The current budget passed by the commonwealth left the Philadelphia School District looking at a $178 million gap. Fernando Gallard, the director of media relations for the district, says that cuts will be made in operating costs, not in the budgets of the schools themselves. He explained that jobs would be shuffled around, basically realigning the administrative offices.

In the Brewerytown and Strawberry Mansion neighborhoods, schools like Strawberry Mansion High School, James G. Blaine Elementary, Edward Gideon, John F. Reynolds and Robert Vaux High School are already underfunded.

Students have limited access to books and computers. Parents in the area complain that their children aren’t meeting age appropriate standards when it comes to their skill levels.

Local residents convened Sunday afternoon at the Sedgwick Theater for the first annual Community Café. The event, co-sponsored by Neighborhood Networks and MARCHinG for Change, created a forum for people in the community to express their opinions on matters such as health care and safety and to suggest ways of promoting change.

A panel at the community cafe

Café organizers reached out to community leaders doing significant work within their fields to moderate a series of roundtables. “There are a lot of people doing things at the grassroots level and they need a forum to share that information,” said Margaret Lenzi, a member of MARCHinG for Change and an organizer for the event. The resulting café consisted of two 45-minute sessions where about 100 attendees could choose among six areas of interest: weatherization, health care, recycling, composting, city services and safety.

One of the most popular panels focused on city services. Panel leader Stan Shapiro of the Coalition for Essential Services discussed the neighborhood impact of the state budget and the current tax system. Currently, Shapiro argued that taxes fall heavily on small, inner-city businesses, while many advocates are pushing to increase taxes for larger corporations importing their goods into the city. Community members gave their opinion on the issues, largely contributing personal anecdotes on the matter and generating ideas to assist city council in tax reform.

Dave Bell leads the health care panel.

The health care panel also focused largely on the political process within the city. Dave Bell of Neighborhood Networks briefed the group on the recent  health care bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. He urged everyone to contact and to support U.S. senators from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, as they move to push the bill through the Senate. “We need to be vigilant. We have to focus on the immediate needs and pressure points,” Bell said.

Local issues focused on composting and recycling. Two creators of programs in Philadelphia spoke about the eco-friendly benefits. Lee Menicke and Meenal Raval, founders of Philly Compost, created their organization in June after being astounded by the amount of food tossed each night by local restaurants. Now, the duo has collected more than three tons of excess waste and cultivated it into compost in a Germantown area warehouse. Complying with regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the waste is heated to 130 degrees for at least three days to ensure all pathogens are destroyed. By spring, Menicke and Raval said they hope to sell the compost to local gardeners and farmers. “We’d like to keep it as a local food cycle. That’s our ultimate goal,” said Menicke, who encouraged residents to create their own backyard compost piles.

RecycleNOW, an initiative started in Philadelphia a few years ago, is gaining momentum across the city. The program attaches bar codes to recycling bins, which are then weighed by recycling trucks. Users can go online and track their neighborhoods current standing and receive coupons for local businesses. First tested in Mount Airy and East Oak Lane, the program was highly successful.  However, recent budget cuts have had city officials pause the operation throughout the city. Maurice Sampson, a representative of the organization, posed the question, “How will these programs come to fruition?” Responses included contacting local officials, staying informed and encouraging participation among neighbors. “Every day when I walk my dog, I do my own little check,” said Sampson, chuckling.

Weatherization also fell among the more environmentally focused panels. Paul Deery, a representative of Urban Eco Electric, spoke about his company, which leases solar roof panels that provide low-cost energy to residents. “It’s a win-win,” said Deery. “We put the investment into your roof, and you benefit from cheaper energy.” Many panel attendees had questions regarding the program. Although the program requires a 20-year lease, the amount of money saved on energy, which includes a cap current electricity bills, usually eliminates the worry of increased costs.

Community members sign up for panels.

Neighborhood safety, led by Carpenter’s Woods Town Watch founder Heather Pierce, rounded out the panels. Her ultimate goal is to bring neighborhoods together to reduce the fear of crime. “If you know your neighbors, you watch out for each other,” Pierce said. Her community holds spring events and summer barbecues every year, and she encouraged others to do the same by hosting a holiday party or a potluck. “Start with your block,” she said. “But you need to expand. Remember, one block is one block, and it is part of a community.”

The Community Café proved to be an example of this type of social gathering, said Scott Murray, who is planning his retirement in the area, remarked that this was largely his reason for coming. “It’s an opportunity to meet new people and to learn more about the neighborhood,” he said.

“This is the first annual café, but it has a lot of potential,” said Lenzi, one of the event’s organizers.

A heavenly aroma spills outs from a bubbling pot of potato squash soup in the basement of the Cavalry Church. Claire Smith quickly turns down the burner and goes back to preparing three large trays of savory brussel sprouts.

Paul Divido and Anna Jacobs take turns kneading dough to turn into luscious cinnamon buns. In an hour’s time the three volunteers have created a veritable feast to feed up to 80 people. All the food used was salvaged from grocery stores and bakeries across the city that would have otherwise been thrown in the garbage.

For the past 10 years The West Philadelphia Food Not Bombs have recovered food that is just past its selling date and used it to feed people in need. Setting up at 5 p.m. every Wednesday in Clark Park at 50th and Baltimore, the organization provides vegetarian and vegan food to approximately 50 to 80 people.

The group has no corporate backing and is very loosely organized by one or two people at time. It is a collective of three to four volunteers from the community who get together each week to help those in need in their own neighborhoods.

Tim Dunn enjoys a hot meal,

Last Tuesday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new West Philadelphia High School.

Located just a few steps from the current building, the new facility will replace what was once West Catholic High School for Boys at 49th and Chestnut streets.

The 72,000-square-foot, three-story building will house state-of-the-art classrooms and science labs, two gyms, art and dance studios, and a community library.

“I think it will bring a lot of pride, not just to Walnut Hill but to the students who go there,” says Aleea Slappy, the education programs manager at the Enterprise Center’s Community Development Corp.

Indeed, many are hoping the transition to the new building will be the positive change needed to really improve West Philadelphia High School, which has been stuck in a downward spiral for over a decade now. Despite the 52 percent decrease in violent incidents last year, the school has been on the state’s “persistently dangerous” list since 2000–the furthest that records go back.

In 2007, there were 23 fires set inside the building as well as a series of assaults on teachers and staff which led to the replacement of the school’s principal. In fact, the school has gone through seven different principals since 1998.

Academically, West Philadelphia High School is one of the poorest-performing schools in the both the city and state, having failed to meet the adequate yearly progress targets under the No Child Left Behind Act since it was enacted in 2002.

Last year, over 80 percent of the school’s 11th graders scored below basic in math on the Pennsylvania’s standardized test (PSSA) while 68 percent placed below basic in reading.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia School District recently celebrated its sixth consecutive year of improved PSSA scores.

The new school is expected to cost $66 million and is one of the last projects included in former District Superintendent Paul Vallas’ $1.5 billion capital building project.

It’s also one of the most overdue.

Constructed in 1912, the current building is one oldest in the school district and yet, has never had any major renovations. Lincoln High School in Mayfair was built almost 50 years after West Philadelphia High School but just unveiled its new building in September.

In addition to being an eyesore, it’s simply no longer an accommodating learning environment. The building has no science labs and was originally designed to house over 3,000 students.

Today, due to a steady decline in enrollment, the school has less than 1,000 students.

Luckily however, it does appear that the school district might finally be making stride in its attempt to turn West Philadelphia High School around.

Much of this is thanks to superintendent, Dr. Arlene Ackerman and the school’s principal, Saliyah Cruz. Aside from hiring more teachers and increasing security, they’ve taken a different, more conducive, approach to reform.

“Everyone is now being held accountable,” says Slappy, who was a part of the group of stakeholders and community members that came together last year to address education in West Philadelphia for the Sustainable Communities Initiative. “You can no longer just say it’s the teachers who don’t care or the principal who is overworked.”

Increasing parent involvement and accountability is one of the key components of the district’s five-year, Imagine 2014 plan. The first phase of the plan was launched last year and aggressively targeted the district’s 85 empowerment schools.

Parent and volunteer Carla Jackson

Every month Ackerman has been holding round-table meetings with parents from around the city.

“She takes her time and she listens to what we have to say,” says West Philadelphia High School alumna and parent volunteer Carla Jackson.

Jackson was hired in September to reach out to other parents and help coordinate community meetings and events. Right now, she’s working on the school’s absentee list. Each week she tries to get four or five parents together to come in and make phone calls to families, keeping them informed about their child’s attendance and answer any questions they may have.

This is on top of the automated message system which calls every student around 6:30 a.m. to make sure they wake up for school. And although West Philadelphia High School still has only a 77 percent attendance rate, there has been a slight increase.

“There’s a direct correlation between parent involvement and student improvement,” says Slappy.

Jackson agrees.That’s why the mother of five says she attended meetings and fundraisers at all of her children’s schools whenever she could.

And already, she’s noticed her presence in the school having an impact on her son Kenny, a sophomore who has been struggling in his classes.

In addition to focusing on parent-outreach, Principal Cruz hopes to create a sense of community both in and outside of the school because, as she states on its Web site, “Our mutual success is the only option.”

With the help of additional staff members, she recently divided West Philadelphia High into four career academies: Automotive & Mechanical Engineering, Business & Technology, Urban Leadership and the Ninth Grade Success Academy.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new West Philadelphia High School

Dave Jordan went to 47 baseball games when he was a young boy, between 1948 and 1952. His team lost 41 of them.

On Wednesday the Philadelphia Phillies lost game six of the World Series to American League foes the New York Yankees. Though the fall of the beloved and dynamic Phillies will be one the city will come to terms with and accept in the next few ways and weeks, Jordan, a lifelong baseball fan, knows one pain that is much harder to get over.

“You get used to losing ballgames,” Jordan said, “but losing your whole team is something that is very hard to swallow”

Jimmy Foxx's "White Elephant" uniform

The success and joy of championship baseball is a virtue engraved deep in the heart of the city, but so too is heartbreak and loss.

Jordan remembers it all. To Jordan, the best team of all time played in this city, but they did not sport red pinstripes. They played in Philadelphia, but not on South Broad Street. In 1901, between Oxford and Columbia Avenue, and 29th and 30th streets a wooden ballpark with a capacity of around 9,000 stood for just eight short years. Columbia Park, as it was called, hosted the city’s first favorite baseball team, the Athletics.

“Some of the players commented from time to time that the air smelled like hopps, and beer,” Jordan said. “The players did not mind it that much.”

Brewerytown was a booming bustle of activity, with beer makers sprinkled around the Schuylkill River, most of them consolidated in northwest Philadelphia. This proved a perfect place for a ballpark.

“After organizing the team in 1901, (Connie) Mack bought a vacant lot at 29th and Oxford streets, and put up wooden grandstands,” Jordan said. “It was a working-class neighborhood.”

A painting of Connie Mack, manager and owner of the Philadelphia Athletics for over 50 years

The Athletics played in Brewerytown for eight fairly successful seasons, and even hosted two World Series games, but by 1909, they had outgrown their small ballpark.

“Ben Shibe [the Athletics' majority owner] was forced to put in additional seating throughout the latter half of the 1910’s because they were clearly out-drawing the Phillies, who were the established team,” Jordan said. “The athletics were young and exciting.”

Moving to Lehigh Avenue, west of Broad Street and blocks from the Baker Bowl, home of the Phillies, Shibe Park replaced Columbia Park. Since then, several houses have stood on the four-block area, without so much as a plack to commemorate its historical place in Philadelphia history.

Today, Brewerytown is a shadow of its former self. The once industrial center of the Philadelphia metropolis, is no disheveled neighborhood, home to a large impoverished population and site to numerous vacant lots, vacated homes and businesses.

The economic hardships in the inner city today are much like those faced by the Athletics baseball team that, by 1954, was continually falling behind the once-second-fiddle Phillies and becoming victim to plummeting attendance.

In their heyday in Northwest Philadelphia, the Athletics sported many Hall of Fame players, such as Eddie Collins, Mickey Cocherine, Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons, Eddie Plank and Lefty Grove. They also saw the emergence of superstars who would find all-star careers elsewhere like Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.

The Athletics even passed up on a young left-handed pitcher from Baltimore, Babe Ruth, who would go on to become the greatest baseball player of all time.

“Jack Dunn, Connie Mack’s friend from Baltimore told Mack he had a left-handed pitcher who deserves to be in the major league,” Jordan said. “His name was George Herman Ruth. Mack was short on cash and suggested he approach the Boston Red Sox instead. Of course, the rest is history.

“I have thought from time to time what might have happened had the Athletics had Babe Ruth all those seasons.”

Not only that, but the Philadelphia A’s won five World Series and nine pennants, while the Phillies have won two and seven respectively in twice the time.

“The 1929 Philadelphia Athletics might have been the greatest team of all time,” Jordan said. “They beat the Yankees, essentially the same team from 1927, by 18 games.”

The A’s were nicknamed the “White Elephants” by Giants manager John McGraw, as the team always faced financial troubles and was forced to spend a lot of money to keep good players coming to the ballclub.

“Instead of taking this as an insult,” Jordan said, “Mack and Shibe decided to seize the occasion and made the white elephant the mascot of the Philadelphia Athletics.”

A yellow-and-green elephant is still visible on the Oakland Athletics uniforms, and their mascot is still an elephant.

“When both teams were last-place teams, the Athletics was always more popular,” Jordan said. “When the Phillies ‘Whiz Kids’ team of the early fifties won the pennant in 1950, the Athletics fell on very hard times.”

This was the era of western expansion in Major League Baseball. In 1954 the A’s would, as the Giants and Dodgers before them, pack up and move west to Kansas City, and then to Oakland where they play today. For Jordan, this is a sore subject.

“Many years later,” Jordan said, “A couple of old A’s fans organized the Philadelphia Athletics Society, and we’ve been surviving in Hatboro for about 11 years now.”

The outside of the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society and Museum in Hatboro, Pa.

Many Philadelphia sports fans know little or nothing of the storied past of Philadelphia’s old favorite baseball team, but the extensive wealth of knowledge exists in both Jordan’s nostalgic mind, and in the museum in downtown Hatboro, Pa.

Jordan serves as the chairman for the foundation. Every year, living Athletic players, Phillies players, managers, and their relatives and fans unite for a banquet. Members of the organization also receive monthly newsletters.

Brewerytown was not only host to many historic businesses, but also to one of the most successful baseball teams of all time.

Rashid isn’t just referring to making Nicetown “nice” again, but she means bringing businesses and the community together through several development projects, an issue that has taken the Nicetown CDC nearly 20 years to accomplish, says Rashid. The reason for the lack of economic development, says Rashid, was due to many different community factions, all with their own agenda and none of which could negotiate a solid direction for how to move Nicetown forward. Not to mention that the CDC’s idea of economic development focused mainly around education and less so on infrastructure, a problem that remains persistent 20 years later.

“In the past, when we first started, economic development to us meant education and it meant educating ourselves as a CDC as well as the businesses that we had to engage with,” says Rashid. Now, she says, “a lot of businesses in urban neighborhoods don’t have the infrastructure that is sufficient to run a business properly and to get the most out of the business.” But the Nicetown CDC is working hard to reverse the long years of underdevelopment through several projects.

This empty lot at the 4300 block of Germantown Avenue will feature a new commercial corridor and residential housing

Back in 2002, the City of Philadelphia contracted the Nicetown CDC to restart its neighborhood advisory committee. The committee was dedicated to mobilizing the community through door-to-door canvassing, holding community and block captain meetings as well as going to schools and churches to get community members involved. The objective of the mobilization initiative was to build relationships between the community and get them involved with development projects, particularly projects aimed to boost the area’s economic and commercial corridor, says Rashid.

Then in 2006, the City of Philadelphia opened the boundaries of the Nicetown neighborhood, making the CDC responsible for providing more services to more residents. Today, Nicetown extends from Germantown and Rising Sun avenues all the way to Cheltenham Avenue, an area which expands over a population of approximately 15,000 to 20,000 people, according to Nicetown’s Affirmative Outreach Plan. With such a large area to cover, bringing businesses into the area is imperative to moving Nicetown forward developmentally. “More businesses means more economic development and growth. You can’t revitalize a community without the economic base being stable,” says Rashid.

And they are doing just that. The Nicetown CDC has officially created a master plan, says Rashid, which the U.S. Department of Commerce is funding through at $50,000 grant. The plan incorporates successions of four projects which are yet to be completed and includes stabilizing, improving and developing new construction along the

The Nicetown Court project is slated to begin next February.

commercial corridor, says Rashid. One of the biggest projects of the plan, the Nicetown Court located at the 4300 block of Germantown Avenue, is a low-income tax-credit housing project with 37 affordable rental units and 4,000 square feet of commercial space at street level, which has attracted several potential retail owners. The project is slated to begin next February.

However, the CDC is not the only organization involved with development projects aimed to mobilize the community and support businesses. The Nicetown Business Association works closely with the Nicetown CDC in order to provide support for businesses as well as involve businesses with the community. Recently the NBA hosted “A Taste of Nicetown” held at Hot Pot Cuisine, a local restaurant serving Jamaican food. The event was catered by several businesses within the 4100 to 4400 blocks of Germantown Avenue. The purpose of the event, says Tanya Wilson, president of the association, was to raise money for the organization and expose the diversity of the business community to residents and establish a strong relationship between the two. By selling tickets, the NBA was able to raise over $600. The NBA aims to create a strong coalition of businesses that are involved with the community and to provide a support network for businesses. “What we’re trying to do is get our notoriety out there, to let everybody know that there is a business association in the area, trying to attract more businesses, trying to get the community more involved as far as support,” says Wilson.

In addition to the event hosted at Hot Pot Cuisine, the NBA has also taken on some initiatives for improving the physical aesthetics of the neighborhood. The association, in coordination with the CDC and community members, recently potted some new plants on the streets. The physical improvements of the neighborhood were not as meaningful as the goal of showing the NBA is supportive of initiatives to make the neighborhood a more pleasant place to live in for residents.

Businesses, such at the Hot Pot Cuisine, maintain strong community ties through fundraising events

The Nicetown CDC also struck a huge contract with Comcast  in which the CDC will receive $100,000 a year over the next 10 years. “Comast has been a sponsor of the Nicetown CDC for some time with other projects that we do,” says Rashid, “and these funds are for CDCs that are doing economic development. So it’s a tremendous boost for us.” The goal is to use the money toward the plan as well as furthering other neighborhood development initiatives such as creating a farmer’s market in the park and possibly a health clinic in the Nicetown Court.

Other goals for bridging the gap in economic and community development are bringing retail businesses to the commercial corridor, says Wilson. “I would like to see a produce place, like a mom and pop because our neighborhood is more mom and pop oriented,” says Wilson. However, a lot of the problem with commercial development is an issue of safety as well. For the future, says Wilson, “What I would like to see is more involvement, I know there is not a lot of revenue and monies available to us…but right now we don’t have a steady patrol of police doing a street beat as far as walking up and down our corridor.”

For Nicetown, the future looks bright, and with all the initiatives Rashid and Wilson are undertaking, there is possibility for a strong long-term relationship between businesses and the community through development projects. “You can’t revitalize a corridor without identifying the needs and part of our needs is connectivity,” says Rashid. “Community and economics to me, they go hand in hand and you can’t really have one without the other successfully if you don’t nurture that relationship.”

]]> http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2009/11/06/nicetown-development-aims-to-bring-businesses-and-community-together/feed/ 0 http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2009/11/06/northeast-philadelphia-veterans-face-high-unemployment/ http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2009/11/06/northeast-philadelphia-veterans-face-high-unemployment/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:15:29 +0000 fa0920nephilly http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/?p=10031

Joshua Dillinger is an outreach speacialist for the Northeast Philadelphia Vet Center.

Imagine risking your life for the country you love by joining the military. After serving your time overseas, you come back healthy and uninjured, with a job lined up and waiting for you.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many veterans who have served our country. The reality is that some soldiers returning to the United States have a tough time readjusting and are shocked to see that civilian life is completely different than what they had expected.

Kenny Dockery, who was a part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan for the Global War on Terror, recalled his troubles after coming back in 2003.

“It wasn’t easy transitioning, it was rough. Not being in a combat environment, not being responsible for so much, and then coming back and being responsible not just for yourself, but for your family. It’s a lot,” he said.

Joshua Dillinger, who spent 13 years in active duty military, including one tour in Afghanistan and two tours in Iraq, shares the same sentiment.

“You’re used to always being told what to do or always telling others what to do. Readjusting from a military lifestyle to a civilian lifestyle, it takes a little bit of getting used to,” he said.

William J. Eves, a Vietnam War veteran, had a particularly hard time readjusting to civilian life, due to the fact that most citizens were against the war.

“It was very difficult because at the time the American public was outwardly hostile towards Vietnam War vets. We wouldn’t even wear our uniforms when we came home because they would spit at us and call us baby killers and things of that nature,” he said.

William J. Eves is a Vietnam veteran.

But for Dockery and Dillinger, even though they were also part of a war most Americans are against till this day, they did not have to worry about hostility from the public. For them, the hardest part about coming home was finding a job and feeling the pressure to take care of their families. It took them both about a year to find jobs.

“It definitely wasn’t what I expected when I got out. I thought things were going to be a lot easier than they were. You come up with a good plan, thinking I got this job waiting for me, and sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. It can get really frustrating,” said Dillinger.

Dockery, on the other hand, thought he deserved better.

“You feel as though with all you’ve done for your country you should be first in line for something, but that’s not always the case,” he said.

In fact, it is not always the case for many veterans who have served the U.S. military. According to a March 2008 Employment Histories Report, a study conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Abt Associates, Inc., many recently separated service members (RSS) faced more economic and employment issues compared to their peers. Using results from a 2007 Employment Histories Survey (EHS), the study found that 18 percent of RSS were currently unemployed and of those who were employed, 25 percent earned less than $21, 840 a year.

The numbers  worse for former soldiers than the general population. According to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that came out in March 2009, 11.2 percent of Americans who served in the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001 were unemployed—compared to the 8.3 percent unemployment rate for nonveterans.

The problem seems to be that these veterans are coming back to civilian life after they have been heavily trained in combat, learning some skills such as discipline, teamwork, problem solving and responsibility. However, they do not know how to transfer these skills over to the corporate world. This does not seem to be a new problem either. For example, William Eves recalled having to settle for a menial job after his stint in Vietnam.

“At the time, the economy was pretty good—one thing about the 1960s was that there were a lot of factory and warehouse jobs. But, there weren’t many good jobs I could qualify for. Generally when you enter the military, your [specialty] becomes a springboard for an occupation after the service, but obviously nobody wanted an infantry—so that was something I had to overcome,” he said.

Rudy Wooley at his job at Defense Supply Center Philadelphia

Of course, some people have no trouble finding jobs after life in active duty—especially if they remain a part of the military. Rudy Wooley, a Kuwait War veteran, was a supply sergeant in the military and currently works at Defense Supply Center Philadelphia located on the Naval Inventory Control Point Philadelphia Compound in Northeast Philadelphia. Today, he essentially works in the same field, describing his current job duties as having to coordinate how equipment for the military will get to its final destination.

“When I came back, everything was moving very fast. But, I was trained and prepared to serve in certain situations, so I adapted pretty quickly. I was working, so I never really felt the affects of the economy,” Wooley said.

It wasn’t so easy for Kenny Dockery when he first got back, but he has more sympathy for the new veterans coming home into the economy today.

“It’s even worse. A lot of private sectors are not as lucrative. You depend on funding or corporate sponsorship from people. Some things such as getting a house, a car or just approved for a loan is not as easy as some may think. A lot of programs have been cut out. A lot of the things that we were entitled to, that we had, they don’t. So for them its rough—with the economy that we’re in, its really rough,” he said.

However, there are still many services provided to veterans that they should be taking advantage of. The VA offers many benefits including survivor benefits, compensation and pension benefits and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service, which is for veterans wit a service-connected disability.

In addition, there are a number of different programs and organizations that specifically serve veterans. Vet Centers, for example, are located at many locations throughout the country. Joshua Dillinger works as an outreach specialist at Northeast Philadelphia’s own Vet Center located at 101 E. Olney Ave. There, the center provides employment counseling, guidance and referrals, among many other services at no cost to the veterans and their families.

Dockery stressed the importance of seeking the help of the many services offered in order for veterans to get what they are entitled to.

“Coming from war, you go through a lot of emotional seclusion. You’ll shut yourself from everyone else because you don’t want to deal with it,” Dockery said. “But in the end, you’ll find that you can’t do it alone.”

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Youth leader Karla Mota

Karla Mota hectically runs back and forth through the Youth United for Change office carrying stacks of statistics. Hurrying to finish up her day’s work before she heads home, Mota, 17, understands the importance of her and her fellow youth leader’s assignments. Mota attends Kensington CAPA High School and has been a leader with Youth United for Change for the past two years, trying her best to improve the high schools in her community.

One can find many problems with the Philadelphia School District, yet a majority of students who attend Kensington schools have a somewhat unique problem. With more than half of the region from a Latino background, certain Kensington students face a language, as well as cultural, barrier with their educators. From the outside looking in, some may say that all non-English speaking students have somewhat similar problems assimilating, yet some researchers are working to understand why Spanish-speaking students are specifically having unprecedented troubles in these schools.

Almost 50 percent of Kensington households speak Spanish with a little less than half of them claiming that they speak English less than “very well.” This language barrier can directly affect the quality of learning of Spanish speaking students, especially if they are not speaking any English at home. Kensington schools generally face low standardized test scores as well as graduation rates, so it wouldn’t seem far-fetched to say that a language barrier can only add to those dismal statistics.

Is this language barrier prevalent enough to create such a large gap between Spanish speaking students and Philadelphia students

North Region Superintendent Lucy Feria

from other backgrounds? Lucy Feria, the North Region superintendent, explained that Latino students in Kensington high schools are facing low attendance rates, low test scores and low graduation rates. Feria, who used to be the superintendent for the Kensington schools, explained her own reasoning to why some Latino students may be having problems, in addition to the language barrier. Coming from a Latino background, Feria knows first hand some of the problems Latino students face, especially Latina girls.

“More than just a language barrier is the cultural barrier, especially with young Latina women, because for them family is always supposed to come first,” explains Feria. “Girls may have to translate for grandma, do chores for mom or babysit their siblings, and those things would sometimes precede education in a lot of Latino households.”

Mota has been a youth leader at Youth United for Change for the past two years, working to change some of the statistics that are found on Latino’s in Kensington schools. Mota’s parents are from Puerto Rico, but she explained that she worked hard not to have the same barriers that many Latino youth struggle with. Even though English was not Mota’s first language, she learned quickly by having her older brother read to her in English. Mota also explained her views on why many Spanish-speaking students may have trouble in school.

Graffiti art on wall of Youth United for Change offices

“Some students would go through high school in ESL classes getting a below basic education simply because English is not their first language, and the teachers don’t understand how to educate them,” said Mota. “Also, I do think Latinos have a family first mentality. One example is my grandmother, who couldn’t finish school because her mother got sick and she had to step in as the mother figure in the family.”

Andi Perez, the executive director for Youth United for Change, is fighting to change the landscape of Latino education in Kensington schools. Perez’ strong ties to Kensington high schools come from the fact that she, as well as her sisters and cousins, graduated from the original Kensington High School. Four years ago, Perez and her organization fought to break Kensington high school into smaller schools in order to improve the quality of education. Since the high schools were broken up, attendance rates in Kensington small schools rose almost 13 percent in three years.

“Anytime you small schools the children are going to benefit from that, so now when you go by the Kensington schools you don’t see bring groups of kids hanging out as well as an immediate drop in violent instances and an immediate rise in attendance,” explained Perez.

Even though Kensington has seen some improvements since breaking up into smaller schools, Perez said that there is still a lot of work to be done. Perez added that students are still struggling academically. She said that the school district did not necessarily keep up its promises when it decided to break up the schools.

“Like what happens so many times at Kensington schools, we sort of go the short end of the stick,” said Perez. “When we pushed for Kensington to be broken up, we had also done research and we knew that there were certain essential elements of small schools, but what the district did was build a wall, divide the students, divide the teachers and hired principals two weeks in advance.”

Perez, Mota and other organizers and youth leaders involved with Youth United for Change understand that they have a long way to go but they are still fighting for a better school system. Kensington schools do have a long way to go in order for them to shorten the achievement gap with other schools, but Youth United for Change and other organizations are doing what they can to better education in primarily Latino communities.

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Linn Vaughters is in the last place she thought she’d be when she started her career: North Philadelphia.

As a private school teacher, she held a negative view toward Philadelphia’s school systems that stemmed from her parents, both teachers in the School District of Philadelphia for decades.  So when a friend she ran into by chance at a Starbucks suggested a job teaching Spanish at Community Partnership School.

“I was informed by the awful conversations my parents had at dinner about what went on in their classrooms, and the things you would hear on the 11 o’clock news,” Vaughters said. “So I’ll be honest: initially, I was like, ‘Oh man. I don’t know how serious it’s going to be. I don’t know if I can do enough to help a situation that’s that dire.’”

What Vaughters quickly learned is that Community Partnership School’s kids are, like most elementary school students, ready and willing to learn. And their parents are just as willing.

Community Partnership School is an independent private school founded in 2006 and is located in the Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Labs at the Project for Housing, Opportunities for Employment, Medical Care and Education on Judson Street. Starting out with only 36 kids in pre-kindergarten through first grade, the school now enrolls 75 students up to fourth grade, with plans to expand to fifth grade next year.

Each classroom holds a maximum of 12 students and there is a six-to-one faculty-student ratio, ensuring that each student’s needs are addressed. Students spend an average of 10 hours in school Monday through Friday, which includes after-school academic programs. Most students live an average of five blocks from the  building, giving the school a local feeling.

“Most of our families, about 50 percent, live in the immediate neighborhood,” said Eric Jones, the head of school at CPS. “But we have families that live as far away as Southwest Philly down by the airport, as far north as all the way out Broad close to Cheltenham, but we have a real commitment to the neighborhood first.”

Outside of a kindergarten class

Although it is expensive for parents to enroll their kids in school, about $15,000 a year per child to operate the school, what makes Community Partnership School a reasonable alternative to public schools is the flexibility with tuition as well as its ability to address parents’ concerns because of the school’s small size. That makes the immediate neighborhood residents, such as those in North Central and Strawberry Mansion, see the school as affordable.

“We follow a sliding scale so that families pay what they can afford to pay,” said Jones, who grew up in the area. “We have some middle class families who can afford to pay more of the tuition costs, but then we have some families who can only afford to pay $10 to $15 a month. And so that’s what they pay.”

But everyone contributes, Jones said, and it gives parents a sense of investment into their child’s education. And though parents can adjust how much they are paying for tuition, one thing they can’t adjust is their attention to their child’s education at the school. Parents are just as much a part of the equation as kids are.

“You can’t just sort of show up a couple days before classes start and say, ‘I want my child to come.’ We start the process in the late fall before the new school year,” Jones said.

That process starts in November and continues until the child’s first day in school. Forty-five- to 60-minute information sessions and meetings with parents and teachers as well as readiness tests help school administrators to gauge which students are suitable for enrollment.

“I think what might be the most important piece is the parent interview we do or the one-on-one we do with the child’s primary caregiver,” Jones said. “We believe firmly that a child’s first teacher is his or her parent or guardian, and so that’s one of my favorite parts, doing those [the interviews]. ”

Vaughters, who is both a Spanish teacher and the director of enrollment for the school, said that investment also comes in the form of parents attending school meetings, having personal conversations with teachers and keeping an open-door policy where parents are encouraged to meet and approach the administrators about questions they have about their children.

“We depend, because we’re a small school, on parent participation,” Vaughters said.

In a city where two-thirds of the population does not have a high school diploma, the prospects of applying for financial aid and looking for appropriate schools may not be something parents are used to.

“I had to remember that the parents whose kids are here maybe didn’t finish high school themselves,” Vaughters said.

A play area inside one of the classrooms

But Vaughters is dedicated to working with parents in an environment they may not be familiar with in order to help them choose appropriate schools for their kids. That includes applying to multiple schools, navigating the financial aid process and projecting ahead based on their children’s skill levels.

“They’re going to do the same process they did with CPS over again for their next school,” Vaughters said. “I have to sort of teach them [the parents] to measure their time as well as their expectations.

“And we also need parents who understand that you’ve got to come to those meetings, you’ve got to support the book fair, you’ve got to chaperone field trips and other things that often in other schools are done by teachers.”

For the most part, Vaughters said, families do just that. And when there are issues at home, family problems often become school problems as parents go to teachers to explain why those issues might affect their child in school.

“In terms of kids being overwhelmed with other stuff aside from what happens in school, I think we’re blessed because we create decent and strong relationships with families,” Vaughters said. “Families feel comfortable coming in and saying, ‘Look, this is what’s going on at home, and it may affect my child, so keep an eye on it,’ and we’ll work together to make it work.”

But for Vaughters, it’s worth the extra time out of her day to speak with families because in the end, she thinks the school  is really making a difference in the community.

“This is exactly what it should be, exactly where it’s needed,” Vaughters said.