Youth Action Scholars take "Reality Check" to Free Minds Free People!

Youth Action Scholars Taneka Price and Jabari Jackson, with the leadership of Kenny Williams-Medley and Alie Huxta presented a powerful interactive workshop to an audience of more than 30 youth and adults at the Free Minds Free People conference in Providence, RI. Workshop attendees got a "Reality Check" on the relationships between media ownership and representation and school funding and leadership. Content for the workshop has been developed by Youth Action Scholar participants in the "Education" and "Race, Culture & Mass Media" groups over the course of 2010-2011 program year. Thank you FMFP for the amazing opportunity to share and network with likeminded social justice educators!

UCCP Has Strong Presence at Eastern Regional Conference on After-School

Dominic Eason, a member of the Leaders Corps and Barbara Ferman, Executive Director of the UCCP, participated in a workshop on “Diversity in High School After School Programs” for practitioners and decision makers from Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The Workshop focused on various approaches to effectively engaging youth in out of school time activities while building their leadership capacities and academic competencies. Dominic Eason was also part of the plenary panel on “Youth and Youth Workers” offering his insights into the ingredients of quality after school programming. The annual conference was hosted by The After-School Institute (TASI). Held in Baltimore on May 8-9, the conference attracted close to 500 practitioners, decision makers, funders and youth participants from the Mid Atlantic region.

"Reporting From the Home Front: Families, Work and Money"

On November 12th a delegation of young leaders from the University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia (UCCP) addressed an audience of prominent journalists at a conference entitled “Reporting from the Home Front: Families, Work and Money,” convened by the Journalism Center on Children and Families. Held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the conference provided an opportunity for selected print, broadcast and on-line journalists from across the Mid Atlantic region of the U.S. to sharpen their understanding of, and ability to report on, issues stemming from poverty.

Among the conference presenters from the UCCP were three Temple students, one Temple alum and two Community College students who are planning on coming to Temple. Using specific examples from their lives, these young adults spoke with great wisdom and clarity about the challenge of setting and achieving goals in the face of poor public housing, an inadequate public education system and the criminal justice system's failure to support policies and programs that reduce recidivism.

After a powerful round of opening statements, the group answered questions posed by the conference participants. It was an important opportunity for the young presenters to both elaborate on their experiences and back up their conclusions. The audience was so captivated that individual follow-up conversations continued well into the lunch break that followed the presentations.

“Going to the conference was a rewarding experience for me,” said Temple Junior, Genisha Wallace, a Criminal Justice Major from Brooklyn, New York. “In all my experience with public speaking engagements, I have never felt that my opinion was more respected and admired. Society regards the media as a source for news, ideas and public opinion. Therefore, I was honored to inform reporters about important aspects of my life. I felt like I was speaking for positive people in my generation everywhere. On that day, in that room, I was able to dispel many of the myths and stereotypes that shape stories about inner city youth.”

Sponsored by the Journalism Center on Children and Families:
>>http://www.journalismcenter.org/

"Investing in Urban Communities" Conference

On April 11, 2007, The Fox School of Business at Temple University will host its Second Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference: “Investing in Urban Communities: Balancing Growth & Inclusion”. This conference, co-sponsored by the Business School's Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the University Community Collaborative and the College of Liberal Arts, will feature investors, developers, university representatives and community organizations discussing the challenges faced by community-oriented investors as they “go to scale,” broaden their capital base and so face potentially conflicting pressures between various stakeholders. Through panel discussions and break-out workshops, this conference will explore whether or not governance structures help mediate these tensions and whether or not these structures enhance the flows of financial and social capital for entities (banks, developers), projects and markets (commercial corridors, neighborhoods, cities). Specific examples might include: the challenges faced by community-based investors or developers as they “go to scale”; the challenges private developers face when they attempt to seriously consider community concerns; the potentials and the pitfalls of community-private, or community-public-private development partnerships. For more information or to RSVP, please contact: T. L. Hill at >>thill@temple.edu