B INSPIRED PHILADELPHIA INC
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Mission Statement
B Inspired Philadelphia empowers Philadelphia's most under-resourced students to become champions of their own well-being. Through partnerships with many of Philadelphia's cultural, health and creative institutions, complemented by our own wellness curriculum, we provide students with exciting and innovative out-of-school time (OST) programs that enrich their educational journey. Recognizing that food scarcity is a problem which impacts our students directly, we have initiated a food program, through which we provide healthy snacks during OST time, and we provide a healthy lunch for all 250 of our summer campers.
About This Cause
B Inspired Philadelphia works in 5 different Philadelphia K-8 schools, providing innovative programs for the students' OST(Out-of-School Time), the critical period between when the school day ends and when they leave to go home.(3-5 pm). We partner with other non-profit organizations, after-school programs and youth organizations in the Philadelphia area to provide our students with a wellness program that teaches and promotes healthy choices and active lifestyles. Our program also aims to develop a healthy curiosity about their community as well as an understanding of the importance of being an engaged citizen. To this end, we want to expose them to some of the artistic and creative elements that are such a part of their city, recognizing that to do this effectively and safely, we have to bring the opportunities to them, in their school environment. Each one of our programs is tailored and customized to meet the needs of the specific group for each unit. We are fortunate to be able to work with the school administrators to determine the best schedule to accommodate the maximum number of participants. We organize indoor and outdoor sessions to meet any space constraints dictated by the facility. Some of Our Partners: We have the Barnes Museum bring in programs to engage them in artistic activities as well as to develop an appreciation for art. Another partner, the Philadelphia Ballet, provides dance instruction and prepares the students for an inspirational recital at the end of the unit. Philadelphia Outward Bound provides leadership and confidence building programs during our summer camp, as well as opens up their incredible Discovery Center to our students for hiking and nature exploration. Other groups that we bring in are the Skateboard Academy, Moshen Fitness, Mighty Writers, the Woodmere Art Museum, and the Whitemarsh Foundation. This fall, we have just begun an exciting program with the Philadelphia Eagles, which will teach the fundamentals of football, but also provide insight into statistics, the organizational structure and other facets of a running a professional football team. In addition, B Inspired Philadelphia employs our own trainers and coaches, who have been trained in our research-based model. They go through rigorous and ongoing training in curriculum development, educational techniques and student management strategies. Pre-pandemic, we introduced programs designed to encourage the development of techniques to improve students' mental and emotional well-being, such as mindfulness, meditation, journaling and yoga. These programs are in more demand now that we are facing a mental health crisis in all of our schools. With this in mind, we focus on giving students some critical tools to help them manage stress throughout the day. They begin to recognize that they can rely on themselves to deal with uncomfortable situations, such as getting a bad grade, having an argument with a friend, and dealing with issues such as isolation and environmental insecurities. We provide after-school programs in all 5 of our schools in West and North Philadelphia. These schools are the Tanner Duckrey School in North Philadelphia, the Paul Dunbar School in the Templeton Section of North Phila., the Mary McLeod Bethune School in the Tioga Section of North Phila, and the Morton McMichael School in the Mantua Section of West Philadelphia. The fifth school we work in is the Community Partnership School in the Brewerytown Section of North Philadelphia. We bring programs into these school from Monday to Thursday each week, between the hours of 3 and 5 pm. This is our third year of bringing the programs into the schools. Before we became an official 501(c)(3)in 2020, we volunteered at these schools by arranging transportation to bring the students to Fairmount Park to go on hikes and explore the surrounding areas. However, this proved to be financially prohibitive, and the students spent more time in travel than in experiencing the outdoors and our lessons. We were able to use that volunteer period to recognize the critical needs of our students, and in this way, determine how we could more effectively reach our goal of teaching the importance of fitness, wellness, getting outside, nutrition, hydration and techniques to help develop emotional and spiritual strength. When we got our official non-profit status, we were ready to go...however, almost immediately, the pandemic hit, and we were forced to pivot again. We learned that we could provide many of our programs virtually, so we were able to continue our after-school programs through Zoom. This was an incredible and critical period for us, since we were able to keep the kids moving and focusing on their overall well-being during this time of isolation and quarantine, where physical activity was more important than ever before. In addition to our after-school programming, we partner with Heights Philadelphia, a large academic non-profit, to provide a 6 week summer camp, which is open to all Philadelphia 5th through 8th grade students, at no cost. Heights Philadelphia provides academic programs in the morning, and then from 11:30 to 2:30 pm, B Inspired Philadelphia provides a healthy lunch for all students, followed by activities for recess, and then fitness and sports instruction and engagement for the afternoon. This past summer, the camp was held at Girard College in North Philadelphia, which was an excellent venue to provide programs in fitness, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, field hockey and more. We served around 250 kids, had 14 qualified instructors/counselors, and the program was a huge success. With the after-school program and the summer camp, we are able to interact with hundreds of Philadelphia students throughout the entire year, and we are confident that this continuity strengthens our ability to give our students the knowledge that they are in control of their own well-being, and they have the power and the tools to lead a healthy, curious and active lifestyle. We believe that this builds their self-confidence, encourages a positive outlook and boosts their potential to be leaders and good citizens. To this end, this year, we initiated a new Intern Leadership Program. We hired two of our "graduates", who had been through our program and completed their first year of high school; while they were in our program, they demonstrated strong leadership skills, showed empathy and respect towards other campers and counselors and possessed a keen awareness of the importance of community. They joined our other interns and counselors for the summer camp, and it was a huge success. Both of these 15 year olds used different means of public transportation to arrive at work on time every day, proactively sought out responsibility and became an important part of the counselor/instructor team. Both have committed to returning as counselors again next summer, and thrived as leaders and took pride in earning a salary for the summer. We are excited to extend this program to two more rising 9th graders from this past summer camp, and will begin the process of sharing the program with them and their families. As the program builds, we plan to engage the interns in a couple leadership activities during the school year to help them grow and develop leadership skills. With our established mission in place, we are at a point where we can identify areas of need in our schools and tailor our programs to address these needs. We are able to adapt as the situations demand, and we are constantly striving to improve our existing programs and bring in new partners to serve our current population. With the merge of Phila Futures and Steppingstone, we are aware that our programs will need to expand as the number of schools served is expanding. Currently, we plan on serving the K-8 population that we do now and maintaining the standards that we have established at this point, as we feel that we are operating as a well-oiled machine.