Leadership Development Institute 2011

Every summer we provide the opportunity for a select group of past participants and Temple University students to participate in our Leadership Development Institute (LDI) to gain a working knowledge of our organization, the process of youth leadership development and project facilitation. Successful graduates of the LDI are eligible to become part of UCCP’s Leaders Corps, a dedicated group of talented young adults who facilitate all of our programs.

LDI participants are trained on hard skills of facilitation, project planning, curriculum development, issue research, and UCCP’s philosophy of youth-led project-based learning. As part of their training the LDI participants, like the youth they’ll be working with, have to collectively identify an issue, create a media project, prepare a presentation, and facilitate an activity. Through the experiential learning process, the LC-in-training gain a better understanding of the challenges they’ll face in supporting a youth-driven community engagement project.

Five outstanding young people completed the LDI this summer, producing a powerful project on the representation of women in the media. We are excited to welcome them to the Leaders Corps: Lynsey Graeff and Jessica Arce who will be working with POPPYN, Taneka Price and Adeoyin Otolorin ‘Dee’ who will be working with VOICES and Norman Scott who will be working with the POWER Internship.

VOICES Invite Parents and Family to Get Involved

On July 8th, the Temple Youth VOICES Summer program hosted a parent night. At the event, parents from youth involved in the program came to Temple University for a few hours of fun and conversation about social issues and their role in making positive social change.

Genisha Wallace and Bo Nicholson, two UCCP Leaders Corps members, organized the agenda. Youth participating in the summer program presented on the projects which are currently in progress among their groups. The groups include the Youth and Media Project, Youth Action 4 Peace and the Leadership Development Institute.

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/

Networking Dinner is a Success!

On Thursday, November 6, 2006, the Temple Youth VOICES Project hosted a Networking Dinner. Planned and facilitated by the Leaders Corps, the aim of the dinner was to start an ongoing dialogue between groups dedicated to youth empowerment. VOICES’ long term objective is to motivate the creation of a citywide coalition among organizations committed to youth-driven social change and community uplift. During the dinner, representatives from 16 different organizations shared their missions and long-term goals, as well as their ongoing initiatives. There was a synergistic spirit of service learning and grass roots activism that connected individuals and groups together as everyone mingled and made plans to meet again in January. Youth and adults alike expressed excitement and passion for the limitless possibilities that a collaboration of this nature promises. To read more about this event, please visit the Newsletter Archive on our website and download a copy of the Winter 2007 newsletter. To find out when the next networking dinner is scheduled or to get involved, please contact Catie Cavanaugh at >>catiec@temple.edu.