Title
Congratulating Fab Youth Philly on the occasion of their 10-Year-Anniversary and honoring a decade of visionary, dedicated, and impactful work to empower teens and improve communities.
Body
WHEREAS, Fab Youth Philly is a youth development nonprofit founded in the belief that young people are valuable contributors to Philadelphia's collective fabric; and
WHEREAS, through grit, creativity, empathy, joy, and a lot of hard work, Fab Youth Philly has reached thousands of young Philadelphians and provided more than 600 work and learning opportunities to teens, many of whom are receiving these opportunities for the first time; and
WHEREAS, Fab Youth Philly was founded by Rebecca Fabiano, whose hard work, vision, and fierce commitment to the potential of Philadelphia’s youth along-side a devoted group of staff and volunteers is bringing to reality a more playful and engaged neighborhood where teens are leaders and valued members of the community; and
WHEREAS, Fab Youth Philly’s most popular initiative is the Play Captain Initiative where each summer, since 2017, 30-50 teens between the ages of 15 and 19 facilitate playful learning activities on multiple Playstreets in West Philadelphia, Hunting Park & Kensington. The Play Captain Initiative is a workforce development and civic-engagement program that empowers and trains teens in leadership, playful learning, and facilitation and pays them to go out into the community to Playstreets, playgrounds, and neighborhoods of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, Fab Youth Philly has played a key role in opening up Philadelphia’s public pools while providing teens with life-saving skills and income. For years, the City’s Parks & Recreation Department has struggled to open all public pools due to a lifeguard shortage. To fill that need, Fab Youth Philly has created a paid lifeguard skill-building course and a Learn 2 Swim program, where teens also learn workforce and communication skills. Fab Youth Philly helped the Parks and Recreation Department meet 20% of its hiring goals for the last three summers in a row; and
WHEREAS, Fab Youth Philly provides a wide array of programming, reflecting the organization’s can-do mantra, and a flexibility to meet the needs of the community and the passions of the teens. Fab Youth Philly created Little Library Steward positions to maintain community libraries; hosts an annual Cardboard Challenge; created a Babysitter Program to train teens in Red Cross Babysitting, Pediatric First Aid, and CPR; helps provide work permits for youth; created a database of youth serving organizations in Kensington; and most recently, created the Fab Fashion Boutique, a youth-run thrift store by youth, and for youth where teens are employed, develop business strategies, and can shop for donated items for proms, graduation parties, job interviews, summer internships and more; and
WHEREAS, Fab Youth Philly shows us what can be achieved, for our youth and our community when we invest in teens, listen and empower them, and center life-skills and joy in our neighborhoods; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Congratulates Fab Youth Philly on the occasion of their 10-Year-Anniversary and honors a decade of visionary, dedicated, and impactful work to empower teens and improve communities.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Fab Youth Philly as an expression of the gratitude and admiration of the Council of the City of Philadelphia.
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