When I interviewed Alain Joinville from the Department of Recreation he mentioned that a group called Temple Youth VOICES was working to document neighborhoods around Penn Rose Recreation Center and the hope inspired by Barack Obama's election. As soon as he mentioned it I knew this was exactly the type of group I want to talk to, few know as much about poverty as those trying to fight it.
It wasn't hard to reach Temple University Political Science Professor Barbara Ferman, the found and Director of the UCCP, which is responsible for the youth VOICES project.
Here's my interview with her, where she explains what the UCCP (University Community Collaboration of Philadelphia) is, what the youth VOICES project is, and how you can help.
**************** Greg Trainor: What is the UCCP?
Barbara Ferman: The UCCP is an externally funded initiative that "prepares and supports youth and yound adults to become confident, effective leaders and collaborates with organizations to create cultures that value and integrate the contributions of youth, thereby building stronger communities.
We carry out this mission through programming, capacity building and applied research activities. Our programming is designed to develop the critical thinking and leadership skills of older, at-risk youth (14-24) so that they can become productive decision makers in their own lives, in their communities, and beyond.
Our capacity building is focused on helping other organizations to incorporate youth into their decision-making processes and on fostering collaborations among organizations in order to strengthen the communities in which youth reside. Our research is aimed at informing practice in the areas of progressive youth leadership development and civic and community engagement.
GT: What is Youth VOICES?
BF: The Temple Youth VOICES Project (VOICES), is our signature program. It is an after school and summer program for 14-19 year olds that integrates youth media, youth leadership development and youth organizing activities in order to build the academic, technical and interpersonal skills of participants, connect them to their communities, and provide them with the knowledge and education necessary to make positive choices in their lives and meaningful change in their communities.
Participants identify a community or social justice issue, conduct research and develop a position on that issue, identify supporters in the community and beyond, and develop an action campaign to address the issue. Projects have focused on youth violence, college access, homelessness, teen pregnancy, food security, and the like.
GT: What are some of example of projects that the UCCP has completed so far?
BF: Our youth have developed action oriented campaigns around issues of: education quality; environmental racism; youth violence; gun violence; college access; peer pressure; healthy communities; police brutality and the like.
They have developed a scholarhip fund for youth as a way of creative positive opportunities. They created a Teen Health Cafe at Penrose Recreation Center, which provides a safe haven for teens to interact, learn and become active in their communities, They also developed a blog on the city's budget cuts, called "Feelin the Cuts."
These are just a few examples of the great work our young people have done and are continuing to do.
GT: What are some examples of projects it has planned for next year?
BF: We are starting two pilots this summer which we hope will gel in the fall; youth from North Philly (near Penrose) and youth from Southwest Philly will "curate" their neighborhoods deciding which images to use and how they want to portray their neighborhoods.
We are working with Tyler, the Phila Art Museum and the Urban Archives on this project. (by the way, when you emailed me the first time, I thought this would be a great project for you to work with--hint, hint. ;-) )
GT: What are the problems and issues the UCCP faces?
BF: As with every other non profit, we are always scrambling for funding, which, with the economy in such bad straits, is getting harder and harder.
GT: Alain Joinville of the Department of Recreation told me about a video documentary project that Youth Voices was running in the neighborhood of the Penn Rose Playground, can you tell me more about that?
BF: Yes, our V-Media group (a subset of our Leaders Corps which trains young people in film and which did the Feelin the Cuts blog) is working with young people from the Penrose community on creating a film documenting people's reactions to the election of the first African American president.
Penrose Rec Center was a polling place and had one of the highest turnouts in the city this past election.
GT: Is there anything more you would like to see from Temple University? More news coverage, funding, etc.?
BF: We do not get any funding from Temple and I would love to see us get some, especially since we are one of the best examples of Temple's "urban mission," and its commitment to North Phila.
Through our work at Penrose, we have gotten very good publicity for Temple (CBS, NBC) and generated a lot of good community will. Additionally, many of our participants come to Temple after graduating high school.
It would also be nice if they helped us get external media coverage--the NBC stuff was my through personal connection.
GT: You created the UCCP in 1997, what has been the turnover rate for your youth leadership programs? How many students return as community leaders? In your opinion, is it working?
BF: When I started the UCCP we did not have youth programs or any programs.
We were strictly research and technical assistance, doing projects that community based organizations wanted done (e.g. research on affordable housing; commercial corridor revitalization; parent engagement in education, and the like).
We began the youth programming in 2000 on a very small scale. I am happy to say that our Leaders Corps (college students and older youth) is comprised of many former program participants. The Leaders Corp carries out all of our programming, does workshops in the community, presents at professional conferences, etc.
Moreover, several of our Leaders Corps members have since gotten jobs in the non profit, public and educational realms.
I think that we have developed a very strong model of positive youth leadershiop development in which we provide a continuum of leadership opportunities for youth beginning in their high school years and extending through their transition to college. Not many organizations have that.
Moreover, our Leaders Corps participates in planning and organizational decisions.
GT: If anyone wanted to help and become involved, how should they go about that? Do you need volunteers?
BF: They can contact me (bferman@temple.edu)
