The 52nd street corridor, which is a few blocks west of Haverford House, has long been known as a place fraught with crime, poverty, and fear. However, it wasn’t always that way. According to Shirely Randleman, a long-time west Philly resident and President of the 52nd Street Business Association, it was the place to be in the 1950s. Yet, shifting demographics devastated the area and the 52nd street corridor lost its commercial appeal.

But a return to form is already underway. Overcoming a crime-ridden stigma that has defined the strip for years, savvy business owners are reclaiming its history. Check out Hidden City’s recent article that details the rebirth of the 52nd street corridor through interviews with local business owners (including Ms. Randleman!): hiddencityphila.org/2012/04/the-skinny-and-everything-more-on-52nd-street/

Meet Adhanom Tesfamariam, owner of produce truck at 52nd & Cedar

I just returned from what was an INCREDIBLE experience. I was in Houston, TX for the Community-Campus Partnerships in Health‘s national conference. The conference shed light on the increasing number of collaborative efforts between community organizations and academic institutions that aim to promote social justice and health equity in their shared communities. Indeed, I presented the work of the multi-institutional coalition that was formed during my fellowship year between the tri-co, Drexel, Villanova, and Lankenau Medical Center.

The conference ran from April 18th to the 21st and was very much a working conference. The days began at 7 am and ended around 5 pm. Notably, I attended a workshop on geographic information systems (GIS) in community-based research, a “lessons-learned” lecture on a university-community partnership between UCSF and 12 neighboring organizations, and a networking event for conference attendees from the mid-atlantic region. While presentations and workshops filled the days, the conference hosts fed us well! Catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner was provided every day.

The weather in Houston was gorgeous– the temperature hovered between 60 – 80 degrees throughout the day and night with virtually no humidity. So  I simply couldn’t resist the chance to explore the city . My city adventures took me to galleries, parks, and eateries scattered throughout Houston’s multi-center cityscape.

I could keep rambling, but I’ll let my pictures do the talking:

The central meeting area was the Westin Galleria Hotel's ballroom! General lectures and meals were held here for the 500 attendees.

My poster and me! I presented a poster on the collaborative efforts between The Center for Public Health Research at Lankenau, the CPGC, and other nearby colleges. I received lots of great feedback at the conference!

This architectural feat was located right behind my hotel. The waterwall is a semi-circular waterfall that stands at 64 feet.

Houston does not have a subway or trolley system. Rather, they have one tram that runs up and down the central downtown area. However, the tram's tracks are lined with an exquisite garden and fountain! How lovely!

After walking all over Houston, I stumbled upon this tiny Mexican eatery. Super cheap and super delicious. I wish I remembered the name of the place, as their tacos were, perhaps, the best I've ever devoured.

The best art exhibit in the city: Project Row House (PRH). PRH is a neighborhood-based cultural epicenter in Houston's Third Ward. PRH repurposed 12 row homes that serve as exhibition spaces for resident artists to celebrate African American history and culture. For more info, visit their website: http://projectrowhouses.org/

Just south of the downtown area was Hermann Park. My favorite section was the wildlife preserve, which provided a striking contrast to the city's skyline.

Another amazing (and free) art space in Houston is the Station Museum. A huge warehouse dedicated to the contemporary and fine arts. Their current exhibitions depict the Occupy movement through photo and conceptual art installations. For more info on the museum: http://www.stationmuseum.com//index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

The BEST part of the conference was the community site visits. The conference had arranged for participants to sign up to tour different community organizations in Houston. I had the opportunity to visit The Baker-Ripley Community Center. The center is the flagship center of Neighborhood Centers, a nonprofit that works with communities to create safe and resource-rich areas in their communities. For more info on Neighborhood Centers: www.neighborhood-centers.org/en-us/default.aspx

The Baker-Ripley Center was, literally, a campus of buildings designed for and by the surrounding community. There were classrooms, a library, health and legal clinics, a credit union, and park. But the coolest building was the "Art Shop" shown above. The center hosted 3 resident artists each year to beautify the surrounding neighborhoods through workshops and larger art installations.

Did I mention the center houses a neighborhood elementary school? Yeah, well, they do! And we got to hang out with the first graders during their gardening class. During this time we learned how to seed different plants like basil, chamomile, etc. So much fun!

To celebrate my last night in Houston, I went out to the oldest bar in the city: La Carafe. Dimly let with candles and hanging red lights, the bar maintained a 19th century drinking cavern aesthetic. Note the two towering candles -- between them sits a crank cash register, which is still used. For better or worse, the place is cash only.

On April 6th, Dr. Tom Farley, the NYC Health Commissioner, visited the campuses of Haverford College and Lankenau Medical Center to give two captivating lectures on his current public health campaigns. His visit was jointly sponsored by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship and the Center for Public Health Research at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research.

Dr. Farley, a former graduate of Haverford College, persuasively argued that in order to promote the health of a society, health education simply will not suffice. To truly improve the public’s health, the landscape — or healthscape — of society must also be changed. He pointed to NYC’s Health Department, which has made remarkable strides in decreasing smoking among NYC residents. These changes, Dr. Farley noted, are due in large part to the environmental approaches enacted by the Health Department (i.e. hiked cigarette taxes, increased smoke-free areas, etc).

Perhaps the biggest battle his department has waged has been against (excessively) unhealthy eating, a topic that he dealt with at length in his presentations. Since 2011, Dr. Farley and the NYC Health Department have unleashed a plethora of progressive policies, counter-advertisements, and alterations in NYC’s physical environment to discourage residents from eating sugary, high fat foods and drinks. From proposed soda taxes to “making NYC your gym” to viral-videos about the health consequences of excessive sugary drink consumption, Dr. Farley’s work is receiving praise  and scorn from all corners of American society. Regardless, his message is being heard and, even more importantly, seems to be working. In the winter of 2011, the CDC reported that childhood obesity rates dropped 1.2% in NYC, which was the largest decline among all US cities.

Beyond showing the effectiveness of aggressive public health campaigns, Dr. Farley’s lectures resonated with my impression of our place in modern day America. How we act in the world is very much influenced by the world itself. The choices we make, the possibilities and limitations we face — indeed our very wellbeing — are in many ways contingent upon the things we are surrounded by.

Yet, while our built environments typically have every intention of promoting people’s wellbeing, there can be — and often are — negative repercussions. But insofar as our landscape has been built, perhaps it can also be changed. And indeed, Dr. Farley’s lectures demonstrated that “healthscaping” is not only possible, but already underway.

Dr. Farley has received a lot of criticism from the food industry for his aggressive policies, but he takes it in stride. Note the political cartoon in the background!

Starting in April, the local foods movement will be spreading its roots in new soil: the streets of West Philadelphia. Greensgrow Farms and Preston’s Paradise have partnered to launch the West Philadelphia Fresh Food Hub, which will distribute fresh and local produce from a mobile truck to the Belmont neighborhood. Check out this recent write up on Generocity to learn more!

Greensgrow piloted the mobile food market concept last year in Camden and it was well received! Below is a picture of the Camden Fresh Food Hub:

Last Wednesday, Emily organized an incredibly moving panel discussion on restorative justice. Tyrone Werts, a former prisoner without parole, told his incredible journey from and beyond Graterford prison’s maximum security walls. He was accompanied by restorative justice educator and PhD candidate, Barb Toews, and criminal defense attorney, Paul J. Hetznecker. Both spoke of their relationship with Mr. Werts, as well as their careers working — and grappling with — the Pennsylvania prison system. To learn more about the event, check out this article.

ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK

Been too busy to get into Philly? Want to do community service but you’re in too many clubs? Are you buried up to your neck in theories of social change in the classroom and want to get exposed to the social justice work going on right outside the Haverbubble? Combine these all by joining us for Haverford House’s ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK!

Monday, March 5 to Monday, March 9

• Urban gardening at the Norris Square Neighborbood Project
• Bingo at Women of Change, a Project HOME initiative
• Tour the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy
• Volunteer at the Philabundance Food Pantry
• Visit historic and scenic sites like the Penn Archeology Museum, Fairmount Park, and Eastern State Penitentiary
• Dine FOR FREE at hip Philadelphia cafes and restaurants

Food, lodging and transportation provided!

Deadline to Apply: Sun Feb 26 at midnight

Send application or questions to HavHouse@haverford.edu

APPLICATION:

NAME:

YEAR:

WHY Do you want to do ASB (short paragraph):

Dietary Restrictions:

When the Student Community Development Center I work in at Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice helped start a program partnering with the Girl Scouts to bring motivation and experience to girls interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), it never crossed my mind that our girls would garner national attention. I have been working with Andrea Siegel, a math teacher at Parkway, meeting Wednesdays after school for the past few months to do experiments and talk about career opportunities in STEM fields with twelve of our 9th and 10th grade girls. Two weeks ago we got a call from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania saying that Good Morning America would be doing a special report for the 100th anniversary of the national Girl Scouts organization, and wanted to interview our students about female leadership, girls involvement in science and math, and what their goals are for the future. They said our girls were exemplary students representing the program, and that Couric, a former girl scout herself, wanted to interview them.

The girls were very excited to meet her and the day was dedicated to preparing for the interview and experiment that were to be filmed for the special, which will air tomorrow, January 31st, during Good Morning America.

Cameras are rolling...

Couric was very kind and attentive to all 12 of our students, making sure she asked them all questions and gave them time to explain what they liked about the program and what they hoped for in their own careers. The most touching part of the interview was when some of the girls talked of the feeling of belonging they had with the group, being able to pursue what the truly want to in school without having to bend to the pressures of being “cool.” Many girls displayed a great amount of confidence in their academic abilities, talking about becoming doctors, chefs, and working at Apple to develop new technology.

The stars!

Following the interview, the girls performed an experiment simulating the clean up of an oil spill and had a pinning ceremony to officially welcome the students as Girl Scouts. It was a whirlwind day, but it was great for the girls to have this remarkable opportunity to have their voices be heard across the nation!

Tune in tomorrow morning, and I will be sure to follow up with the clip!

It is amazing to see what young people are capable of when you give them the opportunity to lead and take on responsibilities for their school. Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice is lucky enough to have 15 young men and women representing the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades making the decision everyday to lead within the halls and classrooms of Parkway and beyond. Our leadership team was selected by the Student Community Development Center (the center where I work within the school) at the end of September, after an application process that included highlighting past experience, sharing ideas for bettering the school, and teacher recommendations. Trainings with the staff of the SCDC and outside organizations began immediately, and our team has risen to the occasion.

This past weekend, our team completed an overnight, two-day retreat at Haverford, sharpening speaking skills, developing their own codes of ethics, and bonding as a group. On the first day, the students worked together with our SCDC staff to grapple with ethical fitness and what kind of values great leaders should possess. Some of the most important qualities selected were compassion, honesty, and responsibility. Completing skits and collages that explored who they were as leaders helped them figure out what values they already had, those they shared with the rest of the group, and what they needed to work on. After hours of training, the team clonked out at the Haverford Friends Meeting House, who graciously hosted us, well until morning.

Team members working on their "Ethical Fitness" in the MCC

The next day, our team was treated to a top-notch tour of Haverford by one of the school’s multicultural interns, Raul Lazo, who praised the merits of a small school that has great resources and provides a lot of personal attention from professors and on-campus programs. All of our team members were buzzing with excitement of being on a college campus. Sudden bursts of “I can’t wait to go to college!” and “Look at that!” were common throughout the tour. As an alum myself, I am very familiar with the strengths of the college, from its beautiful campus, small classes and personable professors, to its diverse student population. It was easy for the students to fall in love with Haverford on the tour, even proposing to Raul that he come work at Parkway next year after my fellowship year is complete.

Tour! Tour! Tour!

After the tour, we joined the members of the Black Students League at lunch, so that our students could ask questions about college life and learn about the importance of minority leadership on college campuses and beyond. Discussing the difficulty of college work and what they should do to prepare for it was a main focus, along with what it is like to be a minority on a majority white campus and if the college students ever felt like they had to prove themselves to other students. These kinds of discussion between high school and college students are imperative for youth to understand what it takes to get in and stay in college, along with social issues that can arise when one leaves the environment they are accustomed to. Lunch with the BSL students bolstered our team’s excitement about the prospects of college, and gave an excellent lead into our afternoon of team building exercises.

Hands in!

The afternoon had students running around campus, doing a blindfolded trust walk, working together to get across a “treacherous” hallway, and figuring out what it takes to have teams succeed together. At the end of the day the students said they didn’t want to leave! We hope to take a larger group of promising students back to Haverford in the spring for a day of activities and introduction to college life.

Go Team!

The importance of visiting colleges for youth to get excited about the future and to better understand the hard work it takes to get a for year degree has been made so clear to me in my time at Parkway. I look forward to continuing to help garner excitement and knowledge about college to students who have so much potential!

I stumbled upon a great little cafe in uni city — Cafe Clave. As the name suggests, it is Cuban themed: great Castro and Cuban decor are sprinkled throughout the cafe and the owner makes an assortment of empandas and tamales each day. It is a wonderful place to study (very quiet, many people studiously working), although the cafe’s quiet room supposedly transforms into a salsa space in the evening!

Cafe Clave. Located on Locust St between 43rd and 44th

I just received exciting news: my proposal to present at the Campus-Community Coalition for Health’s national conference was accepted! The conference is in Houston, TEXAS sometime in mid-April (around the 18th…). I will be presenting on my Center’s efforts to collaborate with surrounding colleges (Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swat, and Villanova) to form a public health consortium and initiate research projects that identify/address health disparities in our shared communities. Hopefully, by April we’ll have “data” of some sort to present at the conference.

I’ve never been to Texas, so I plan to take some time to explore the city…

…on foot, definitely not by car — this looks terrible!