What was POPPYN about 2010 (and how can it keep POPPYN in 2011?)

Did you know that only 1% of youth-related stories in the mainstream media focus on "good deeds?" Privileged to be working with Philadelphia youth, we are better informed about the huge the contribution young people make to our city. So this Fall at the UCCP we launched a new initiative called POPPYN, which stands for Presenting Our Perspective onPhilly Youth News. It's a youth-produced news show about issues and events in Philadelphia that so often get ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream media. Our pilot episode is in the last stages of post-production and will be coming out - and coming to your e-mail box - very soon!

Inspired by our own co-opting of the adjective poppin' (which means both "cool" and "happening"), we asked the UCCP Leaders Corps and staff what was POPPYN for them in 2010. We also borrowed an idea from the "If I Had a Trillion Dollars" contest (we used it in our after school program to explore how the money spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be better distributed to help our community) and asked the LC what they would buy the UCCP if they had a Trillion Dollars. Hey - it's fun to dream!

Check out their answers in the video below:

Um, so.. our slightly more REALISTIC Wishlist includes getting our own lounge at Temple University, updating our cramped offices with new technology, investing in new state-of-the art media equipment to make initiatives like POPPYN even more, well, poppyn!... But also the little things that an organization working with youth never stops needing:Tokens, Pizza, Snacks, Board Games, Gift Cards, tickets to cool events,a Button Maker and of course Cold Hard Cash so we can take our participants to national conferences, support them traveling to other countries through Experiment in International Living, and paying the salaries of our staff and Leaders Corps. At the end of the day, it's all those little things that help us together create a city culture where youth feel supported, encouraged and represented.

You are a big part of what makes UCCP so POPPYN.

Please buy us something. The little stuff really adds up.

Happy Holidays.

<3

The UCCP

Send cold hard cash (in check form) to:
UCCP-Temple University
4th Floor Gladfelter Hall, 1115 W. Berks St
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Moving On & Moving In...

As some of you know, Alison (Alie) Huxta served as the UCCP’s VISTA for two years, during which time she took what was a very small POWER Internship program with a handful of students from a couple of high schools and built it into a truly POWERful part of the UCCP’s Leadership Development Continuum serving 30-35 juniors and seniors from over 20 high schools each year. The issues that these students have taken on during their internships (e.g. sexual violence; excessive consumerism and environmental sustainability; teen pregnancy; and media influence on youth), the energy and passion that they bring back to their schools and their fellow students and the written and verbal evaluations of the program from both participants and teachers, provide ample evidence of the amazing impact of Alie’s work. Alie also played a major role in shaping the Youth Action Scholars, the newest part of our Continuum, in which youth serve as peer educators on critical issues facing their communities and their schools. Despite our best efforts to keep Alie within the UCCP, she has decided to take a much needed “chill.” The entire UCCP family wishes Alie all the best as she travels, on foot and by car, through the back roads of the US. We are confident that she will make many discoveries and share them all with us when she returns. We can’t wait to hear the stories!

We are thrilled to welcome back Johannah Bennett, a former Leaders Corps member, who will become our new VISTA and who will coordinate the POWER Internship. Although Johannah left the Leaders Corps in 2009, she never really left the UCCP. She has formally collaborated with us from her positions with other organizations and, as the consummate networker, has always sought out exciting opportunities for the UCCP. Johannah already has a long list of plans for the POWER Internship and for the UCCP overall. I know they will be innovative, ambitious and lead to many fruitful prospects. If Johannah has not reached out to you yet, she will be doing so shortly. Let’s give her a wonderful welcome back!

Going National: Redefining What Civics Education is About

In early September, the UCCP joined four other organizations in Boston for two days of intensive sharing, brainstorming and visioning on how best to prepare young people to be lifelong participants and leaders in the civic and political spheres. The organizations represent geographic and programming diversity but all share our passion for equipping young people with the skills, knowledge, and values that enable them to have an active voice in the issues that matter to them and to the larger society. The meetings resulted in a commitment to collaborate on promoting and expanding the practice of Action Civics, a process through which young people identify and address issues of importance to them through research, constituency building, action and reflection. Action Civics meets youth where they are and supports and values their voice, knowledge, experience and perspective. The organizations will share practices and tools, reach out to other organizations engaged in similar work, and develop strategies for re-defining the way civics is understood and practiced in schools and after school settings. We are thrilled to be part of this timely and critical work with CIRCLE (Tufts University in Massachusetts), Earth Force (Denver), Generation Citizen (Boston and Providence, RI), Mikva Challenge (Chicago) and Youth on Board (Boston). Stay tuned for updates on this exciting campaign.

Funding Updates

We are extremely pleased to announce that the UCCP has been awarded three year grants from both the Pew Charitable Trusts and the William Penn Foundation. The Pew grant is to support our Progressive Youth Leadership Development Continuum while the William Penn Grant is to help us better align our activities and the activities of other out of school time providers with the city and school district’s educational priorities of decreasing the dropout rate and increasing the number of Philadelphia students who enter and complete college. We are proud to be a key part of these important goals. We also extend a deep thanks to YOUTHadelphia, the Youth Philanthropy Committee of the Philadelphia Foundation, for its support of our Youth Action Scholars initiative and to PHENND (the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development) for providing funding to help us launch our newest initiative, Youth Action News. Finally, we thank the wonderful individuals who gave generously to help us out in these hard economic times.

Summer Academy 2010

The UCCP concluded its 2010 Summer Academy with a genuine triumph. On August 10th we hosted what will hopefully become an annual tradition – the Summer Summit – a day long event engaging youth and allies in interactive workshops, film screenings and community presentations.

The 2010 Summer Summit was an example of UCCP’s Youth Leadership in action. It was planned and facilitated by this year’s Leadership Development Institute participants – 18 and 19 year old youth training to become part of our Leaders Corps. The LDI participants created flyers, signs and program agendas, MC-ed the event, directed the audience to appropriate destinations, ordered and served food and made sure everything ran smoothly. They did a fantastic job and gained an experience in organizing and coordinating events that will be useful in their work at the UCCP and in colleges they heading to in the Fall. In addition to their preparation for the final event, the LDI participants learned many aspects of youth leadership development, lesson planning and facilitation and created and facilitated activities for younger youth from UCCP's programs and a new partner this summer - Cradles for Crayons.

Our second year cohort of Youth Action Scholars had the opportunity to test their workshops on Education and Race, Culture and Mass Media that they have been designing and practicing over the summer. The Scholars created 4 workshops on: how oppression affects education, contemporary representations of blackface in the media, where school funding comes from and how it works and analyzing symbols in popular and ancient cultures. They did a great job facilitating and engaging their workshop audience in interactively learning critical issues and applying them to their own lives. If you or your organization is interested in hosting a YAS workshop, please contact Phil Scott at apscott@temple.edu.

The Summit also features a gallery exhibit and documentary screening by a group of 10 students who participated in a PhotoVoice process of documenting positive and negative aspects of their Philadelphia communities through digital photography. Graciously hosted at Tyler School of Art’s beautiful Student Lounge, the exhibit, entitled “The Ghetto is Not Our Final Destination” showed Philadelphia from the eyes of these youth. Their documentary elaborated on issues of safety and violence in Philadelphia. The PhotoVoice project is especially grateful to our partners Maria Kefalas, Jill Chonody, Jill Welsh and Shayna McConville for supporting the group through contributions of finances, facilitation and facilities!

Finally, this summer’s three introductory VOICES groups presented their films on Violence, Teen Parenting and STDs. The groups spent 6 weeks learning essential skills including teamwork and public speaking while identifying a collective issue, researching about it and working together to create a film to address it. The groups created informative and engaging videos and power point presentations that they presented to an audience of youth and adults and received feedback for their work.

We as the UCCP staff and Leaders Corps feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks with these amazing and inspiring young people.

UCCP helps youth at StarFinder develop leadership & planning

During the Spring of 2010 the UCCP worked closely with over 35 young people from the Starfinders Senior Leader Program, on UNICEF’s “Tap Project” and the “Starfinder Summer Camp.”

For 6 weeks Leaders Corps members Johannah Bennett, Gary Browne and Mosi Blaylock worked alongside the youth to develop a marketing strategy to raise money and social consciousness for UNICEF’s World Water Week. We used this as a springboard to assist the youth in further developing their public speaking, networking, event planning, leadership, and facilitation skills. As a result, the youth were able to not only educate themselves but spread awareness about the global water crisis. In the end, the youth were able to raise close to $300.00! (1$ a day will provide water to one person for 40 days and $500.00 will provide a hand pump for an entire community!)

The UCCP also partnered with Starfinder to help the youth leaders design its Summer Camp, which is an opportunity for many young people to experience their first part time jobs. To plan for it, we spent another six weeks helping to develop each student’s leadership abilities and self-confidence through various activities. Youth were given the opportunity to enhance their public speaking and communication skills, develop and implement activities, and understand the importance of effective planning, goal setting, and time management.

The UCCP was impressed by the youth's commitment and is looking forward to working with Starfinder Foundation in the future.

UCCP @ the Y-HEP Empowerment Summit

On June 26th, the UCCP proudly collaborated with the Youth Health Empowerment Project to facilitate 3 workshops for their “One City, One Voice: Education & Empowerment Summit. “

Leaders Corps members Kenny Williams-Medley, Gary Browne, Reese Acree, Johannah Bennett and Earla Joseph in collaboration with our Youth Action Scholars Roy Fearon and Ralph Lemar facilitated 3 interactive workshops:

• “Developing Youth Leaders” (for adults),
  
• “WORKSHOP IN A BOX”(for youth peer educators!)
  
• “MEDIA 4 UR CAUSE” (for all!).
  

The summit was a great success – fun, inspiring and empowering. We hope to continue a productive and supportive relationship with Y-HEP in the future.

H5D at Chester Youth Empowerment Summit

On Saturday, May 8th, 2010 the Youth Action Scholars presented a workshop at the Chester Youth Collaborative Youth Council’s “Flip the Script, Stop the Violence” 2010 Chester Youth Empowerment Summit at Widener University. Workshop areas addressed: healthy relationships, life skills, violence prevention, bullying, peer pressure, conflict resolution, substance abuse, self-esteem, hip hop culture and more. Their workshop entitled “Self-Destruction” informed and empowered personal decision making for health and well-being. There was an awesome turnout, and the Youth Council did a great job! We look forward to working with them again in the future.

Building the Community Classroom - the Final Youth Action Scholar event of the Year

The first year of the Youth Action Scholars concluded with a very successful final Teen Cafe on May 14th at Penrose Playground. The theme of the workshop was "Building the Community Classroom: Learning to Learn Outside of School.” All three YAS groups (Health 5 Dimensions, Race Culture and Mass Media, and Political Youth Team) did activities that exemplified their groups main messages and goals:

Race Culture and Mass Media did an activity that had the audience dialog about how much TV they watch and how it influences their perceptions. They then linked how society views black men and women in society.

The Political Youth Team did an activity in which the audience wore a blindfold that represented “how blind we are to the politics around us.” PYT then asked questions about everyday items such as water bottles, corner store snacks, and Walmart bags and challenged the participants to expand their minds and "go beyond the veil" to see how politics effects them.

Health 5 Dimensions group’s activity had the crowd rate their priorities of the 5 dimensions of health (spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, and social) and how they can better balance these dimensions.

After a rotation of these 3 activities the audience had to do an activity to see how Race, Health, and Politics all connect in our daily lives.

Thank you to YOUTHadelphia, PCVPC, parents, family, UCCP reps, and community members for coming out to this event. As one audience member reflected, "youth can teach adults a lot about how to run this city!" and this year, the UCCP’s Youth Action Scholars did indeed build a community classroom at the Penrose Playground!

POWER goes back to school

The Fall 2009 POWER Intern groups closed out their sessions with two very successful presentations for their high school peers at Mariana Bracetti Academy. Both groups produced Public Service Announcements and designed interactive workshops on their chosen community issues: Sexual Violence and Exessive Consumption = Environmental Degradation. Showing a PSA entitled "Bent But Not Broken," the Sexual Violence group led a health class in a discussion about Rape, Molestation, Prostitution and Sex Trafficking, highlighting their causes, effects, and what to do if you are a victim. The Excessive Consumerism group challenged an environmental science class at Mariana Bracetti Academy with a provocative and creative PSA called "Do You Really Need a Bag?" Scattering plastic bags around the classrooms they asked students to imagine having their space look this way every day. They offered practical tips on recycling and reusing plastic that they learned in their meeting with Philadelphia's Director of Sustainability Katherine Gajewski.

See the Excessive Consumerism group's video below:

2nd Annual Power Breakfast

We are excited to report that our 2nd Annual POWER Internship Breakfast at the University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia (UCCP) on May 13th brought together many of our current, past, and possible future schools together to appreciate the work we have done together and learn more about the other opportunities provided by the UCCP.

In attendance was South Philadelphia High School, West Philadelphia High School, Parkway NW High School for Peace and Social Justice, Marianna Bracetti Academy Charter School, Carver High School for Engineering and Science, YouthBuild Charter, Roxborough High School, Parkway West High School, and William Penn Charter. Several current POWER interns, Nyki Sanders, Fatimah Simpkins, Bradley Harley, Jabari Jackson, and Felicia Houston came to present about their projects and experiences so far.

Because of the cooperation of the schools we work with this year we have been able to bring together students from 17 different Philadelphia schools to address problems in their communities. Interns have created workshops, Public Service Announcements, and community events to bring awareness about these issues and urge other youth to take action. All of this would not be possible with out the collaboration with POWER Partnership schools. At the breakfast we celebrated these victories and also discussed ways to make the POWER internship stronger.

From this meeting the UCCP gained a sense of what each school is willing to contribute to the POWER relationships, including joint fundraising, writing letters of support, helping with recruitment and inviting POWER interns to do workshops at their school. Furthermore, everyone gained a sense of community around creating programs that help youth have a voice for change in their communities and schools.

Youth VOICES on Foster Care and Violence!

On Saturday, May 1st VOICES held its Spring Final Event for the 2009- 2010 after-school programming cycle. This year's projects highlighted issues of the Foster Care/Adoption System & Violence in the city of Philadelphia. The success of this event was demonstrated by enthusiasm of the crowd to get involved in the future of these projects.

This year in particular the participants' projects were very personal to both them and their families: One student's mother was raised by foster parents and another has two adopted siblings; due to a violent incident at one of our participants' schools, his father transferred him to Charter school that is a 25 minute commute from his neighborhood. The final projects, as a result, reflect very deep and personal understanding of the issues: Violence is Played Out is a PSA exploring the many perspectives on how violence affects different Philadelphians, from city officials and parents to college students and youth. The group submitted their film to the Legs Against Arms Video Competition. The Sisters Project is a short film using quotes and stories from interviews with foster care and adopted youth. The students' hope to inspire other youth within these circumstances and bring awareness to adults to get involved by mentoring and or adopting.

The VOICES participants this year have shown tremendous dedication to each other and the program as well as a passion to being a part of the positive change in our community.

Spring Break Fun !

During Temple University's Spring Break, the UCCP hosted fun activities for our youth participants from the VOICES after-school and POWER Internship programs. On Tuesday, March 9, we had an ice-cream social, where participants could bring friends, ate tasty concoctions and played games. On Thursday, March 11th, we hosted a parent night for parents of our youth to get a taste of what their kids do at the UCCP. Two moms invested time out of their busy lives to learn about our organization and participate in some interactive and critical thinking activities!

We are happy to share with you some snapshots from this week.

Year End Report

We are proud to share with you the University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia’s Year End Report.

Collecting stories and outcomes from September 2008 through December 2009, this report captures UCCP’s passion for, commitment to, and innovation in, empowering young people, growing fruitful partnerships and building a stronger community within and beyound the walls of our home at Temple University.

View UCCP’s Year End Report online.

http://www.temple.edu/uccp/pdfs/UCCP-AnnualReport2009.pdf

You may also request a print copy by contacting nsmirnov@temple.edu.

Teens Make PSA on Unhealthy Relationships at Furness High School

For two months, the UCCP partnered with the United Communities Southeast Philadelphia to provide students participating in the Out of School Time program at Furness High School an opportunity to learn video production and create a video public service announcement on unhealthy teen dating.

Students in grades 9-12 met once a week with UCCP's V-Media facilitators Aaron Kennedy and Earla Joseph to learn the basics of film grammar and camera operation. In the course of the project, they wrote, storyboarded, shot and edited a short film called "Twisted Love," about a young girl who gets help after being abused by her boyfriend. In addition to editing the film, the students also designed the DVD menus and cover and created special features such as "Behind the Scenes" slideshows.

The film was screened for the OST students and staff on February 2, 2010.

The UCCP partners with organizations on a project-based basis to provide special opportunities, leadership training, and organizational capacity building around media, community partnership and youth leadership. Please contact Barbara Ferman at bferman [at] temple.edu to inquire about bringing a UCCP project based collaboration to your organization, school or community.

UCCP brings YouthBuild to Penrose for MLK 2010

For the second year in a row, the UCCP used the MLK Day of Service as an opportunity to strengthen and improve our community partner and neighbor, Penrose Playground. This year, we were thrilled to partner with YouthBuild Charter School who brought their construction expertise, supplies and unrivaled energy and professionalism to the service day at the Penrose Recreation Center.

On January 18, 2010, students from YouthBuild Charter built custom shelves for the Penrose library, installed brand new cabinets in the kitchen, repained the walls, and put in beautiful french doors to separate the Rec Center's main space from the library room. The transformation was amazing!

The UCCP was especially happy to see other community partners take notice and invest energy into Penrose. Youth from Arthur Ashe Tennis and Education Center organized a clean-up in the area and students from the Temple Garden Club built raised beds. Other volunteers from Temple University and UCCP helped to paint the new shelves for the library. Temple University provided breakfast and water for the volunteers.