SERVICE PROGRAM FOUNDED BY HAVERFORD ALUMNI ENCOURAGES PHILADELPHIA PRIDE

Tim Ifill and Matt Joyce (both class of '03) want to show local young adults that there's more to Philadelphia than cheesesteaks, Rocky, and fanatical football fans. The City of Brotherly Love also boasts a thriving cultural scene, vibrant, close-knit neighborhoods, and ample opportunities for individuals looking to make positive changes in their city and in the world.

That's why Ifill and Joyce founded Philly Fellows (www.phillyfellows.org). Now in its inaugural year, the program offers one-year post-graduate fellowships to selected seniors at area colleges. The fellows work at various Philadelphia nonprofit organizations, live together in one of three houses in neighborhoods across the city, receive stipends, transportation funds and health insurance, and participate in community events, service projects, and leadership development training. The program's ultimate goal is to generate employment opportunities for recent college graduates and encourage their involvement in—and affection for—Philadelphia as a whole.

As undergraduates, Ifill and Joyce found their own ways of appreciating the city. Both were active with the 8th Dimension Office of Community Service, spearheading the Street Outreach program that takes students into Center City once a week to distribute food to the homeless. Joyce also volunteered with Philadelphia Habitat for Humanity.“It was good to have something urban-oriented to do every week, to get away from campus,” he says.

As a native of the area—he grew up in the suburb of Abington—Ifill often found himself cast as defender of the city to his out-of-town classmates.“I was always trying to convince people how great it was,” he recalls.

Ironically, it was Maine resident Joyce who remained in the city after graduation as a Haverford House Fellow, working with the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness, while Ifill left the area to work for the Forest Service in California for one year. Yet he knew he'd be back on familiar turf before long:“The feel of Philadelphia is a strong draw for me. I can't picture myself living in any other city.”

At the same time a newly returned Ifill was brainstorming with Joyce a post-graduate service program in the vein of Haverford House, Philadelphia was grappling with the persistent problem of“brain drain,” losing many of the area's brightest and most talented young adults to places like Boston and New York. A 2004 Knowledge Industry Partnership survey of local college graduates found that Philadelphia was not among the top-tier knowledge industry regions. A separate study by the Non-Profit Center at La Salle University concluded that Philadelphia's nonprofits would soon be experiencing a severe leadership gap.

“We started Philly Fellows at a time when graduates who planned to pursue nonprofit work were leaving the city in droves,” says Joyce.“We wanted these great kids just coming out of college to be in positions of leadership years from now, and keep Philadelphia's nonprofit sector as strong as it is.”

The concept of Philly Fellows was inspired by several similar programs, Haverford House chief among them.“We wanted to take what Haverford House does and make it more of a citywide thing, and focus the program on Philly's needs,” says Ifill.“We took the best parts of other program models and incorporated them into Philly Fellows.”

Throughout 2005 and early 2006, Ifill and Joyce finalized plans for the program, recruiting students at five colleges (Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, University of Pennsylvania and Temple) and bringing nonprofits and corporations on board as partners. They teamed up with AmeriCorps*VISTA to cover half of the program's budget, including the fellows' stipends and health insurance, and received housing support from the William Penn and Patricia Kind Foundations, among others.

Out of 62 applicants, 15 fellows were selected for 2006-2007, four of whom are from Haverford's class of '06: Katie Derickson, Michael Kassler-Taub, Kate Reese, and Nora Spriggs.“I was attracted to the program because I wanted to work in the non-profit sector,” says Derickson, a communications associate for Community Legal Services.“I wanted to stay in Philadelphia, and I wanted access to a network of similarly-minded peers.”

The fellows work at their assigned nonprofits 35 hours per week and devote the remainder of their time to community projects and leadership development. Examples of the former include a recent photography show at the Asian Arts Initiative; fellows distributed disposable cameras to Philadelphians from all walks of life, such as elementary school children and homeless men, and used the results as the centerpiece of the exhibit. (The display can be seen at www.philadelphiastories.phillyfellows.org.)

The leadership development sessions are meant to prepare the fellows to stand at the forefront of the Philadelphia nonprofit community by teaching skills in grant writing, fundraising, and organizing a budget.“These workshops have shown us how to streamline the business aspects in order to more efficiently conduct nonprofits to better serve our people,” says Nora Spriggs, a community life assistant with the Bethesda Project, which aids the city's homeless and formerly homeless by providing housing, job and health services. Once a month, the fellows have informal dinners with and receive guidance from city corporate, nonprofit, and government leaders, such as city councilman and mayoral candidate Michael Nutter.

In addition to fulfilling their official program responsibilities, the Philly Fellows are getting acquainted with the close-knit neighborhoods in which they'll reside all year.“It's important for us to befriend the grandmas,” says Michael Kassler-Taub, an event manager for MANNA (Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance) who lives in South Philadelphia's Point Breeze neighborhood with Spriggs and two other fellows.“Many people on our street have lived here for more than 40 years—we may actually be only the second group of people to live in our house.” The Point Breeze housemates knew they had been welcomed by their neighborhood when they were invited to a block party, where they shared the finer arts of pie-baking and crabmeat-eating and won the children's friendship by racing them on bikes.

Kate Reese, an analyst at Enterprise Heights Real Estate Development, found that the residents of her West Philly street were initially wary of the newcomers, having become accustomed to a revolving door of Penn students.“We made a point of talking to our neighbors, and shopping at the local grocery and farmer's market,” she says.“We've also made an effort to show we're invested in our house—trimming the lawn, weeding, cleaning up the front.”

Being a Philly Fellow has revealed to the program's participants new dimensions to Philadelphia, in some cases permanently altering their perceptions of the city.“I now sing Philly's praises to anyone who tries to pretend that New York or Boston or D.C. is more awesome,” says Spriggs.

“It's too bad that more college students don't realize that Philadelphia is undergoing a renaissance,” says Reese.“There are so many things to do—restaurants, music, museums—and it's more accessible than other cities.”

Looking to the future of Philly Fellows, Joyce is focused on sustainability.“We want to expand the number of students, colleges, and nonprofits involved, add placements, and invest in longer-term housing,” he says.

“We've been lucky,” says Ifill.“This program has turned out so much better than we had any right to expect. In 10 years we hope the city's nonprofit leaders will be former Philly Fellows—having alumni in high places will make the program stronger.”

— Brenna McBride