Our Mission is to: "To transform our neighborhood by building up our youth and families to create a better community." We seek to create positive change in the neighborhood by tapping in to the rich assets contained within family and culture, and focus on programs emanating from the youth. Thus our services are focused on children and teens, and draw in parents in relation to their children's academic success. Our goal is to help our students to realize the amazing potential they have to succeed as bilingual/bicultural individuals and to present themselves confidently. We believe literacy and skills training (in fine arts) are crucial to their becoming future leaders.

Description:
Our programs include After School and Summer Enrichment for Children, Pre-Work Leadership for youth 11-14, and Goodlands Photography program with exhibits throughout the city. Although our predominantly Latino community is often called "The Badlands" by the media, we defy this image through our arts programs called "The Goodlands." Children's perspectives of their homes are used to educate the broader Philadelphia community and address stereotypes. We are working to expand this program to generate resources to support the services we provide at little or no cost. Help is needed to provide one-on-one tutoring to students in the After School program, to assist with data entry in the office, to archive photos, and to market the Goodlands products.

History:
We began a summer program in 1994, and were incorporated in 1995. We have held annual Goodlands photography exhibits with work done by students ages 6-13 from our programs over the course of the last six years in the Nexus Gallery, Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, and others. This basic arts training, combined with classes in yoga and poetry. We also have built collaborations with two area schools, business groups and other community groups. We were able to save a community pool with residents, serve families during the holidays, renovate a home to create a new space for students, provide access to computers, and achieve many other accomplishments. We trained 120 youth through our pre-work program last year and approximately 45 children in our After-School program. We have evolved from a community agency formed out of a Lutheran Church in our localized neighborhood, to involvement on a broader scale. Centro Nueva Creacion is part of a larger collaborative of organizations called the Eastern North Philadelphia Youth Services Coalition. This body combines resources to support each other and formed a youth council where teens can decide the direction of services to be taken in the area.

Contact people:

Kevin Howley, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Christine Rodriguez, Resource Developer, (phone), (email) Brady Sanders, Goodlands Teacher And Head Of After School, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (215) 427-2176

Address:

185 W. Tioga St. Philadelphia, PA 19140 (See a map)

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

Directions:

Located between Front and 2nd on Tioga Street (57 North-South bus). Tioga is two blocks south of Erie (56 East-West bus)and three blocks north of Allegheny (60 East-West bus)   Nearest Bus Stop: 57 on Front & Tioga, 3 minute walk For maps or information, please see http://www.septa.com/

Miscellaneous Information

Are court referrals welcomed?
	Yes