The organization invites applications for its Community Organizing Grants program. The organization’s four pillars of grantmaking include:

Organizing to Shift Power: Includes groups that are creating a power base that can hold leaders accountable to the people who are affected by their decisions, groups that allow their membership or constituents to take the lead in collective action-planning and decision-making, and groups whose leadership comes directly from the people who are most affected by the issues you are organizing around.

Working to Build a Movement: Includes groups that organize in the local community but make connections between local issues and a broader need for systemic change; groups that provide a space for members to develop their political analyses while taking action for change; groups that break down barriers within the progressive movement by building strategic alliances between groups of different cultural or class backgrounds or different issue areas; and groups that explore the root causes of injustice and have a long-term vision for the kind of social change they are working for.

Dismantling Oppression: Includes groups and projects that are proactively in the process of dismantling oppression, confronting privilege, and challenging institutional structures that perpetuate oppression (both internal and external to the organization); and groups that are proactively making connections between different forms of oppression (racism, heterosexism, sexism, ageism, classism, ableism, etc.), and with injustice.

Creating New Structures: Includes groups that have alternative organizational structures that allow power to flow “from the bottom up” and efforts to create new, community-based alternative systems and structures (economic, political, cultural, religious, etc.) that are liberating, democratic, and environmentally sustainable and that promote healthy, sustainable communities.

The foundation notes that most competitive applications will deeply embody all these funding priorities.

Applicants must have budgets of at most $250,000.

Application deadline: January 31, 2025

Learn more.

Evidence for Action (E4A), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, funds research that expands the evidence needed to build a Culture of Health, with an explicit emphasis on advancing racial equity. The foundation recognizes that achieving racial equity is not possible without a focus on the foundational and structural drivers of health, often referred to as the social determinants of health (e.g., housing, education, built environment, economic opportunity, law enforcement, and others). Therefore, partners with researchers, practitioners, community leaders, advocates, and policy makers across the many sectors and domains that impact health and well-being to develop evidence about what works to dismantle or remedy unjust systems and practices and produce more equitable outcomes for people and communities of color.

E4A prioritizes research to evaluate specific interventions (e.g., policies, programs, practices) that have the potential to counteract the harms of structural and systemic racism and improve health, well-being, and equity outcomes. The foundation is concerned both with the direct impacts of structural racism on the health and well-being of people and communities of color (e.g., Black, Latina/o/x, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander people, and other races and ethnicities)—as well as how racism intersects with other forms of marginalization, such as having low income, being an immigrant, having a disability, or identifying as LGBTQ+ or a gender minority.

This funding is focused on studies about upstream causes of health inequities, such as the systems, structures, laws, policies, norms, and practices that determine the distribution of resources and opportunities, which in turn influence individuals’ options and behaviors. Research should center on the needs and experiences of communities exhibiting the greatest health burdens and be motivated by real-world priorities. It should be able to inform a specific course of action and/or establish beneficial practices, not stop characterizing or documenting a problem’s extent.

Read more and apply.

NOTE: This event is intended for prospective AmeriCorps members interested in the NCCC program. All registrants will receive a recording of the webinar.

Date and Time: Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 4:00 PM

Register.

VCP is seeking a dynamic, people-first Director of Finance and Operations to drive continuous improvement of financial systems and organizational processes. The Director of Finance and Operations will bring financial insights and expertise to ensure that programs and systems run efficiently and with high impact. The ideal candidate will be curious, persistent, collaborative, and have a passion for making Philadelphia a healthier, more joyful place. The Director of Finance and Operations reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer and works closely with the Leadership Team to drive and increase organizational effectiveness.

Learn more and apply.

Among the key responsibilities of the Associate Director is the outreach to potential high school partners on behalf of TES, UB, UBMS, and GEAR UP and dual enrollment course participants, on-going communication, scheduling and other logistics management with existing school and community partners and program participants, general oversight of the daily activities of on and off-campus programming for TES, DE,  UB, UBMS, and GEAR UP on behalf of the Sr. Director or Assistant Dean, data collection and management, and supervision of the TES Program Manager, and various student workers and interns who serve the unit. The Associate Director will also be responsible for working with marketing and communication personnel at the College to promote programming and with the Assistant Dean or Sr. Director to identify and pursue funding and scholarships opportunities to support and grow the pre-college programming at the College. Additionally, the Associate Director will provide facilitative leadership for the teacher education pathway collaboration with Science Leadership Academy @ Beeber and the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium. In this role, the Associate Director will coordinate collaborations across units within the College as well as within the university in support of first-generation and traditionally underrepresented students in education majors (particularly teacher education) and in higher education generally. The Associate Director will have direct responsibility for connecting the College’s pre-college program participants to opportunities for application to and matriculation into Temple University.

Learn more and apply here.

Have you ever left a volunteer shift and wondered if you made a difference? Serve as a tax preparer with CHOP MFP and KNOW that you are improving people’s financial wellbeing! Not comfortable preparing someone’s taxes? Serve as a “greeter” to share information about the tax prep process, help families fill out paperwork, and support the tax preparers. Training for both roles is provided!

Volunteer shifts run January 21 – April 12, 2025 (Tues/Thurs 4:30-7:30pm, Sat 9am-1:30pm). 1 shift per week is preferred.

For more information, please fill out this interest sheet and we will be in touch with more details regarding trainings and logistics.

For specific questions regarding volunteering at CHOP, please contact Janeé Smith at smithj54@chop.edu or 215-978-7762.

Dates and Times:

• February 17 – March 14 (four weeks)
• Monday – Friday (five days a week)
• 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (two hours a day)

Location: Project HOME, Adult Learning and Workforce Program, Honickman Learning Center Comcast Technology Labs, 1936 Judson Street, Philadelphia, PA 19121 (near 23rd & Berks Streets)

Enrollment closes Monday, February 10, 2025.

Learn more and enroll.

HDI Customer Service Representative Certification

Includes the support of an Employment Specialist.

Dates and Times:

• February 17 – April 11 (eight weeks)
• Monday – Friday (five days a week)
• 9:30 am – 12:30 pm (three hours a day)

Location: Project HOME, Adult Learning and Workforce Program, Honickman Learning Center Comcast Technology Labs, 1936 N Judson Street, Philadelphia, PA 19121 (near 23rd and Berks Streets)

Apply by Thursday, February 6, 2025.

Learn more and apply.

Our session Wednesday, December 11th, at 4:00 PM has a few open spots left.

This one-hour focus group is a chance for your students to continue to shape the future of student engagement at Campus Compact and across the country. Their insights would be invaluable to the Design Fellows as they finish their visioning plan in the coming months.

We appreciate you passing this along to your students as soon as you are able, and if no fall semester dates work for you, we hope to add more dates in the spring as well once we finalize our schedule.

Boston Scholars was started by students at Phillips Andover Academy. This initiative aims to tutor underserved students of all ages (from pre-k to adults getting their GEDs). The tutors students who attend Phillips Academy Andover and have been lucky enough to receive excellent academic opportunities and would like to give back to the community. We have experience tutoring both classmates in our school and students outside of it.

Our service offers free one-on-one tutoring through zoom once or twice a week. We individually teach to the students’ needs. Our tutoring could range from homework help to teaching competition math, and we tutor in all subjects including math, reading/writing, science, coding, etc. We have a safety protocol that at the parent’s request we will record and save the zoom meetings.

Our program aims to target underserved communities that otherwise would not have access to tutoring. In doing so, we have connected with over 140 students, and our 100+ tutors have amassed over 2000 hours of meeting time. The majority of our students are of color and have annual household incomes of less than 70k.

Working with us could take many forms, such as sharing our fliers with underprivileged families and referring students to us who might benefit from extra academic support. Also, it would be great if you could refer us to other programs that could benefit from our service.

Our website provides specific details about our program and how families can sign up.

Questions? Contact Bostonscholarstutoring@gmail.com.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recently took its goal of keeping children healthy one step further with a pilot program that delivered groceries and meals to patients and their families who struggle with food insecurity.

In the United States, more than 10% of families with children struggle to get enough food, according to 2022 statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. CHOP found that among the families of their patients, around one in five struggle with food insecurity, according to a 2019 survey.

This, of course, impacts patients’ health, said Dr. Aditi Vasan, a pediatrician and researcher at CHOP. “When we think about the scope of factors that affect a child and a family’s health, we know that very few of them are things that happen inside the walls of a hospital or clinic, and much more of it has to do with the environments that they go home to,” she said.

Read more.

In this gathering, we seek to explore ways that higher education honors place and Indigenous history, builds partnerships, values diverse knowledge, and creates more welcoming environments for Indigenous and other diverse students, faculty, and staff. We intend to explore how institutions can better partner with Indigenous nations and local communities to overcome barriers and address common critical issues. We hope to explore how Indigenous traditions and ways of knowing can inform and strengthen our community engagement work. What are the dialogues and discourses we need to have at this time in history to heal and strengthen our nation and move towards greater liberation from oppression?

Learn more and register.

• Roughly 2% of students in Pennsylvania were identified as experiencing homelessness in 2021-22, a slight increase from prior years.
• Pennsylvania has seen a statewide increase in the identification rate of homelessness (the rate of student homelessness/the rate of students in poverty), but continues to rank below the national average, now 30th out of the 50 states.
• Students experiencing homelessness are heavily concentrated in Pennsylvania’s most inadequately funded school districts, which provide fewer educational opportunities, and are increasingly enrolled in cyber charter schools where research has documented consistently poor overall student outcomes.
• Pennsylvania’s students experiencing homelessness are exhibiting worse academic outcomes compared with all students and other economically disadvantaged students.

These findings underscore the urgent need for school leaders and policymakers in Pennsylvania to prioritize new resources and comprehensive strategies to support students experiencing homelessness.

Read the full brief.

This year’s conference theme is The Weight of Words: Navigating the Evolving Role of Dialogue in Polarized Times.

Proposals are due by February 10, 2025. Please submit one proposal per each session you are proposing.

Learn more and submit a proposal.

This resource serves as a guide for listening, analyzing, and responding to episodes of the “1619” podcast. It includes time-stamped sections, guided questions, and extension activities for each episode.

Learn more.

“[OXIHER] was really brought on by the health disparities revealed during COVID,” said Dr. Christopher Williams, an associate professor in pharmacology and the chair of the Division of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences in Xavier’s College of Pharmacy, who was an integral part of OXIHER’s development. “We saw that there was a huge disparity on how many people were afflicted by COVID but even more so how many people actually died as a result of COVID. So, from there we instituted the structure of OXIHER,” Williams said.

As one of OXIHER’s two directors, he is very familiar with what jumpstarted the collaboration.

“Identifying the need was easier than determining how to meet it. One of the major hurdles to overcome was securing funding,” he said.

Read more.

The national Social Mobility Symposium, hosted by California State University San Marcos, will be held Thursday, Feb. 20 and Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in beautiful San Diego County.

Learn more and register.

You’ll learn about:

• New: Webinar series focused on student success
• Anchor Learning Network (ALN): A cohort-based learning community that builds both individual capacity for anchor work and also connects your campus with this powerful network.
• Huddles: Join one or more to learn and share about effective practices with other CUMU members.
• Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ): CUMU’s peer-reviewed, open access journal for scholarship related to the issues you see on your urban and metropolitan campuses.
• Research Initiatives and much more!

Whether you’re a long-time member, a new member, or thinking about joining CUMU, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about membership and get involved.

Date and Time: January 14, 2025, 2:00-3:00 PM

Learn more and register.

Join us in person on March 10-12, 2025 for our Annual Conference at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, PA!

The theme of this year’s conference – Waves of Connection – celebrates what makes PAEE so special: our collective ability as passionate environmental educators to drive change through resilience, diversity, engagement, and connections. We encourage presentations that incorporate experiences and activities from community events, school programs, advocacy work, staff training, and more.

Award Nominations & Scholarships Submissions due December 13th.

Learn more.

For LGBTQ+ youth in Philadelphia between the ages of 14 and 25, the Young Artist Program offers a free arts and social justice curriculum.

Along with complimentary food and beverages, there will be button-making and cookie decoration activities. Indulge in works of art made by local LGBTQ youth artists and assist with funding for the organization. Funds will be raised at this event to support both the organization and the youths that are served. This event is for everyone and ALL ages.

Date and Time: Thursday, December 12, 2024, 6:00-9:00 PM

To reserve your FREE tickets: RESERVE TICKETS or just drop-in!!!