Fellowship Farm's mission is to develop leaders and partners for a more interdependent, just, peaceful and sustainable world. We carry out this mission primarily through educational programs that offer people the skills and vision to transform their communities.

Description:
Fellowship Farm, Inc. is an educational center in human relations, chartered in 1943. Our mission is to give people the skills and vision to help them transform their lives and their communities through peace, justice, interdependence and sustainability. We primarily serve low-income children and their families from Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. We work with these clients both at our 120-acre site in Pottstown, and at their locations. Our programs focus around two core values: empowerment, which levels the playing field, and equality, which promotes equal treatment and opportunity on that field. Schools and agencies turn to us for programs that they cannot find anywhere else.

Under the rubric of empowerment we focus on several areas. To foster low-income parents’ engagement in children’s education, we implement Family Strengthening Programs for social service clients, such as Dignity Housing, Interim House West, Park Spring Apartments (Spring City) and to school districts: Philadelphia, Owen J. Roberts, and charter schools: People for People (Phila.). Our partners for our violence-prevention and healing from violence program, Keep the Kids Safe Summer Camp, are The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, and the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP. Our drop-out prevention program partners with Pottstown and Lower Pottsgrove High Schools. Our leadership programs for youth involve the Philadelphia Student Union, Project Ace, West Kensington Girls and Boys Clubs, and Youth United for Change among others.

Our program partners for our work around diversity and equality include: United Communities, the Pan-Asian Association and Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations (SEAMAAC) in Southeast Philadelphia, the School Districts of Springfield, Lower Merion and the Shipley School in Montgomery County, the Boyertown and Reading School District in Berks County, the Strath-Haven School District in Delaware County. We have led camps, retreats and trainings for middle school students, high school student activists, teachers and administrators. We created a training video on the challenges of overcoming social segregation in schools. We are working to spread this comprehensive model of diversity training throughout schools in the region.

History:
Fellowship Farm continues to grow from the seed of an idea planted thousands of years ago: that all people are one in the sight of God. Beginning with people of one faith, and over time, including people of all historic faiths and of none, the Fellowship idea continues to take new forms as we strive to build together a world of ever-wider opportunities, peace and justice for all.

Giving shape to this idea, the Young People’s Interracial Fellowship began in 1931. By 1943, Fellowship House in Philadelphia was a pioneering non-sectarian institution that sought to break through the prevailing climate of racial segregation. Fellowship House waged campaigns to integrate neighborhoods, public accommodations and the city’s workforce.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was first exposed at Fellowship House to Gandhi’s practice of non-violence. The community acquired Fellowship Farm in 1951 as a training center for spreading its message. Staff members and guests have come to Fellowship Farm from all over the world; it has also been a first American home to many refugees and an emergency center for temporarily homeless families.

A Center for Human Relations, Fellowship Farm has sent out countless people energized and motivated through its ideals. Our programs highlight the contributions of diverse peoples, promote harmonious inter-group relations, and empower families, schools and communities to end violence, resist drugs, mediate conflicts and make peace.

These goals require the hard work of building meaningful relationships among all stakeholders in our communities, no matter how different we may at first seem from one another. Without such deep relationships, lasting social change cannot happen. After 75 years, this mission continues to give life to Fellowship Farm.

Contact people:

Deb Mason, Operations Manager, (phone), (email) Rhoda Indictor, Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (610) 970-6889

Address:

2488 Sanatoga Road Pottstown, PA 19464 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.fellowshipfarm.org

Directions:

From High Street: At the traffic light just after Kmart, turn left onto Pleasantview Road. Without making any turn-offs, travel about 3 miles. Entrance to the Farm is on the right. From 663/Charlotte Street: At the traffic light at. . . (more) For maps or information, please see http://www.septa.com/

Miscellaneous Information

Are court referrals welcomed?
	Yes