NONPROFIT PARTNERS

Break the generational cycle of poverty

Since its founding in 1981, ACHIEVEability works each day to permanently break the generational cycle of poverty for low income, single parent, and homeless families through higher education, affordable housing, supportive services, and community and economic development.

ACHIEVEability partners with individuals and families to address the inter‐related social challenges of poverty, high unemployment, and low educational attainment. They achieve this through their core programs: Family Self-Sufficiency Program, ACHIEVEability Connects, and WorkSmart West Philly.

Volunteers can participate in mentoring, tutoring, neighborhood clean ups, skills based projects, or hosting donation drives of food, holiday gifts, school supplies and home essentials.

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability

Bethesda Project operates a continuum of care throughout Center City Philadelphia utilizing a Housing First approach that minimizes barriers to access and allows each individual to take their own journey of healing at one’s own pace. Rooted in the six values of social work, Bethesda Project seeks to meet the needs of individuals where they are and in what they need. As an Equal Housing Opportunity provider, Bethesda Project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and/or disability.

Our services also offer individualized case management. The overall goal of Bethesda Project’s case management services is to assist its guests and residents in becoming more stably housed and increase their overall independence. Each guest and resident completes an Individualized Care Plan with their own case manager, which allows them to identify goals they wish to achieve. With the Care Plan in place, case managers and engagement specialists connect guests and residents to services in the community that assist in achieving their goals.

https://www.bethesdaproject.org/

Issue Area: Basic Needs/Survival

BirdSEED operates with a mission grounded in good citizenship and committed contributions to the community, leaving a positive wing print in its wake. The journey began 13 years ago with a dedication of time to various community-building activities such as constructing playgrounds, planting gardens, serving meals, and supporting those in need. Over time, BirdSEED evolved to establish a microgrant program aimed at empowering activists and entrepreneurs, providing funding with minimal constraints and a focus on passion and determination rather than formal credentials. As the organization expanded its horizons, it recognized the need for more substantial contributions, leading to a focus on housing justice.

The latest endeavor involves supporting home buying for Black and Brown neighbors in the District, aiming to rectify historical injustices in an industry that has systemically excluded BIPOC communities. Embracing rapid philanthropy, BirdSEED aims to swiftly channel funds into the hands of individuals as they close on their forever homes, sowing seeds for a more just future. The community is invited to join this impactful journey as BirdSEED continues the important work that lies ahead.

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability

Black Latin-X Indigenouse Institutes for Health (BLIIH) is a non-profit for BIPOC Life Science Research and Workforce Training. Its founding members are LucasPye BIO & HelaPlex. We work in partnership with our fidiciary partner – Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC). BLIIH demonstrates its support via the development and implementation of the following programs (in order of priority): 1. Financially support the HelaPlex Biotechnology Workforce Development Training Program 2. Propose Public Policy on African-Diasporic, Caribbean, Indigenous & Latin-X Health Disparities / Clinical Trial Diversity 3. Provide Incubator Lab Space at HBCUs & African Diasporic, Caribbean, Indigenous & Latin-X Universities, i.e., IncubateBLIIH 4. Provide Commercialization Support for African-Diasporic, Caribbean, Indigenous & Latin-X Life Science Start-Up Assets via HelaPlex Accelerator 5. Develop Regulatory Infrastructure for Drug / Device Commercialization in African- Diasporic, Caribbean, Indigenous & Latin-X Countries

Issue Area: Education

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia provide a safe place to learn and grow; ongoing relationships with caring, adult professionals; life-enhancing programs and character development experiences; and hope and opportunity for more than 20,000 Philadelphia youth each year. Our Programs include: Arts & Culture, Character and Leadership, Education & Career Development, and Health & Life Skills. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia serves 22 sites in the area. Every day, thousands of kids flow through one of our doors on the way to learning, life, and culture. For General inquiries please reach out to us at [email protected]

Issue Area: Education

Launch talented students & inspire college students to pursue education careers

Breakthrough increases educational opportunity by focusing on the development of both students and teachers. Through academic enrichment and college access, Breakthrough prepares students who have limited educational opportunities to attend and succeed at competitive high schools and, ultimately, to envision themselves at four-year colleges. Simultaneously, Breakthrough develops future educators by providing professional teaching experiences to college students through its selective residency programs.

Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia is a tuition-free academic enrichment program committed to supporting academically motivated but under-resourced middle school students to enter and succeed in college-preparatory high school programs. Students begin the program the summer before seventh grade and continue during the school year until ninth grade, engaging in rigorous college-preparatory courses and transformative co-curricular experiences. Programming is offered for six weeks in the summers and on Saturdays during the school year. Breakthrough also employs experienced educators to coach its talented young teaching fellows, many of whom become career educators.

Volunteers provide tutoring, share career experiences and participate in scientific education programming.

Issue Area: Education

Practice Radical Hospitality

A “first responder” for vulnerable populations, Broad Street Ministry is a trauma-informed engagement center that provides meal services alongside essential needs such as clothing, toiletries, mail, and comprehensive on-site social services provided by our trusted collaborating partners. Our integrated Concierge Service helps guests navigate these and other services around the city and develop a coordinated, holistic care plan towards stability. Our core values of radical hospitality means our doors and services are open to all. Watch this video to learn more about volunteering at Broad Street Ministry.

Volunteers serve meals to guests of BSM and provide the service one would receive at a fine restaurant, and with the hospitality you would feel at your family’s holiday meal. Volunteers can also help sort and distribute mail to the numerous guests using BSM as their permanent mailing address.

Issue Area: Survival/Basic Needs

It’s More Than A Cause, It’s A Kid

Cradles to Crayons works with families, individuals, community groups, and companies to serve over 70,000 children every year in the Philadelphia region. New and nearly new children’s items are collected through grassroots community drives and corporate donations.

Donations are then processed and packaged by volunteers in The Giving Factory. Packages from The Giving Factory are distributed to local disadvantaged children through Cradles to Crayons collaborative network of diverse service partners. Watch this video to learn more about how volunteering at Cradles to Crayons supports youth in our community.

Volunteers sort through donations, assemble outfits, and package items to go out to children in need.

Issue Area: Survival/Basic Needs

Citizen Science

The first and only citizen science program for biomedicine, eCLOSE provides training programs where all participants contribute data and ideas, uncovering dietary interventions for disease, removing selectivity, celebrating culture, and providing exceptional research experiences. Level 1 Classroom: Science teachers train as principal investigators, bringing ~100 students/year into cancer/diabetes research. >1000 students (80% Title 1) contributed in 2019. Level 2 Camp: 6th-10th graders advance classroom projects, pinpointing genetic targets of dietary compounds. Level 3 Undergraduate Bridge: Undergraduates train in developmental/cell biology, biochemistry, and behavior/population research, equivalent to graduate school rotations. Level 4 Workforce: Adults gain technical training to acquire paid internships.

Volunteers present their career trajectories, experience, and advice on the skills needed and requirements for given positions, and answer questions from participants that delve deeper into the steps needed to advance in particular career paths. Speaker opportunities are available in Summer Camps and BULB/Workforce development.

Issue Area: Education

About FirstHand

When we give Black, Brown, and first-gen students real opportunities, our city thrives.

Heights Philadelphia connects Philly youth to careers and college with a network of people who believe — and invest — in their talents.

https://heights.org/

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability

With a focus on skill development, real-world job experience, and trauma-informed care, Hopeworks propels young adults into long-term living wage careers that put them on the path for healing and financial stability. https://hopeworks.org/

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability

IT TAKES PHILLY, INC. was built on the hypothesis that inner city youth who are exposed to professionals and have direct contact and feedback regarding goal setting, valuing yourself, delayed gratification and learning that they are directly responsible for their success in life, are more likely to succeed in their professional and personal goals. Therefore, this program is expressly designed to expose children to professions that exist within and outside of their communities, to show them that we as professional people and members of society are invested and care about their future.

Issue Area: Education

Making Hope Happen

For almost 80 years, JEVS Human Services has worked to help individuals throughout the Philadelphia region enhance their employability, independence, and quality of life through a broad range of programs and to create innovative and sustainable solutions to address current and future community needs.

JEVS promotes an asset-based approach to working with clients to help them achieve their highest quality of life.  To maximize the potential of clients who face multiple challenges, JEVS guides them in navigating the best options to meet their needs and connects them to quality services to enable them to participate fully in society.  Through 35 programs, JEVS provides Education & Career Services, Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, Community Supports & Adult Residential and Long-Term Supports & In-Home Care.

Volunteers conduct mock interviews, engage in short term mentoring tutor, share career paths and hosting collection drives for essential items to help families stay healthy and safe.

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability

Delivering Nourishment Improving Health

MANNA uses nutrition to improve health for people with serious illnesses who need nourishment to heal. By providing medically tailored meals and nutrition education, MANNA empowers people to improve their health and quality of life. MANNA has been serving our neighbors for over 30 years. Founded by a small group of individuals to comfort their neighbors suffering from HIV/AIDS, MANNA is now a leading provider of medical nutrition services in Greater Philadelphia, and an advocate for the Food is Medicine movement nationwide. Deeply embedded in the local health community, MANNA provides medical nutrition to people facing life-threatening illnesses.

Over the last year, more than 7,000 volunteers provided over 54,000 hours in the MANNA kitchen preparing meals under the supervision of their ServSafe certified chefs, and delivered meals to clients throughout the greater Philadelphia area. MANNA also encourages volunteers to assist in the annual Pie in Sky fundraiser at Thanksgiving by preparing / packaging pies as well as selling pies.

Issue Area: Survival/Basic Needs

The mission of Maternity Care Coalition (MCC) is to improve the health and well-being of pregnant women and parenting families and enhance school readiness for children aged 0-3.They work to preserve, promote, and revitalize East Parkside through partnerships with businesses and institutions and programs that engage residents, increase opportunity, and grow a diverse, thriving community.

In alignment with this vision, Maternity Care Coalition envisions an equitable future where all families are healthy and connected, with all children thriving and ready to learn. They emphasize the importance of each child being welcomed, each person being nurtured to achieve their full potential, and parents and caregivers being empowered to care for themselves and their children. By fostering community understanding and action to provide systematic support, they aim to create a future where all families and individuals are healthy, connected, and economically self-sufficient, and where all children thrive and are ready to learn.

Issue Area: Survival/Basic Needs

Delivering Nourishment Improving Health

Nationalities Services Center welcomes and empowers immigrants to thrive in our  communities and pursue a just future. NSC believes that immigrants and refugees are a critical part of the fabric of life in the United States, and it is their vision that all immigrants and refugees achieve a life of dignity, safety, stability, sustainable opportunities and meaningful connections to their communities. To this end, NSC provides comprehensive services to immigrants and refugees, including free or low-cost legal protections, community integration, access to health and wellness services, and ESL classes. The dedicated staff are committed to ensuring  that each of their clients receive high-quality holistic care and work together to refer clients to internal and external services based on the individual’s needs.

​Volunteers who can write in languages other than English are invited to submit encouraging letters to include in hand-delivered food boxes. Volunteer tutors can help immigrant children online with their homework, volunteer teachers run (currently online) ESL classes, volunteer workers go to the grocery shop and set up homes for newly-arrived  refugees, and volunteer drivers deliver boxes of culturally-respectful food.

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability

Pathways to Housing PA believes that housing is a basic human right. Everyone deserves a place to call home – it’s that simple. Pathways to Housing PA was founded to positively transform the lives of people experiencing mental health challenges and chronic homelessness by supporting self-directed recovery and community inclusion. They maintain an 86% housing retention rate even amongst those individuals not considered housing ready by other programs.

Issue Area: Basic Needs/Survival

“Beet Hunger!”

Philabundance’s mission is to drive hunger from our communities today and to end hunger for good. As the Delaware Valley’s largest hunger relief organization, we serve 90,000 children, families, and older adults every week through our member agency network and other programs.

In addition to food distribution, we strive to reduce food waste, increase accessibility to nutritious meals, and tackle the root causes of hunger through programs such as our Ending Hunger For Good initiative. Watch this video to learn more about how volunteering at Philabundance makes a difference in our community.

Volunteers at the Hunger Relief Center sort and pack food to be distributed through our programs and agency network.

Issue Area: Survival/Basic Needs

Helping Students Reach Their College Potential

The Philadelphia Education Fund’s mission is to create  equitable access to opportunities for students by providing resources and expertise that build paths to college  and career success. PEF serves its mission by providing programming and consulting services, in college  preparation and STEM education, to students, teachers, and schools. ​

​PEF supports the college and career advising needs of low-income students attending Philadelphia’s lowest graduation rate high schools by: (1) Delivering on-site, one-on-one advising services directly to nearly 4,000  ninth through twelfth graders across 16 Philadelphia high schools; (2) Awarding $500,000 annually in gap-filling, last-dollar college scholarships through the Scholars endowment; (3) Consulting with schools to support the implementation of college-going cultures; (4) Equipping high school students with online resources, through our PhillyGoes2College online portal; and (5) Expanding access to STEM education through the 450-member  Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem, and the 10-year partnership with GSK on the STEM Equity Collective.

Teaching and Coaching volunteer roles include  opportunities, such as mentoring a Philadelphia Scholars; delivering a workshop or keynote  address on topics such as essay writing, interviewing skills, workplace competencies, etc.; and “in classroom” presentations on STEM careers and related college pathways (in person or virtual). Professional Consulting and  Administrative Support volunteer opportunities include delivering professional and talent development workshops  for PEF staff; advising on strategic planning and execution; assisting with in-person and/or virtual event  direction, logistics and design; coordinating a supply drive for students in need of technology, college  dorm supplies, interview clothes and motivating incentives; advising on digital products currently under  development; and consulting on program branding, positioning and marketing.

Issue Area: Education

“None of us are home until all of us are Home”

The mission of the Project HOME community is to empower adults, children, and families to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty, to alleviate the underlying causes of poverty, and to enable all of us to attain our fullest potential as individuals and as members of the broader society.​

Project HOME achieves its mission through a continuum of services comprised of street outreach, a range of supportive housing, and comprehensive services. Project HOME addresses the root causes of homelessness through neighborhood-based affordable housing, economic development, and environmental enhancement programs, as well as through providing access to employment opportunities; adult and youth education; and health care.

​Volunteers can participate in the Grocery Lifeline program, conduct book drives, sending Notes of Hope, collect items for holiday drives or join in street clean ups.

Issue Area: Education

Wistar is a world leader in early stage discovery science in the areas of cancer, immunology and infectious disease. The Institute is committed to accelerating research advances from bench to bedside through brilliant science and distinctive approaches to collaboration among scientific investigators and academic and industry partners. Wistar’s single-minded focus is on making discoveries that will change the future of human health.

Issue Area: Education

Help Young Adults Reach Their Potential

Year Up’s mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing motivated young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.

The Opportunity Divide is the vast gap that exists between young adults from underserved neighborhoods, who have the motivation to succeed but lack access to the resources that will enable them to do so, and companies who have sizable human capital needs and lack access to a viable pool of motivated and diverse talent. Watch this video to learn more about the youth participating in Year Up.

Volunteers serve as mentors, participate in mock interviews, resume reviews or share their experiences as a guest speaker.

Issue Area: Economic Sustainability