Increasing Access to Quality Education

The SCI-West Educational Collaborative (The Enterprise Center CDC)

The Enterprise Center CDC has developed a program through which CDCs and area education institutions work together to improve education in the SCI-West target area. Following are the major activities associated with this work.

  • The Enterprise Center has identified twenty-three internship worksites for West Philadelphia High School's Summer Learning and More program. These worksites will provide a minimum of 50 total internships for students during the summer of 2010.
  • The Enterprise Center has worked with staff members of the Rhodes Elementary school to recruit more parents to participate in the Parents' Council. The group has grown from about four or five to thirteen parents.
  • On April 29th, 30 people including parents, school staff members, community members, and representatives of community organizations attended the Education Stakeholders Forum at The Enterprise Center CDC. Moderated by Brian Armistead, director of civic engagement at the Philadelphia Education Fund, the forum was an opportunity to discuss important program areas, including project-based learning, parental involvement, safety and security, college and careers, internships, and mentoring. Attendees began to develop programs for these topics to begin during the 2010-11 school year. Education Stakeholder Forums are held twice a year. The next forum is scheduled for October 2010.
  • This summer Enterprise center staff members will teach an enrichment class at University City High School. The purpose of the class is to help students develop projects for identifying major needs in their community along with local resources to help address those needs. Students will complete their projects during the first marking period of the 2010-2011 school year Healthy Times Newspaper (The Enterprise Center CDC)

 

A number of partners helped bring the Healthy Times program to the Henry C. Lea School. Healthy Times is a project of the Penn Center for Public Health Initiatives and is partially funded by SCI-West. It introduces Lea students to journalism and various aspects of healthy living. Other partners include the Enterprise Center CDC, Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, The Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative and The People's Emergency Center. Two issues were produced by 5th grade students during the 2009/2010 school year.