Read descriptions of these timely, early-stage projects that are aiming to shift practice in the social sector.
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.
Restorative practice approaches to mental health care are generally only available after crises occur and in institutional settings that often harm community members in their operations and assumptions. However, these interventions hold great promise as preventative measures, and green spaces are naturally aligned with restorative practice work. By deploying restorative practice trainings, mental health education, and related programming for community members in local green spaces, Deep Space Mind (DSM) 215 intends to test whether facilitating access to community mental health care in third spaces (e.g. gardens, green spaces) makes neighborhoods more prepared to handle mental health issues within their neighborhoods as they arise, and less likely to require systems involvement to resolve them.
Federal policy governing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allows individuals to use their SNAP benefits to purchase highly processed junk food but forbids the exchange of SNAP dollars for freshly cooked and nutritious hot food items. The Community Grocer (TCG)’s pilot location, in close partnership with neighborhood organizations and community residents, intends to test a new nonprofit retail store and workforce development kitchen model that will increase access to SNAP-eligible fresh food for vulnerable populations at local corner stores. At TCG, residents in Southwest Philadelphia will have access to fresh meal kits and the ability to trade unopened meal kits – at no additional cost – for hot prepared versions at the community kitchen next door, bypassing SNAP hot food restrictions. If successful, TCG would be a self-sustaining model that could be replicated in other communities throughout the country.
Drexel University’s Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health is partnering with the Community Research Review Board (CRRB) in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone Community to transform how traditional Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) review and approve their studies. This community-engaged approach to research will better ensure that researchers recruit residents and collect data to address the social determinants of health in the Promise Zone in the most trustful, community-engaged, ethical, culturally salient and scientifically rigorous way, while at the same time increasing the ability to generate data that leads to benefits for the community.
If successful, this practice has the potential for a strong community-led system of ethical oversight, research review and collaboration to solve the most pressing community crises. Such a methodology would be uniquely positioned to spread far beyond our region, promoting broader, systemic transformation of community research in promise zones and other under-resourced, highly researched communities.
The Philly Joy Bank is a bold pilot program that provides monthly guaranteed income and voluntary support services to pregnant Philadelphians throughout pregnancy and through their baby’s first year of life, with the goal of reducing racial disparities in infant prematurity.
Among the ten largest cities in the United States, Philadelphia has the unfortunate distinction of having both the highest poverty rate and the highest infant mortality rate—both of which feature profound racial disparities. Black Philadelphians disproportionately live in poverty, and disproportionately experience poor birth outcomes. The Philly Joy Bank will improve financial stability during pregnancy, enabling participants to better address basic needs, improve their ability to access healthcare, and reduce prenatal stress. Based on evidence of clear links between cash transfers, improved parental and infant health, and birth outcomes, this pilot is positioned to demonstrate a path to decreasing the risks of prematurity in Philadelphia. The Philly Joy Bank has the potential to reveal maternal and child health impacts that would allow federal funding already earmarked for this population to be used as guaranteed income for families.
To address a rising demand for junk hauling services in the community, Pathways to Housing PA created Good Haul, the region’s only nonprofit junk hauling service. It serves as a complementary program to the organization’s Philadelphia Furniture Bank (PFB), which provides no-cost furnishing to 1,400 homes for individuals and families exiting homelessness each year. Additionally, Pathways staffs its Good Haul operations with part-time, wage-paid employees from its Work First transitional employment program that supports individuals who are entering or re-entering the workforce after a significant break. Pathways takes a more coordinated approach than other peer resale or thrift shop nonprofits by matching donated items with nonprofit partners who can redistribute or reuse items to keep them out of landfills and put them in the hands of community members who most need them. Its innovative model simultaneously addresses sustainable waste stream management, gaps in employment opportunities for transitional workers, and a rising need for coordinated and community-based junk hauling services. Barra’s funding will help support the establishment of this novel social enterprise, position Good Haul to generate revenue, and outline a replicable model for other cities around the country interested in developing nonprofit junk hauling services.