CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
Mayor Edward Rendell

Philadelphia's Promise

Philadelphia. s Promise has geared up to ensure that 120,000 of the City. s youth receive at least one of the five fundamental resources needed for healthy, successful development by the year 2000. An outgrowth of the Presidents. Summit for America. s Future, Philadelphia. s Promise was launched by the City. s delegation leader, Mayor Edward Rendell, in August 1997 as a three-year campaign to secure new pledges benefitting area youth and to help the region. s 300 original pledge-makers fulfill their commitments.

The original delegation continues its oversight of the initiative while the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania serves as the organization. s fiscal agent. The delegates, in their various professional and civic roles, advocate on behalf of Philadelphia. s youth while the Philadelphia. s Promise staff . 1.5 full-time employees and three AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers, with pro bono support from City and United Way staff . manages daily operations. The organization is responsible for recruiting new pledges, tracking the progress of current pledge-makers and generating resources to enable pledge-makers to expand their services to youth.

Since the Presidents. Summit, an additional 150 pledge-makers have joined the campaign. They include individuals, public and private organizations, for-profit and non-profit organizations.

• Private for-profit and public organizations pledge direct support to youth in the form of internships, employment and mentoring, and support to youth-serving organizations in the form of financial and in-kind resources.
  
• Nonprofit organizations pledge to expand existing programs which have demonstrated effectiveness and to increase the number of youth they serve.
  
• Philadelphia. s Promise facilitates connections between pledge-makers to ensure that young people have access to as many needed services as possible.

Pledge-makers include organizations providing all or some of the services which, as a group, cover the five fundamental resource areas: mentoring and tutoring, after-school and weekend care, low-cost or free health care and health education, education in workplace skills, and opportunities to involve youth in service.

Progress in First Year

During its first year, Philadelphia. s Promise organized street clean-up days in several neighborhoods and, with the Philadelphia Public Schools, sponsored a series of mini-summits to sustain the momentum of the Presidents. Summit and mobilize residents to support children. In April 1998, Philadelphia. s Promise issued a one-year status report which highlighted the progress of the City. s pledge-makers and included data on the impact of the pledge-makers on youth and youth-serving organizations. The report included information on both ongoing activities and one-day events and, within these categories, on projects in each of the five resource areas. It indicated that, in the first year of Philadelphia. s Promise, 140,307 children and young adults received new services or expanded on-going services through the combined efforts of the 450 pledge-makers. Included were:

• 11,748 relationships with a caring adult . mentoring, tutoring or other forms of structured one-to-one interactions;
  
• 20,598 additional children enrolled in activities during non-school hours;
  
• 34,910 children receiving health care, training or services intended to promote healthy lifestyles;
  
• 16,805 students enhancing their skills to prepare for future employment; and
  
• 7,990 students, from elementary school through college, engaged in community service projects.

The report also stated that 51,387 adults and children had volunteered with the various organizations involved in the City. s effort, and $1,417,312 in donations had been received.

Start of Second Year

With support and technical assistance from IBM, Philadelphia. s Promise began its second year by launching an interactive web site that will become the principal vehicle for communicating with current and future pledge-makers and the public. Existing pledge-makers can use the site to complete progress reports and request resources to support their programs. Visitors to the site can review the progress of pledge-makers and browse the on-line requests of non-profit organizations. Pledge-makers can post upcoming events and promote new initiatives. The site also allows organizations and businesses to make pledges to support the City. s youth.

Philadelphia. s Promise leaders attribute the success of their efforts to the continuing leadership of Mayor Rendell. They point out that under his direction, Philadelphia City departments have made a concerted effort to expand services to children and to integrate service delivery among the departments. As one example, the Department of Recreation and the Philadelphia School District have expanded their hours of operation to provide additional care for children during non-school hours.

"Thousands of children and youth in Philadelphia still lack the fundamental resources needed to become productive adults," says Mayor Rendell. "We have made a promise, to those children and the future of Philadelphia, to ensure that more children are ready to meet the challenges of the 21st Century."

Contact: Mary Strasser, Executive Director, Philadelphia. s Promise, (215) 665-2467

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J. Thomas Cochran, Executive Director
1620 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006
Telephone (202) 293-7330, FAX (202) 293-2352

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