Catalyst Fund Grantees

Justice-involved Black and Brown youth in Philadelphia face constant high-stress pressures that drive risky decisions and deepen system involvement—not because of a lack of motivation, but because many lack practical, real-time skills to recognize and regulate stress before conflict escalates. At the same time, community-based organizations face funding cuts, staff burnout, and limited professional development, leaving both youth and the workforce under chronic stress. Lion’s Story, in collaboration with Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout (YEAH Philly), will test whether installing real-time stress regulation, decision-making, agency-building, and identity-based coping skills into the daily operations and policies of a community-based organization can strengthen justice-involved youth and employee outcomes, resulting in a climate of mutual accountability. The pilot also tests whether strengthening staff regulation and decision-making capacity first leads to improved youth outcomes and long-term organizational adoption.

The United States, and historically Pennsylvania, incarcerates people at exceptionally high rates under prison conditions that are often harmful and dehumanizing, undermining health, rehabilitation, and community well-being. By contrast, Scandinavian countries are widely viewed as a humane and effective alternative, with lower incarceration and recidivism rates supported by rehabilitative prison models. The Scandinavian Prison Project (SPP), in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, proposes a first-of-its-kind pilot adapting Scandinavian correctional principles for use in a large U.S. urban jail. Core SPP principles include access to nature, dignified communal spaces, and opportunities to cook fresh food, among others. The experiment will test whether a humanity-centered, staff-empowering model can improve safety, prison climate, and staff well-being. If successful, the pilot will demonstrate that these humanity-focused reforms can be safely and effectively implemented in U.S. jail settings, including with pretrial youth populations historically excluded from reform efforts.

Philadelphia Midwife Collective will open the city’s first freestanding, midwife-run birth center, integrated into the local healthcare system. Philadelphia faces some of the nation’s worst maternal and infant health outcomes, with especially poor results for communities of color and LGBTQIA+ communities. Half of pregnancy-associated deaths could be prevented with early, continuous care, yet many families distrust hospital settings or face barriers to access. Currently, there are no freestanding birth centers within city limits. This model will test whether equitable access to Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) in an out-of-hospital, homelike facility—accepting Medicaid and private insurance—improves birth outcomes, reduces costs, and creates a sustainable, community-based healthcare model. At a time when the Greater Philadelphia Area has experienced a significant decline in both the quality and accessibility of perinatal care, a new, culturally sensitive, patient-centered, and community-based approach is necessary.

Paraprofessional Training Institute (PTI) will test whether training Philadelphia community members to provide high-quality, safe in-home healthcare and educating them about how to navigate the long-term care system can help more people meet their goals to age in place while also advancing contemporary hospital systems’ priorities for managing population health. The United States elder care system is in a moment of transformation, with a shortage of home care workers post-pandemic, dispersed families that are less available to care for aging relatives, and an increasing proportion of seniors interested in remaining in their homes as they grow old. Simultaneously, health systems are attempting to avoid patient readmission and shorten inpatient hospital stays. Through their initiative, PTI aims to equip seniors and their supporters with the resources necessary to coordinate and advocate for their own care at home by leveraging an expanded safety net of family, friends, and neighbors.

In the context of rapid gentrification in its Norris Square neighborhood, Xiente is undertaking an ambitious experiment in economic mobility. Poor families are often afraid to increase their income for fear of losing public benefits while not earning sufficient capital to sustain themselves. Responding to this situation, Xiente will test whether via dependable housing and integrated, strengths-based coaching, networking, and other customized services, 500 families can achieve durable economic mobility within a five-year period and move from poverty into the middle class.

The Sentencing Foundation will test whether by equipping sentencing judges with the tools and knowledge to match defendants with appropriate and individualized resources that address the root causes of their offenses, it can foster collaboration among judges, probation officers, service providers, and defendants to create a system of accountability that helps individuals achieve long-term rehabilitation. While there are existing initiatives focused on re-entry support or alternative sentencing, the Sentencing Foundation’s Resource-Based Sentencing and Supervision model is uniquely based in a courtroom setting and combines sentencing judges, probation officers, community-based service providers, and defendants in a way that holistically supports the defendant and creates the necessary conditions and mutual accountability to keep them from reoffending.

By combining a workforce development program with a community of practice for employers, Triple Bottom Brewing is testing whether providing both supply and demand-side supports can transform the hospitality industry into a supportive and sustainable employer for people impacted by violence, housing insecurity and the justice system. Individuals who have experienced these challenges often encounter disproportionate barriers finding and keeping employment upon return to the workforce, and most workforce development programs put the onus of employability solely on the employee, rather than the employer. Triple Bottom will anchor its workforce development program within a for-profit business, leveraging the credibility of an industry leader to create a seamless transition from apprentice to industry employee for participants. By focusing on often-overlooked populations and building both employee and employer capacity, Triple Bottom intends to break down barriers to employment while stabilizing the hospitality industry by meeting pressing needs for qualified personnel.

We Love Philly (WLP) intends to test whether by providing systemically marginalized young people at risk of not graduating high school with access to an alternative paid pre-apprenticeship program, and by building supportive networks and professional contacts with community leaders, they can increase graduation rates and create a pipeline to financially viable careers in growing industries like cyber security and solar software development. This first-of-its kind paid pre-apprenticeship program for high school students is a timely response to Act 158, which provides alternative pathways for students to graduate. WLP aims to serve as a model for others responding to this Act 158 opportunity. A “youth-first” nonprofit, WLP prides itself on listening to and centering the needs of students in developing its programming.