August 2018 Event! NFTE, Philly Free Streets, and City Taphouse Logan Square!
Our volunteers had a great time with NFTE Philly!
For our August event, our volunteers were across Philadelphia making their communities shine. With the help of an excellent non-profit partner and the City of Philadelphia, the #VUCrew was out in full force! Read on to learn more about the work we did and our partners. You can sign-up for future volunteer opportunities here.
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Philly
NFTE is a non-profit organization in the educational space. Their mission, as you might gather from their name, is to teach students the skills and mindsets needed to succeed in their professional lives. With a millions of people needing jobs each year as the global economy expands, entrepreneurship will be key to developing the industries and companies that will employ their fellow man.
NFTE activates the entrepreneurial mindset and builds startup skills in youth from under-resourced communities to ensure their success and create a more vibrant society.
For our project with NFTE, we built and replenished the supply kits needed to teach the NFTE curriculum. NFTE partners with schools where at least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, and make the program more accessible by providing all of the materials needed. Their Philadelphia office is expanding, and may have double the classrooms to support next year!!
The project we completed would normally take 40 hours of work from one of the two staff members at NFTE. Instead, we got it done in around two and half with our amazing volunteers!
Tess from NFTE Philly teaching us the same skills and mindsets taught to students in the program.
Philly free streets - city of philadelphia
For the third year in a row, the City of Philadelphia shut down a major section of streets to vehicle traffic in favor of people-powered travel. Philly Free Streets is a product of work done by Open Streets PHL - a grassroots group who popularized the idea during the Papal visit to Philly in 2015. After a year of building towards a program, Open Streets PHL passed the baton to the City, as is standard in the many cities that have similar programs.
For this edition, North Broad Street was the setting. An historic and commercially relevant stretch through the heart of Philadelphia, North Broad has been going through many changes - thanks in large part to our friends at North Broad Renaissance. Our volunteers were out in the streets to help direct "traffic" and make sure residents were safe, happy, and well-informed!
Our volunteers got some sweet t-shirts for working Philly Free Streets!
We are all big fans of connecting with our communities. It's one of the main reasons we started VU PHL in the first place! This event was a great example of how changing your daily habits - from driving to walking or biking - can open you up to a whole host of friends and neighbors you didn't know you had. Our volunteers felt closer to Philly today, and we're all very grateful for the opportunity!
city taphouse - logan square
If you've been following for some time, you know there's nothing that goes better with volunteering than a little #voluntbeering. So we partnered with our friends at City Taphouse to have an excellent #Afterjawn in Center City. Happy Hour specials, great snacks at the bar, and plenty of good people make a great afternoon.
Even our friends from Chicago were out to #Voluntbeer with us!