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 A MESSAGE FROM FOUNDER LYNNE ABRAHAM
Even before I was sworn in as Philadelphia's District Attorney, I knew from more than a quarter century of public service that more had to be done to capture the sense of a community's investment in its own future. While government had often been looked to as the single most important source of crime prevention and community revitalization efforts, the role of the very people who lived in the community had largely been left out of the process. Therefore, community mobilization and investment in a new beginning for Philadelphia seemed the obvious course. Hence, I founded Urban Genesis, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Urban Genesis' prime purpose is to make neighborhoods safer by preventing crime, promoting revitalization projects in these neighborhoods, enhancing educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth and providing scholarships for college for deserving youth. The future of Urban Genesis seems bright indeed. Over the past 16 plus years, we have achieved many successes by investing several hundred thousand dollars in our neighborhoods. We have provided thousands of children with school supplies, clothing, shoes and winter coats. We have also established after school art programs, sent hundreds of at-risk inner-city children to summer camp and education enrichment programs so that they might have the opportunity to build better self-confidence, interact with children from all over the City, work on teamwork and leadership skills and have a better appreciation of natural beauty and environmental issues. These children get a chance to enhance their grades in the next school year by participating in the supplemental education programs we support. We have also bought hundreds of books for school libraries, scores of computers for after school programs and brought our many crime prevention programs right into the school so that maximum advantage might be achieved.
Because children need educational materials and tools to be prepared to learn and start the school year on the right foot, Urban Genesis has a yearly "Tools for School" program where we have collected and donated schools supplies to over 3,000 students in elementary and middle schools throughout the Philadelphia area. Many large local and national corporate and philanthropic partners have joined with us to make certain that our "Tools for Schools" reaches the largest number of children. This important program ensures that Philadelphia school children get their education off to a running start. Since 1998, Urban Genesis has collected over 4 tons of school supplies and thousands of back packs and other essential school supplies such as notebooks, rulers and pens so that our children are prepared on their first day of school to learn.
Each Thanksgiving, Urban Genesis has its Thanksgiving Food Drive where we provide turkeys and complete dinners to a number of organizations in the Philadelphia area including homeless shelters, shelters for abused and battered women, Church soup kitchens and a host of other outreach programs. This effort attempts to provide a Thanksgiving feast to deserving families and individuals across the City of Philadelphia.
With the support of a number of corporate partners and private donors we are able to provide for such initiatives which help us to better aid the community and support our mission. Urban Genesis' Community Spirit awards are also another way that we recognize Philadelphia students who are nominated by organizations or individuals and selected for their leadership and promotion of safe, crime-free behavior in neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia. The goal of this award is to encourage, recognize and acknowledge residents of this great City who, through their leadership, ideas and actions, have dedicated their time and efforts to the betterment of the community's "quality of life."
The Urban Genesis "CRIME AND DRUG FREE-THAT'S ME" program sponsored by PECO Energy exposes 400 students yearly from several Philadelphia Middle schools to the inter-workings of the criminal justice system. This all-day, intensive program focuses on the consequences of negative behavior and rewards of positive behavior. It is our intention to have students who participate take the responsibly of spreading the message of being crime and drug free during the school year, throughout the summer and the rest of their lives. As part of this initiative to create and or reinforce good citizenship, the middle school students chosen to participate in this program will work on projects creating logos, writing poetry and essays that will encourage their peers to also live crime and drug free lives.
Any efforts aimed at rebuilding the physical and social fabric of a community need financial support. Individuals, corporations and foundations that support Urban Genesis have seen our efforts making a difference in the quality of life of our fellow citizens. All the conditions, which breed decay and despair, are correctable and, more importantly, they are correctable at a cost far less than the price of a decayed, dispirited community. After all, Pennsylvania will spend billions in housing prisoners this year, far less than we spend on education. An investment in the Urban Genesis concept is an investment in urban revitalization, in crime prevention and, most importantly, our people.
There is much more I want to do. Won't you join us in helping to strengthen and broaden the Urban Genesis programs? An investment in Urban Genesis is an investment in the future of Philadelphia. Urban Genesis is an IRS Tax Exempt Foundation and is a registered charitable organization with the Pennsylvania Department of State's Bureau of Charitable Organizations (Cert.#12232)
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