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Southwest CDC works to serve the Soutwest Philly. Their mission is to improve the quality of life of Southwest Philadelphians. Founded in 1987, Southwest CDC provides many services including employment and leadership development, after school programs, housing counseling, economic development, and energy saving counseling.
To learn more about my community partner, you can visit them on their website.
They also write and publish their own magazine called the Globe Times where you can check out the projects they are working on and impact they leave on the community.
Mr. M has been working with Southwest CDC for 9 years, ever since the age of nineteen. During the regular school year he works with children by offering after school program in local schools from 3pm to 6pm.
He was born in North Philly, but grew up in Southwest Philly and graduated from high school there. According to him, there are both good and bad things about Southwest Philly. It has changed a lot over the years that he is lived there. While he was younger, there was more of a sense of community that now has faded away. Everyone knew each other and he felt comfortable going outside with his friends and hanging around the neighborhood.
Now it's a whole other story. He doesn't see kids walking down the neighborhood anymore. Before he could trust his neighbors as a source of guidance but today parents don't even know the parents of their child's friends. The community feels very individualized, and everyone is just looking out for themselves. There is a lot of gun violence, so people don't feel comfortable walking outside anymore. And fights might lead to someone dead while before you could have a discussion and not have it end in a deadly encounter. People don't care for life anymore as they used to because there is no sense of unity, and they are not thinking of the consequences of their actions.
Drug addiction is another big problem in his community. People just resort to pills because they want to escape reality and not face the hardships of life. But Mr. Melvin thinks that the resources are available, people are just not willing to seek them out. There is also the issue that many of the organizations that offer these resources are behind the times in advertising, and so people might not be hearing of these resources because the outreach is lacking.
Mr. M not only works in after school programs, but he also collaborates with hosting a summer camp for the children of Philadelphia when they are out of school. He finds his job very cool, though it is not always easy. It is fun to work with children, but he finds that he has to be very flexible with them. You never know what new shenanigans, issues or interests they are going to come through the door with each day, so he feels like he needs to adapt to their needs every single to make it the best experience he can.
When Mr. M was younger, there used to be many after school programs at his school. But that has seemed to become non-existent nowadays. These after school programs are important for the formation of children beyond their education. It is in these programs where they get to discover themselves and their capabilities. By working in after school and summer programs, Mr. M hopes to not only help students develop into well-rounded people but also be someone these kids can trust and look up to. In a community where you have to suspicious of everyone outside your home, he wants to be that source of guidance for kids that they cannot get from their community like he could when he was younger. He wants to be a role model to these children and be a better example than what he sees in his community.
Mrs. S is another staff member of the afterschool and summer programs from Southwest CDC who went to school to be a teacher. But Southwest CDC gave her an unexpected turn in her life path that led her to becoming the coordinator of the programs. For her, the afterschool and summer programs have been "such a breath of fresh air" because she is able to connect with the children in such a way that is different from when they are in school. Within these programs she is able to provide more enrichment opportunities which help develop the students as a whole. This job allows her to connect with the children more on a one-on-one basis and to provide mentorship because of that bond. Though there are many highs and lows when it comes to working with children, Mrs. S feels like her job is so rewarding because she is making a difference in the lives of the children she works with.
Currently Southwest CDC is running a summer program at Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP) for 5th-7thgraders. During one of the days of the summer program, my BTG intern team had a structured activity where we asked the students to write an "I am" poem. The results of the activity not only surprised Mrs. S but also brought her to tears. She recounts reading one of the poems of the children and them explaining their emotions of anger but not being able to understand why they felt that way or how they could control it. She was moved by the child's internal struggle and how brutally honest they were in the poem. This "I am" poem gave the child a way of expressing their inner emotions. Other kids were even shy about us adults reading the poems, some claiming for a fear of being "too dark".
It is these kinds of moments that leave such an impact on Mrs. S and that show us the power of being able to allow children to express themselves in their own creative ways. Through these kinds of activities, we get a glimpse into the inner workings of the child and how their environment is affecting them. For Mrs. S, the environment of the child plays a huge role in their behavior. We need to understand where they come from and what their demographics are to be able to serve them better. It is important that we are able to bring balance to their formation and adapt to their needs and circumstances to allow the children to properly grow and explore who they are.
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