Communities have their own indigenous resources that serve their residents. Churches and other places of worship provide settings to support the spiritual needs of their congregations -- and also provide programs and safe refuges for children, adolescents and their families. Local civic organizations focus on the quality of community life and promote public safety. This type of non-governmental effort is a reflection of a community's cohesiveness and stability, and West Philadelphia has a particularly rich history of such neighborhood efforts.
Private organizations, such as Boys' and Girls' Clubs and "Ys," provide recreation and places for social gatherings. Other groups serve special populations from West Philadelphia and the City at large, usually with some level of government subsidy. And in several instances, the City provides vital services directly, as with public libraries. A better coordinated network of public and private resources has the potential to enhance significantly the quality of life in West Philadelphia.
Public and private job training programs are a particularly critical "human resource" in West Philadelphia. There is no issue of more importance in this community than the high levels of un- and under-employment (i.e., low pay unskilled or low-skilled jobs), particularly among African American males. Unemployment exacerbates many of the problems in West Philadelphia, such as crime and poor health.
The Haddington Leadership Organization and Mill Creek Council are among the City's oldest civic groups. Mantua Community Planners was a major force for attracting Urban Renewal funds and other programs to its community more than twenty years ago. Powelton Village Civic Association and Spruce Hill Community Association tend to focus on zoning and other community development issues. These are a few examples of the many active community associations in West Philadelphia.
At 52nd and Chestnut Streets there is a large and well attended multi-purpose YMCA with a swimming pool, recreation and day care facilities. The new West Philadelphia Community Center on Haverford Avenue between 35th and 36th Streets was developed by the non-profit Crime Prevention Association. It has a swimming pool built partly with City funds and serves the Mantua and Powelton communities.
In addition to these independent community resources, West Philadelphia also has a large number of not-for-profit corporations that depend in whole or in part on government support and that largely serve special populations from throughout the City. Elwyn Institute, an organization devoted to serving persons with disabilities, is headquartered on Market Street west of 40th Street. Elwyn has a number of sheltered workshops located in the community that provide employment and training for persons with disabilities. Much of the support for these services comes from State government, as does the support for the personal care boarding homes that are located in West Philadelphia.
The City supports housing for the homeless and other residential programs, such as group homes for persons with retardation and for former patients of mental health facilities. Direct support for outpatient community health centers comes from the federal government. Various half-way houses and facilities for dependent and delinquent children abound. The number and variety of these enterprises presents a challenge to the City -- to coordinate public and private resources into a cost-effective, non-duplicative and quality system for West Philadelphians and the City at large.
The Center for Literacy, the oldest and largest adult literacy training agency in the City, is headquartered in West Philadelphia. In addition to providing classes at its office at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, one-on-one tutoring between volunteers and learners is provided at sites throughout the area. The Center for Literacy also offers "Teaching English as a Second Language," GED courses, and, in conjunction with the Private Industry Council and the State Department of Public Welfare, a State Education Grant (SEG) program to give clients the academic skills necessary for them enter into specific skills training programs.
The nine public libraries serving West Philadelphia are well situated to provide knowledge and information to residents. Children, especially, require accessible and user friendly library services to complement their school-based activities. The libraries often serve as the only quiet, stress free area where children and adults can learn without the interruptions of everyday life. The Free Library carries out an on-going familiarization program for the students in the public schools, encouraging them to frequent the libraries and explaining the comprehensive scope of resources available to them there. In recent years the Library has introduced ambitious citywide reading programs which have been successful in encouraging school children to read. The libraries' collections reflect the needs of their local communities and include videos, microform readers, and taped books for the visually impaired, in addition to printed matter.
The Private Industry Council (PIC) serves youth, both those in-school as well as those out-of-school; at-risk adults, such as welfare recipients, those with deficient language skills or the functionally illiterate; and the dislocated worker population. In West Philadelphia, PIC specialists are available in the schools, at the PIC Referral Center at 63rd Street and Girard Avenue and at the County Assistance Offices at 56th and Chestnut Streets and 5000 Parkside Avenue. PIC contracts with agencies throughout the City, such as OIC, and works with the schools and other agencies to provide basic education, life skills, job specific skills, support services and retraining.
Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, a recent merger of the Urban Affairs Partnership and the Philadelphia Urban Coalition, supports a number of programs designed to help disadvantaged youth gain education, training and entry to the job market. Phil-a-Job, sponsored by the Urban Affairs Coalition and PIC, provides summer employment and training to youth, ages 14 to 21.
Support for Local Community efforts
There is much the City can do to enhance the efforts of local community organizations. The City can cooperate with neighborhood "clean-up" campaigns, by sending trash collectors on weekends. Local police personnel can assist "Town Watch" patrols. Fire personnel can educate citizens on fire prevention techniques.
Such efforts are cost-effective for the City, since they increase the effectiveness of voluntary efforts and create better relations between citizens and their local government.
Identifying and Coordinating Resources
It is also important for the City to monitor and coordinate those programs, including the public/private employment ventures discussed above, designed to serve and strengthen West Philadelphia. In this time of limited assistance from the state and federal governments, the City must make the best use of private as well as public resources, and avoid duplication and fragmentation.
To accomplish this goal, the City Planning Commission has recently begun to develop a comprehensive data base of the location and delivery of human services in West Philadelphia, including community based residential facilities. Following the development of the data base, the Commission should conduct a needs assessment of the community, in collaboration with local groups, to identify gaps in the service delivery system. This will facilitate the allocation of public and private resources in relation to population needs, the resources that are available, and programmatic or service gaps or overlaps.
Fair Allocation of Resources
While it is appropriate for West Philadelphia to house community based residential facilities that serve City-wide needs, the area should not be required to absorb more than its fair share of those facilities while other, less tolerant, communities are permitted to raise significant barriers to locating such services in their neighborhoods.
Only City government is in a position to oversee this allocation process. For example, the Planning Commission currently monitors the distribution of community based residential facilities and has identified several areas in West Philadelphia where their additional development is not recommended because a substantial concentration of these facilities already exists. These include parts of Overbrook Farms, East Parkside, Belmont, Carroll Park, Cedar Park and Cobbs Creek (specific areas are subject to change over time). If these facilities were more evenly distributed throughout the City on a fair share basis, they would have little or no impact on individual neighborhoods.
The Managing Director's Office (MDO) should oversee this allocation process. It can coordinate the efforts of all City Departments that contract with service providers to develop the necessary infrastructure and information base to plan with private agencies and community groups to properly locate community based facilities. The MDO should also share its findings with other governmental decision-makers and with the public.
Services to Children and Youth
A not-for-profit organization, the "Philadelphia Childrens Network" (PCN), was formed in 1990 to improve the delivery of services to children and youth. While the Network promotes reorganization and coordination of services on a system-wide level, its Fathers Re-Engagement Initiative pursues these goals for a specific target population: children who live in single-parent households, and their fathers. The Initiative seeks to improve the life chances of the children by encouraging and enabling their fathers to assume their parental role. The program goals are: (1) to enable the young men to understand the needs of their children and to become emotionally and financially able to help meet those needs; and (2) to change the systems which impede young fathers from assisting their children.
Included in the Initiative is the Responsive Fathers Program, a demonstration project that is serving approximately fifty fathers. The young men were recruited from West Philadelphia, and most still live there. The Program provides curriculum and issue-based group sessions, case management, employment support, links to education opportunities, and legal assistance.
Mayor's Task Force on Children and Families
In 1993, the mayor established a Task Force composed of members of City Council, the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of the Departments of Health, Human Services, Finance and Recreation, representatives of private philanthropic organizations, the Juvenile Justice System and the School District, local businesses and unions, religious leaders, human service providers, and child advocates. The group was charged with developing a Five Year Plan for supporting Philadelphia's children and families. The Task Force has recommended that the City increase its emphasis on services to children and families using several strategies: restructuring services within City government, decentralizing services to families and communities, increasing coordination among public child-serving agencies, developing Family Support Centers, and creating neighborhood facilities to serve the City's youth. West Philadelphians will benefit from this initiative as it is implemented throughout the City.
Goal
The City should support efforts of local community organizations.
Objectives
Objectives
Objectives
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