Philly Bridge & Jawn (PB&J) is the brain child of Bryan Belknap, LEAP’s youth advocate and leader of the after-school program at McPherson Square Library for the past 7 years. Through this work Bryan has gained a close understanding of the barriers preventing our teens from breaking the cycles of poverty and violence that plague the Kensington community. PB&J will work to address the gaps in our systems and remove the barriers that are preventing our teens from accessing valuable and life-changing resources available in the community. We will do this by creating a safety net and providing a much needed pro-social resource for local teens who are uniquely vulnerable to the daily stressors of poverty, crime, and limited access to green spaces and healthy food.
The KCRF grant will allow PB&J to pilot this program through 2 programs (on in the Spring and one in the Fall) which will bring a group of up to 20 teens together, help them form social bonds and introduce them to youth-serving organizations working in the neighborhood. PB&J will be highly collaborative, and this grant would launch the first of these collaborations with NKCDC’s Nourish program. Nourish works with local partners to increase healthy food access through cooking demonstrations, nutrition education, meal preparation workshops, and policy recommendations. Nourish is deeply committed to the goals of creating community through meal sharing and an emphasis on culturally relevant, vibrant, and healthy meals.