PennCORP Community Partners

Each year, PennCORP works with a diverse group of local community organizations to provide students with an introduction to the volunteer opportunities that exist in Philadelphia and West Philadelphia specifically and help them gain a better grasp of the issues that effect these areas.  While the community partners for 2009 have not been finalized, here are some of the organizations that the program has been involved with in the past:

11th Street Health Clinic
Track: Urban Health
The 11th Street Health Center provides primary care to over 2,500 residents and is a hub for a myriad of community-based health promotion activities.  The Center operates in partnership with Drexel University and the Family Practice and Counseling networking, and is a Federally Qualified Health Center. Services offered at the Health Center include physical exams, diagnosis and treatment of illness, family planning, health maintenance/disease prevention services, dental, nutrition, physical fitness and behavioral health. All care is offered to all individuals regardless of insurance or ability to pay.

Urban Nutrition Initiative
Track: Urban Education, Urban Health
The Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI) is a university-community partnership that engages K-16+ learners in an active, real-world, problem-solving curriculum that strives to improve community nutrition and wellness.   UNI goals are to create and sustain an interdisciplinary K through 16+ curriculum that engages students as agents of school and community health improvement and to work with university faculty, students, public school teachers and community residents to realize schools as centers of community health promotion. Additionally, UNI strives to advance an ecological approach to nutrition education.

Bethesda Project
Track: Urban Poverty
Bethesda Project, a faith based organization, responds to the call to serve the abandoned poor, the chronically homeless in Philadelphia.  Bethesda Project strives to be the provider of housing and services to these individuals and considers themselves an "extended family" of guests, residents, staff, volunteers and supporters.  Bethesda Project's fundamental commitment is to create communities where men and women can find sanctuary and have their basic needs met in a compassionate and caring setting.

Philadelphia School District
Track: Urban Poverty
The mission of the School District of Philadelphia is to provide a high-quality education that prepares, ensures, and empowers all students to achieve their full intellectual and social potential in order to become lifelong learners and productive members of society.  The School District of Philadelphia is the eighth largest school district in the nation, by enrollment. Located in a historic and culturally rich setting, it is a racially and ethnically diverse community committed to education.

Greater Coalition Against Hunger
Track: Urban Health
The Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger fights hunger in Southeastern Pennsylvania through education, outreach, and advocacy. Their education and advocacy programs aim to empower emergency food providers, to inform concerned citizens, and to help shape public policy. Through their outreach, they are also working to improve participation in and access to the Food Stamp Program.

AchieveAbility
Track: Urban Poverty
AchieveAbility considers education as the key to self-sufficiency.  Since 1981, AchieveAbility has been working to end poverty by helping single-parent, low-income families so they have they support that they need in order to pursue higher education and to achieve self-sufficiency.  AchieveAbility provides housing and supportive services and works to build stronger communities.

MANNA
Track: Urban Health
MANNA delivers food to individuals who have acute nutritional risk due to a life-threatening illness like HIV/AIDS. They are responsible for brining over 40,000 nutritious, freshly prepared, home-delivered meals each month to individuals and families living with a life-threatening illness.  MANNA dietricians promote wellness through nutrition education and counseling.  Through these services, MANNA provides opportunities for caring people to extend loving support to families, friends, and neighbors in the Delaware Valley.

Project H.O.M.E.
Track: Urban Poverty
Project H.O.M.E. (Housing, Opportunities for Employment, Medical Care, Education)'s mission is to empower people to break the cycle of homelessness, to address the structural causes of poverty, and to attain their fullest potential as members of society. Project H.O.M.E. achieves this through a continuum of care comprised of street outreach, a range of supportive housing, and comprehensive services. They address 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.

Habitat for Humanity
Track: Urban Poverty
Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.  Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.

Traveler's Aid
Track: Urban Education
Traveler's Aid Philadelphia (TAP) was founded in 1901 by the New Century Club to help immigrants, particularly mothers and single women without means of support.  TAP first expanded its mission during the great depression to include all travelers in crisis at the city's transportation centers. Their services include: professional counseling, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, youth development.

National Student Partnerships
Track:  Urban Education
National Student Partnerships (NSP) is the nation’s only year-round, student-led volunteer service organization that links people in need with the resources and opportunities necessary to become self-sufficient. Founded by college undergraduates in 1998, NSP operates a national network of drop-in resource centers, staffed by student volunteers from area colleges and universities. Working one-on-one with low-income community members (clients), NSP volunteers provide intensive on-site and referral services, which enable clients to achieve their goals.