FEATURE STORY - Partners for Sacred Places

UPDATE on Partners:
Exemplars Project
Since the publication of its pioneering Sacred Places at Risk study in 1998, Partners for Sacred
Places has worked to sustain the quantity and diversity of community services and programs
that congregations provide. That research, conducted in partnership with the University of
Pennsylvania’s School of Social Work, helped to quantify the value of congregations in their
communities. In recent years, recognizing the need to articulate the quality of those programs as
well, Partners’ staff has looked for new ways and new research to tell the story of community-serving
programs based in historic sacred places.
Launched with support from
the William Penn Foundation,
the Exemplars Project sought
to identify, spotlight, and build
awareness of congregation-based
programs and social services that are
particularly innovative, affordable,
and effective. This initiative,
which was piloted in Philadelphia
and presents opportunities for
replication nationwide, offers new
evidence — to members of both
the public and private sectors — of
the centrality of sacred places in
community life.
Neighborhood Bike
Works, hosted by St.
Mary’s Episcopal Church,
Hamilton Village, in
West Philadelphia, PA,
is an innovative youth
development program
that introduces kids to
a world of opportunities
through bicycles. In
after-school, weekend,
and summer classes,
participants ages 8-18
join in the Earn-a-Bike
program where they
learn about bike safety
and repair. After fixing
up bikes donated by
the community, the kids
graduate with a bike of
their own, a helmet, and
a lock.
Based on the preliminary
recommendations and criteria
established by an advisory group,
Partners engaged the Public Health
Management Corporation (PHMC)
to evaluate program quality in
seven program areas: after-school
programs; health promotion and
nutrition education; behavioral
health and addictions treatment;
programs serving the homeless;
older adult services; business and
community development; and
adult education. Characteristics of
exemplary programs in an eighth
program area — childcare — were
drawn from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania’s Keystone STARS
program, which is an initiative
of the state’s Office of Child
Development and Early Learning
to improve, support, and recognize
the continuous quality improvement
efforts of early learning programs.
The learnings from PHMC’s
research present tremendous
opportunities for congregations
looking to start or strengthen a
social service program in their
5 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Fall 2010