What We Do
- Convening: As a trusted resource and community center, we bring together other agencies, organizations, and individuals to inform practices, facilitate cooperation, access expertise, and build meaningful and effective responses to the issues we seek to address. Our role as an integral part of a strong coalition of local organizations — the Broad, Germantown, Erie Collaborative (BGEC)– reflects our commitment to this work.
- Connecting: We leverage our network to connect with the people, organizations, and resources who can help make things happen and who bring different core competencies to our efforts. Whether it’s accessing funding streams, securing a meeting, fostering new relationships, or identifying allies for mutually beneficial partnerships, we actively seek opportunities to make connections that can amplify and augment the work of the community.
- Capacity-Building: Our direct programming and community services aim to develop and strengthen the skills, instincts, abilities, processes, and resources that our neighbors and other community organizations need to survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world. Furthermore, through thoughtful and intentional leadership, staffing, and infrastructure development, we build our internal capacity for administrative oversight, expansion of programming, and assumption of larger roles in supporting, developing, and implementing effective strategies for working with the community as a collaborative partner.
- Celebrating: With an optimistic outlook, ambitious plans, and a focus on achievement, we celebrate the people and projects that are making an impact in Hunting Park-East Tioga. Building enthusiasm and sustainable interest in the work underway is a critical aspect of maintaining the essential community connections between and among residents and organizations who are working towards unified goals.
As a community backbone, North10 brings leadership, resource development, data management, and administrative power that provide our partners with crucial resources to achieve goals and support long-term sustainability.
North10 supports community revitalization efforts so that by 2028, Hunting Park and East Tioga will be home to:
- A high-quality cradle-to-career educational pipeline so that every neighborhood child has access to learning opportunities worthy of their promise.
- A safer, cleaner, and greener environment, where all residents have access to affordable healthy food, an array of physical, mental, and behavioral health services.
- Dignified, high-quality housing; readily available resources for current homeowners and homebuyers; and both rental and ownership opportunities that prioritizes the needs of the current residents.
- A diverse cohort of local businesses, job opportunities, and adult learning options.
Here’s what we do to make that vision a reality:
Youth and Adult Programs
K-12 Youth Programs
Providing high quality after-school and summer programming to local youth
North10, Philadelphia’s Youth Programs offer high quality, structured learning, enrichment, and recreational opportunities for local youth in grades K-12, outside of the traditional school day and during the summer months. We implement a Positive Youth Development program that integrates a trauma-informed care approach to our after-school and summer programming. Built on the principles of strong relationships with youth built on a foundation of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment, trauma- informed care supports the positive growth and development of children who live with systemic stresses that can cause lasting impact.
North10 staff work together with program partners to leverage resources and ensure high- quality programming that promotes social and emotional learning (SEL), and college and career readiness skills. We address the unique needs of youth in the community by working alongside parents/guardians and local schools to help each young person develop character traits that will help them succeed in life. Program partners conduct specialized activities with participants throughout the week. Daily programming is designed to meet the unique needs of youth at the various stages in their development and includes a snack and hot dinner during the school year and breakfast, lunch, and a snack during the summer months. Some of our program partners include ARTrageous, North10’s award-winning chess team, MadBeatz (academic enrichment through drum instruction), Clay Studio, Focus Mentoring, Mighty Writers, and nutrition education (through Vetri Community Partnership).
In designing this important community resource, North10 sought to create programming that values the voices of youth; encourages participation in the design, delivery and evaluation of services; instills leadership qualities in youth; and involves civic involvement, engagement and contribution through service.
Adult Programs
North10’s 2-generation approach ensures adults who live in the neighborhoods also have programs and services at the Lenfest Center and beyond that cater to their interests and needs. To that end, North10 is currently building new programs that primarily focus on workforce development and job readiness. We also directly support new parents as they navigate the stresses and job of childcare, health, nutrition, work, and family.
Workforce Development & Job Readiness
North10’s Career Hub, works to prepare workers with 21st Century and industry-specific skills so they can succeed in the current workforce climate. Since January 2021 North10 has partnered with the Construction Apprenticeship Preparatory Program (CAPP) to offer a program that is focused on addressing long-standing employment disparities for minorities seeking meaningful employment in the construction industry and eliminating barriers of entry into building trade unions. In the summer of 2021, North10 began to partner with KDK Officials to offer training to adults interested in becoming a PIAA-certified referee or official for basketball and football with many graduates gaining employment with various social sport leagues around the city. We are currently building out more general career development programming to build basic job readiness skills and provide training for careers in retail, hospitality, sales, CDL, and HVAC.
Community Services
Hunger Insecurity and the Food Desert
North 10, Philadelphia has been actively working to get healthy food into the hands of children, families, and seniors who need it most. Starting as a produce distribution service and then evolving to more food distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic, North10 addresses food insecurity in our neighborhoods by opening the 10th Street Community Market (The Market). Using a full-choice model that respects the dignity of our members, The Market offers members a chance to shop for their own food without the need to pay for it.
Addressing Neighborhood Beautification and Maintenance
North10 is committed to working with neighborhood residents to address areas of concern in the community. We are launching a neighborhood beautification initiative to clean and maintain the public spaces in Hunting Park-East Tioga, including two local playgrounds, part of the Germantown Avenue commercial corridor, and vacant lots. We anticipate that this initiative will not only create a cleaner and more attractive neighborhood through the removal of litter and the ongoing maintenance of the public spaces, but also help to increase the public safety of the neighborhood. In addition, the beautification initiative will also provide employment opportunities for neighborhood residents.
Hunting Park-East Tioga Capital Projects
Development without Displacement
Be a Gem Crossing
Bethune Elementary Schoolyard
Deepening its commitment to the children and families of the neighborhood, North10 is working with key partners to create a safe and community-focused space at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School, open to all community residents. Through a collaboration with The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit organization, the schoolyard will be transformed into a community park with and for our neighbors. Based on TPL’s 10-Minute Walk Impact Report, 9,402 residents live within half a mile of the proposed schoolyard site, with 30% – nearly 3,000 – being children under the age of 20.
As part of the participatory design process, Bethune teachers and students will have a unique hands-on role in envisioning their future schoolyard. North10 and TPL are taking an important step to combat
this injustice, by providing all children the right to be children through the opportunity of outdoor play.
Resident-Driven Neighborhood Strategic Planning
