The Temple Community Gateway, launched in May 2024, serves as a central touch point for residents of the North Philadelphia community to connect with resources and services offered by Temple. Located on the fourth floor of Temple’s Entertainment and Community Education Building (ECEC) at 1509 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue, one of Temple’s neighbors endearingly describes the Gateway as “the middleman to the plug.” The Gateway is connecting residents to opportunities for job training and placement, summer programs, youth and adult education, health and wellness, small business development, and art and music programs. The Gateway has already reached over 1,000 neighbors, increasing awareness and utilization of the programs offered across the university.
Recently, a neighbor attended a meeting of area religious leaders organized by Director of Community Outreach and Hiring, Michael Robinson of Temple’s Lenfest Center. The neighbor is a grandmother and guardian of one of her grandchildren. In the past, she had attended Temple’s Pan African Studies Community Education Program (PASCEP) classes and had a great experience. However, she was having difficulty connecting with other Temple programs, especially for her grandchildren. She met Temple Community Gateway's Shelbie Ulysse at the meeting of area religious leaders, and they quickly exchanged contact information. The Gateway connected one of her grandchildren, a high school student, to the College of Science and Technology's (CST) STEM Up Leadership Experience this past summer. The student loved the summer program so much that he will be continuing with one of CST's STEM programs offered during the school year, and he aspires to be a full-fledged Owl upon graduation. Within the same family, another grandchild was searching for job training. Shelbie connected her to a Certified Nursing Assistant program at Philadelphia Job Corps. She has been accepted into the program has begun her journey to obtain her professional credentials.
In addition to providing direct services, the Gateway is fostering collaboration among the colleges, departments, schools and administrative units across Temple’s Main and Health Sciences campuses that lead community-facing programs.There have been early successes, as faculty members have joined forces to pursue grants and to help build capacity for a local North Philadelphia nonprofit organization working to break the cycle of generational poverty. And the Gateway team quickly took note that many neighbors were interested in entrepreneurship, particularly those who were returning to North Philadelphia after a period of incarceration. That’s when the Fox School of Business got involved and offered to provide an entrepreneur course for a community cohort of returning citizens. The City of Philadelphia came alongside and will pay the course tuition.
And, the new Community Engagement Database has launched! It is available to all TUPortal users and lists all of the programs placed in the database by members of the collaborative. This database will help the university advance equity and deepen relationships with neighbors by connecting them to several hundred opportunities. The Gateway may still be in its first year, but it’s reaching significant milestones and positioning itself to take big steps in the future.
The Gateway is an important part of Temple’s story. It is a family story. As one neighbor shared, “I appreciate having a center like this. It’s a difficult road. Thanks for all your help.” Temple remains committed to creating lasting relationships and pathways that offer meaningful resources and services to our neighbors. The feedback from neighbors has been an important part of getting started and planning the path forward, including one neighbor who shared, “Thank you. I appreciate it and I'm going to continue to stay in contact with you while we build the future!”