Our Approach

We award Fellowships to exceptional individuals who work within and alongside youth-serving systems to catalyze change.

Our Fellows undertake projects that enhance how systems work together, improve practice, and generate new knowledge through action-oriented research. By investing in individuals, we are cultivating the leadership and ideas that can have long-term impact in the Greater Philadelphia region and beyond.

We award two types of Fellowships to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners:

We believe youth-serving systems are most effective when they:

  • are responsive to the unique needs of each young person
  • collaborate and coordinate their activities
  • adopt culturally competent, trauma-informed, and developmentally appropriate approaches
  • incorporate best practices and recommendations from evidence-based research
  • recognize structural inequalities and design policies and practices to dismantle them
  • value and use data to inform decision-making

Vision | Mission | Values

We envision a society in which every young person, regardless of circumstance, has the opportunity to thrive. Our mission is to improve the life outcomes of our community’s youth by advancing change in the systems that serve them, including youth justice, child welfare, education, and health.

Individuals

We believe in the power of individuals to effect social change.

Action

We are pragmatic and have a bias toward action.

Expertise

We respect the expertise and experience of our systems partners and the young people they serve.

Collaboration

We collaborate with our Fellows to solve problems and shape strategy.

See How We’re Advancing Change

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