Penn Treaty Closing Ceremony

For our final session of Philly311 YEP at Penn Treaty EducationWorks after school program, we had the Philadelphia Youth Commission hold a workshop for the students. The Executive Director of the Youth Commission Joy Soto, and the Program Coordinator Ricardo Calderon explained what they do, how the commission got started, and why it is important.

The Philadelphia Youth Commission is a platform for young Philadelphians to come meet with local leaders and express their opinions and concerns about issues that affect the youth in our city. The Youth Commission hosts meetings that are entirely youth lead. The youth commissioners set the agenda and run the meeting, the commission is only there to support them. They also work with their City Council Representative to make sure that their concerns, and the concerns of their peers, are being acknowledged and addressed. The Youth Commission is very important because it empowers youth to have an active role in their local government.

The Philadelphia Youth Commission is a tremendous partner to the Philly311 YEP program. They come to every session to help facilitate presentations throughout the five week program. They work with us consistently throughout the program to build meaningful relationships with our participants. These circumstances allow for the Commission to present a powerful “end of the season” closing workshop.

During their presentation, after they talk about the Commission and how the students can get involved with the Youth Commission, they revisit the topics that we learned about throughout the program. They reaffirm that this program is designed to help these students learn how to use their voice and make positive change in their neighborhoods; bringing all of the presentations themes together to support one common theme of youth empowerment and civic engagement.

To close this round of Philly311 YEP, the Youth Commission broke all the students up into three groups to do a mock-presentation to City Council about issues of their choosing.

Group one talked about the appearance of the community and how graffiti and trash bring down the quality of life and the community pride. The solution they offered was that instead of walking past the trash and going home, we pick up the trash on our block, and we report graffiti to 311.

Another group talked about how many young people face difficulties at home, with the health and well being that affect confidence and academic performance. They offered more programming outside of school as a solution: more programs like Philly311 YEP and EducationWorks after school programs.

The last group talked about violence and how it is really troubling to see young people caught up in violent crimes, and how there are too many guns on the streets and they do not feel safe. We did not get to solutions for this during their allotted presentation times, but in group discussion talked about how improved community/police relations, after school programming, and out-of-school time enrichment programs and activities could greatly reduce youth involvement in crime.

This session was very meaningful because the children got to see first-hand what it was like to present to others about their opinions and ideas. It was also really refreshing, because the children were not just identifying what was wrong with their communities, but also talking about solutions and ways we can fix the problems they see every day.

This program is designed to foster meaningful relationships with these students. By coming in and working with these students each week, we start to get to know them and what their goals are for community service. “How do you want to have an impact on your community?” is one of the first questions we ask them. “What do you want to learn about in this program?” we say. They tell us, and we adjust our programming to fit their needs. This is the definition of responsive government. We are working to be more available and to ensure that the information we are giving them and the resources we are connecting them with is both interesting and accessible for the students.

After five weeks, we again come to a close with this site, and just as it was over the summer at Harding Middle School, the closing session is bittersweet. We get feedback from the students and realize that many of them got something out of this program. We are looking into a continuation of our partnership at Penn Treaty with EducationWorks. Currently, we are planning a spring series with the same students, to help solidify some of the key concepts we have been talking about, while introducing new and more advanced topics. We want to continue building relationships and supporting our young people anyway that we can. YEP has been a wonderful success so far. With each site we continue to grow and adapt our program to meet the needs of our participants and we learn so much along the way.

Also, as part of the closing, the Youth Poet Laureate David Jones performed a beautiful piece about loving yourself that was entitled “Through the Fire” and will be available on the Philly311 Youth Engagement facebook page if you would like to watch it. He was very inspirational. I think having a student their age come talk about how he is participating in local government, and using his talent/passion to reach and teach others was very impressive for the YEP participants to experience.

We are forever grateful to all of the amazing presenters we had throughout this series: Mural Arts Program, PhillyRising Collaborative, Philadelphia Urban Creators,  Philadelphia Youth Commission, Creative PHL for connecting us with the Youth Poet Laureate, and of course EducationWorks for being our host for a second time and such a fantastic and supportive partner throughout this process. Thank you all, from the entire Philly311 team, for your support and for all of your efforts to make a better way for our children.

Please check back for more updates. We have officially kicked-off our MLK Recreation Center series which will be our largest group yet! We cannot wait to see how this series comes together and how these kids respond and interact with our program. It is both exciting and incredibly gratifying to see the rate at which this program is growing and the communities eagerness to get involved in what we are trying to accomplish through this program. Keep up with us on social media for photos and live updates from the program.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the Philly311 YEP, please reach out to Gabriela.Raczka@phila.gov.