services provides a wide range of high quality programs that support children and families across Philadelphia.  One of our areas of expertise has long been providing educational programs: early childhood education, private kindergarten, summer camp and out of school time. Through a partnership with PHMC’s (Public Health Management Corporation) 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) Grant and the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services’ Out of School Time Project (DHS OST), Methodist Services has been able to enhance services offered in the community schools that house its state-licensed After School Care programs.  The 21st CCLC grant supports out-of-school time (OST) programs designed to provide academic support for low-income youth who attend high-poverty, low-performing schools.

Teachers, youth workers, librarians, and extended care workers remove backing from thin copper tape with sticky backing to connect coin cell batteries and LEDs (light emitting diodes) to create  light-up notebooks at a workshop at the Free Library of Philadelphia. These small books will collect fiction or nonfiction writing using the light on each page as a focal point. Participants learn about circuits, on/off switches, and conductivity. They actively analyze problems and try new solutions, follow complex directions, fill in background information and create an original presentation. Participants are engaged from both the passion of the workshop trainer as well as from the intrinsic allure of science. They pause to think about what they will need to do to take these ideas back to their organizations and create hands-on, low-stakes, interesting activities for youth in their after school programs. With a copy of a book about electric circuits, they are poised to show youth how to gain information from nonfiction and spark their curiosity. In this science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workshop, participants leave with an activity to try, a model for inspiring inquiry, and ideas for creatively infusing literacy into compelling content.

Can music improve academics? Is music a social innovation? Can music education help combat the impacts of toxic stress and increase executive function skills?
Since his days as a young musician from Atlanta, GA, Stanford Thompson, Founder of Play, On Philly! (POP), began exploring the correlation between music and social change. While in his second year of study at The Curtis Institute of Music, Thompson was asked a life-changing question during an assembly at a Philadelphia elementary school: “Why should I care about Beethoven?” As Thompson sought answers to this question and more, he learned of a music education program in Venezuela called El Sistema, a social development and music education program.  He joined the Abreu Fellowship Program at the New England Conservatory to spend the year studying the El Sistema philosophy, non-profit management, and make plans to launch a program in Philadelphia.

As a result of a partnership between leaders in public health, out-of-school time, and human services in the city, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became the first city to develop and approve Healthy Living Guidelines (HLGs) for Out-of-School Time (OST) Programs. The goal of the guidelines is to create an environment where it easy for youth attending OST programs to develop and practice healthy behaviors and maintain a healthy weight. The key to this initiative’s success is its cross-sector, multidisciplinary, whole-system collaboration. Health Promotion Council (HPC) led The Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities Out-of-School Time Partnership Initiative (HKHC-OST) and applied the socio-ecological framework  to assess and influence the Philadelphia OST system, including:

• The capacity of the system to provide nutritious foods and beverages, and time for daily physical activity.
• Environmental settings and policies;
• Systemic influences, such as system-wide policies and guidelines; and
• Social and cultural norms and preferences related to food, nutrition, and physical activity. 

21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) grants represent the second largest source of funding for out-of-school time (OST) programs in the City of Philadelphia. Thirty-three OST providers in Philadelphia, representing more than 100 OST programs, are funded by these federal grants, which support OST programs that provide academic support for youth attending high-poverty, underperforming schools.

Preparing high school students for college and career is a key area in which community-school partnerships can make a crucial difference, creating opportunities for exposure, real-world experience and postsecondary access support that most Philadelphia youth would not have otherwise. South Philadelphia High School (SPHS) Principal Otis Hackney and counselor Pierre LaRocco, who is in charge of partnerships, have embraced this potential and made their diverse and vibrant school a model for collaboration. With support from staff and member organizations of the Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative, SPHS began convening monthly provider meetings three years ago. Those meetings—focused on building knowledge and increasing communication among the agencies providing services at the school—grew so large that work groups were formed this school year to focus shared efforts around climate and postsecondary supports. Sunrise of Philadelphia, a city- and state-funded out-of-school time (OST) program provider, joined the school as an on-site partner in fall 2013 and is working with the school and other partners to build innovative and collaborative models to help more students stay on track and graduate with the skills they need to succeed in postsecondary education and careers

At their finest, out-of-school time (OST) programs are vibrant environments that nurture and promote creativity and innovation, in the activities and opportunities offered as well as in the personal connections and social environments that lead to positive effects for children and youth. Too often, these moments of brilliance are just that—short-term instances made possible by individual staff who move on to other jobs without institutionalizing what worked, leaving programs to scramble to sustain consistent funding to support staff time for both work with youth and administrative functions.

Legacy Youth Tennis and Education (formerly Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education) has sought to dramatically change the way young people lead in volunteer service. Legacy’s innovative program model incorporates authentic, youthful voices into the fabric of the organization while simultaneously empowering young people to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions that make them ripe for community leadership. Fifteen years ago, Legacy’s young people gave of themselves by reading to younger children, serving as junior tennis coaches and participating in food and clothing drives. Today’s drastically evolved model allows and teaches Legacy’s youth to engage in program design, fund development and organizational decision making. With primary support from the Harvey Goodstein Charitable Foundation, Legacy’s Goodstein Junior Leader Initiative provides a comprehensive and meaningful experience—one that fosters young people as they carry their talents and passions through Legacy and out into the wider community.

The literature on youth development posits that Out-of-School Time (OST) is an integral partner in providing equitable experiences for youth who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and attend under-resourced schools. (AYPF, 2006) Understanding that the equitable attainment of education and employment are key social determinants of health and upward mobility, the Department of Human Services (DHS) has identified college and career readiness as an important outcome for OST programs serving high school youth.

Intentionality in the design and planning of out-of-school time (OST) programming is a key component of out-of school time success (DC Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation, 2009). One of the most essential and promising practices of quality OST programs is the development of a specific program identity. That is, OST programs should develop a core strategy that serves as the underpinning of their program philosophy while incorporating age-appropriate activities that align with youth outcomes. This is especially important in programs that serve older youth, because older youth need relevant experiences that expose them to prospective college and career plans and build 21st-century skills.

Founded in honor of America’s first great scientist, Benjamin Franklin, The Franklin Institute (TFI) is one of America’s oldest and most renowned centers of science education and development in the country.  TFI is dedicated to public education and to creating an understanding of and a passion for science and technology. To accomplish this, TFI offers new and innovative ways to access science learning opportunities in the community, throughout the museum, and in digital spaces.  Additionally, TFI supports science learning through community-based partnerships such as the Philadelphia Science Festival, LEAP into Science, and the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC).  A recent, innovative example of this commitment is the STEM 3D: Integrating Science into Afterschool, Home, and Community project (STEM 3D).

Proper staff recruitment and retention is a vital part of building a strong OST program infrastructure.  Because staff turnover is often high, many OST programs are overwhelmed with the capacity to properly hire staff that encompasses the mission and vision of their OST programs.  Many programs are then left with the question: “How can OST programs get the most from their staff with a limited budget, and a limited capacity to properly develop their staff?”  This article will detail how two programs in the OST network funded by the City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) utilize similar philosophical approaches and methods for staff recruitment and retention.  Below, we not only detail how these OST programs implement some of these staff recruitment and retention strategies, but how they reflect best practices as well.

Afterschool staff and school day teachers often face similar challenges when managing youth behavior. Although staff encourage all youth to engage in activities and cooperate with one another, children are never perfect at regulating their behavior. If full-time teachers still sometimes struggle with classroom management, the challenge may be even greater for afterschool staff to manage youth whom they see only three hours a day.