• Education
• Human Services
• Culture and Art
• Community Development

Education

America On Wheels, Inc.
How Does That Engine Work?

Museum’s Little Wheelers Enjoying Putt-Putt, How Does this work?

Matt, Russel and Jordan Preparing to Work on the Engine Program

America On Wheels is a new transportation museum that opened on April 12, 2008 in Allentown, Pa. America On Wheels’ mission is to educate people and preserve the historical, social and cultural impact of our nation's over-the-road transportation systems, while contributing to the revitalization of its community. More than just a car collection, America On Wheels features bicycles, motorcycles, carriages and trucks, and documents the nation's transportation systems from its roots to the latest transportation technologies. The exhibits within this 43,000-square-foot museum are a balanced mix of highly interactive exhibits and magnificent vehicles.  An important aspect of the mission is to be a year-round educational and recreational institution. These programs will provide the opportunity for the children to gain additional exposure to science, math, art, history, music and movement, in a hands-on learning environment.

The Baum School of Art
Inner-City Neighborhood Scholarship Program

Students drawing in The Baum School of Art's Neighborhood Program

The Inner-City Neighborhood Scholarship Program originally grew out of an experiment conducted in cooperation with Lehigh Valley Hospital ’s Department of Community Health and Health Studies supported by The Pool Trust.  Children from inner city Allentown are introduced to various forms of the human experience, including self-expression related to emotional, perceptual, social and aesthetic awareness through a process of drawing, painting and sculpture.

Pinebrook Services for Children and Youth
“Making the Grade” Program

Ernestina Barsik (at left), Family Life Educator at Pinebrook Services for Children and Youth, and Rebecca, a middle-school student, during a weekly session of Pinebrook’s “Making the Grade” truancy-reduction, family-support pilot program. Through a 2008 grant from The Rider-Pool Foundation and other private funding sources, Pinebrook has been conducting the one-year demonstration phase of “Making the Grade” at two Allentown middle schools.

In 1979, Pinebrook Services for Children and Youth was started to meet the growing needs of children who experienced abuse, neglect, parental substance abuse, behavioral issues, and broken families. Today, over 2,000 children and families receive assistance each year through the agency's continuum of services, which include a host of adoption, foster care, behavioral health and other vital community-based services.

One of these programs, "Making the Grade," is a proactive truancy-reduction family support program for middle-school youth developed to respond to a critical community need identified by the Allentown School District's Home and School Visitors and District Justices.  "Making the Grade" addresses key predictors of truancy via a strong family-centered approach that engages the youth and family in a comprehensive assessment, case management and outcomes-supported services.

Lehigh University - Center For Developing Urban Educational Leaders
The Lehigh Valley Regional Urban Principal in Residence (UPIR) Program

“Saturday Scholars” Program at Central Elementary

Lehigh's Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders (CDUEL) is an incubator for innovative ideas and practices for improving the quality of leadership in urban schools to improve student learning. The mission of the CDUEL is to cultivate transformational educational leadership in urban communities, with a particular emphasis on small to mid-size urban communities. The work of the center includes conducting research, developing leadership competencies, and improving leadership practices that advance student learning and development.

Shiloh Community Services, Inc.
After-School Programs 

Shiloh Community Services, Inc. is a community service organization that was born out of the Shiloh Baptist Church of Easton.  Since its inception in 1995, Shiloh Community Services has developed and supported a number of programs that address the needs of their community. Many of the services focus on supervised youth education and recreation programs. They include tutoring, mentoring, computer training, family financial planning, and business skills training.  Shiloh’s After-School Program provides broad academic and etiquette developments that can address low self-esteem, develop problem-solving, decision- making and critical thinking skills and aid in the development of social interaction and communication skills.

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Everlasting Life Ministries, Inc.
Food and Clothing Distribution Center
America Garcia (Staff) at ELM Foodbank


Ramon Rivers (Staff) at ELM Clothing Bank


Pastor Gus Al-Khal at ELM Foodbank


America Garcia (staff) in ELM Clothing Bank

Everlasting Life Ministries has been serving the poor and underprivileged in Allentown for over 20 years.  They serve adults and children through their grocery distribution centers which are open on Tuesdays and Saturdays and distribute clothing to individuals.  Everlasting Life Ministries also prepares holiday meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

Fund to Benefit Children & Youth, Inc.
Ongoing Programs / Family Needs Program 

The Fund to Benefit Children & Youth, Inc. was established 14 years ago by several members of the Lehigh County Children and Youth Advisory Council who identified several needs of children that could not be met through traditional government funding. The Council provides enrichment opportunities (summer camp, education programs) to children from lower socio-economic families.

The Salvation Army - Allentown
Salvation Army Youth Programs

Youth tutorial session

A prime focus has been toward children of disadvantaged families from the very inception of the work of The Salvation Army in Allentown. The holistic approach to service seeks to meet a multiplicity of needs and simply make life better for young people so they may in turn have a chance to succeed in life.  The work of the Allentown Corps is focused primarily in proximate reach of the service facility located at 8th and Turner Streets. A very strong working relationship currently exists with Central Elementary School, where the majority of participants attend school.  The Salvation Army-Allentown provides many youth programs, such as Individual Tutoring, Learning Zone, Café SA, a source of nutritious snacks and meals for children using the Learning Zone, Community Center (Drop-In), Youth Basketball, Summer Day Camp, Camp Ladore, a week-long camp, Children’s Services (Foster Care and Adoption) and Christmas Toy Assistance.

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Culture and Art

Circle Of Stones Ritual Theatre Ensemble
“Bringing the Love to Allentown”
Pebble theatre kids from Central Elementary School

Performers of Gilgamesh

Circle of Stones Ritual Theatre Ensemble is a professional, nonprofit theatre company dedicated to using theatre as a means of catalyzing and inspiring positive community transformations. The ensemble consists of professional actors, dancers, composers, musicians and playwrights.

"Bringing the Love to Allentown" is a series of four initiatives which use the performing arts to assist with the revitalization of Allentown.  These initiatives include the production of the play “Gilgamesh” (6 shows at the Allentown Symphony Hall in June 09), Pebble Theatre (a children’s outreach program), Green Man Festival 2009 and monthly community gatherings that lead to a variety of community-empowered projects that benefit Allentown.

Lehigh University - Zoellner Arts Center
Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions / Edge Event: Dance Day

RIOULT performing "Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions"

Zoellner Arts Center offers theater, music and performing arts, ranging from mainstream and classical to the more avant-garde.  The program Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions was a project that consisted of an original music composition, original choreography, student workshops with significant potential impact on the final creative work, with a culmination of a performance.  Outreach workshops were held at local schools.  Elementary school students had the chance hear Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions, a story about a young man who wants to dance, his troubled relationship with his father, and a world of colored shapes who dance with him.  They then had the opportunity to turn their ideas into drawings, written vignettes or movement concepts that may influence the final production.  The students also had an opportunity to interact with Lehigh students involved in the outreach, set construction, costume creation and other technical aspects of the production.

The EdgeEvents series was conceived to break with convention and present the talents of new or alternative artists.  As part of that series, the center presented a day-long EdgeEvent entitled Dance Day.  The event featured morning workshops, site-specific performances, video game interaction, and a presentation by the highly inventive dance company, MOMIX, which integrates fantastic lighting, imagery, props and costumes with physical theatre and circus arts.

Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild
Whole Creative Community Initiative

"Whole Creative She" workshop circle. Northampton Community College, 3rd St., Beth., PA

The Guild was started in 1998 to promote the art of storytelling in the Lehigh Valley, and to refine the member's storytelling skills. They have presented numerous showcases, appeared at festivals, conducted story swaps and workshops. Members are professional and amateur storytellers, poets, actors, and others who benefit by the study of the art of storytelling and whose pleasure it is to practice this ancient art. Both experienced storytellers and newcomers are welcomed. 

Whole Creative Community Initiative focused on women’s wellness and the power of storytelling on women who have been affected by medical and social problems.  The storytelling provides women with a “voice” in their heath and well-being and teaches women about their “circle of wellness” that includes health, relationships, active minds, work/careers and spirituality.

Moravian College
Great Artist Series

Deborah Voigt performing at Moravian College’s Foy Hall

Deborah Voigt offering one-on-one instruction to a Moravian College student during her master class


Deborah Voigt offering one-on-one instruction to a Moravian College student during her master class

Moravian is dedicated to bringing a broad range of music to the Lehigh Valley and to increase interest in and appreciation of various music genres. Since 1996, Moravian College has offered its “Great Artists Series” to benefit the Moravian students and the Lehigh Valley community.  The latest featured artists have been soprano Deborah Voigt and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.  The artists expose students and Lehigh Valley residents to top-quality opera stars, who also offer master classes to Moravian College students, musicians and the general public.  The Great Artist Series is truly a unique experience, an opportunity to educate and inspire many music students and simultaneously entertain music lovers of all ages.  The concert and master class annually attract close to 500 attendees.

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Community Development

Alliance for Building Communities
The Doorway to Homeownership

Alliance for Building Communities' Doorway to Homeownership program rehabilitates blighted inner-city properties, and provides assistance to first-time homebuyers, of low-to-moderate-income, who wish to purchase a home of their own within the Lehigh Valley.  The program helps to restore safety, cleanliness and stability to previously neglected inner-city neighborhoods in Allentown.  ABC selects, acquires, and then renovates vacant and deteriorated properties, improving the condition of housing stock by meeting or exceeding current code standards and reducing overcrowding in housing units.  Blighted properties are renovated back into single-family homes and then the restored properties are sold to ABC clients.  ABC contributes to the economic stability in Lehigh Valley communities when the properties the agency rehabilitates are sold and returned to the tax rolls.  ABC also provides homeownership support to reduce the number of premature foreclosures for first-time homeowners.

Wildlife Information Center, Inc.
Lehigh Gap Nature Center Education Program
HawkFest 2008

Aliza Bodzin Releases a Tagged Monarch Butterfly


Adult Program - Tree Identification Workshop

Monarch Butterfly Workshop Led by 14-Year Old Corey Husic, Member of the LGNC Naturalists Club

Lehigh Gap Nature Center has developed a unique, highly effective set of environmental education programs. These programs are for students of all ages and include programs for pre-K - 12 schools, colleges and universities, and nonschool programs for adults, children, and families. They are based at or upon the 750-acre Lehigh Gap Wildlife Refuge and adjacent Lehigh River.  The educational goals of this program include:  An environmentally and ecologically literate citizenry; Increased support for conservation, parks, greenways, and open space; Better public health; Adequate numbers of well-trained scientists to study ecological and environmental issues; Leaders who understand the links betweens humans and their environment; Improved quality of life for the community; and Economic opportunities based on recreational use of natural resources.

Clean Water Fund
Lehigh Valley Model Ordinance Program

The Clean Water Fund helped introduce a series of model water protection ordinances to local Lehigh Valley municipalities for their consideration.  The primary focus of Clean Water Fund’s project is to educate community officials about municipal options for protecting local drinking water sources and to encourage them to take action.   The group has identified Lehigh Valley communities for which ordinance revisions would be most useful.  They have contacted and met with local stakeholder groups to discuss their needs and with local officials to educate them on what this program offers.

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