Our Youth Ambassador program is a high-impact place-based education program centered on environmental justice, civic engagement and the arts for middle school youth with ties to the Mantua community in West Philadelphia. In partnership with Mantua Civic Association, Philadelphia Contemporary and The Academy of Natural Sciences the program provides a hands-on approach of engaging middle school youth to work together in a meaningful way to shape their environment by utilizing the power of the arts.
Participation by the Youth Ambassadors is presented as a paid job and focuses on important 21st-century workplace skills such as collaboration, communication, creativity, and understanding the importance of civic engagement.
The program is centered at the pocket park located at the corner of 38th and Melon Streets. The park was founded in 2019, when the Mantua community came together to work with Kim Douglas, Director of Jefferson University’s Landscape Architecture Department, to transform a vacant lot. The transformation of this space included the creation of a canopy and area for gathering under the guidance of Tiny WPA. The community recognized that the park provided an opportunity to inspire a group of young people to participate in the care of their neighborhood and embrace the notion of civic and environmental responsibility.
The Youth Ambassador Program was first piloted by the Mantua Civic Association and Philadelphia Contemporary in 2021 and expanded in 2022 through a partnership with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. In spring/summer 2023 the program will enter its third year with Youth Ambassadors meeting weekly to explore environmental justice through the power of the arts.
Program topics have included studying the heat island effect & native plants and their relationship to pollinators, planting and growing vegetables and flowers, learning about different types of energy through hands-on activities and creating haikus on environmental justice.
The program concludes with a culminating event for youth ambassadors to be seen as civically engaged young leaders in their own community. This final event is a lively activation that celebrates the accomplishments of youth in the program while providing a platform for others in their community to engage and create together at the Melon Street Pocket Park.
