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| 'Trash to Treasure' - a set of drawers made by a student |
Well it’s actually Day 4 but I didn’t get the chance to
update the blog yesterday so you’re going to get two for the price of one! Yesterday morning we drove north out of
Philly to Bucks County to a project called De La Salle Vocational which works
with young adults (all are male) mostly in the 17-19 age bracket who are on
probation. At the school they have the opportunity to get
their High School Diploma and in addition they can get training in building
maintenance & repair, carpentry, car mechanics and culinary arts. Every day lunch is prepared by the students –
if they don’t get the dinner made then everybody goes hungry! One specific programme that impressed us is
‘Learn to Earn’ which includes job training skills, hands-on experience and a
paid internship. One of the school’s
features is that it operates a rolling admission and is also full-time i.e.
there is no summer break. A recurring
phrase from Director Jim Logan was, “we don’t give up on anybody.” We were given a tour of the school and we got
to meet some of the students who expressed pride in things that they had made. Another telling sign that the school is doing
something right is the low staff turnover – some of the teachers have worked
there for 25+ years – what a legacy!
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| One of the workshops at De La Salle |
Next we headed back to North East Philly to Logan E3 Centre
which is run by Denise Savage who is clearly a very committed, caring and
passionate individual. The centre works
with young people (both male & female) who are out of school for whatever
reason or are returning from a juvenile placement. The students are supported
to complete their High School Diploma or GED and also get job readiness
training. There is a very strong
holistic approach at E3 – the staff provide follow-up with each young person
over a 12-month period once they leave, there are opportunities to get involved
in basketball and they have a very successful team which has brought a sense of
community to the school, every year they have a prom – just like other schools,
and they also run a food larder for those students who are struggling to make
ends meet for basic food items. The best
bit of the day was to meet two of their students, and particularly Sabrina
whose story blew us away. She had been
through a rough time – she became a mum at 16, she is dependent upon kidney
dialysis 3 times a week, and shortly after her son was born, her own mum died. Things were really tough for her, but five
years on she has come to E3 and is on track with her studies and things are
looking up. She was an absolute delight
to meet and a real inspiration – we found her story very moving. From these encounters it was evident to us
that the student-staff relationship is very strong, the students know that the
staff are committed to them, care about them and will go the second mile for
them.
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| Sabrina telling her story |
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| The wall of Congratulations - students who have been successful in attaining their GED, this wall is near the entrance to the school and greets students as they come through each morning |
Our bus driver, Larry, was very generous and on the way home
drove us through a few different parts of the city that we hadn’t yet seen and
we also made the all-essential stop at the ‘Rocky steps’ where Darren & BJ
had a race to the top whilst the rest of us dandered up somewhat more sedately.
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| The view from the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art towards Center City along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway |
Day 4
Today has been a little different as we spent a bit of extra
time to debrief what we’ve seen so far on the trip and think about lessons
we can take back home. This afternoon we took the train to Washington DC (just
a 2-hour journey) and we have been getting settled in to ready ourselves for
another full day tomorrow.
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