The so-called “Matchmakers of Community Service” have arrived.
This fall, United Service Consulting — a student-run and newly founded consulting group focused on designing community service initiatives — will test its new model in a partnership between the Intercultural Leadership Program and KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School, located at 5900 Baltimore Ave.
ILP will be U-Serv’s first client, but in the future, explained Wharton sophomore and U-Serv Vice Chairman of Operations Triston Francis, the group hopes to work with various student organizations to develop community service initiatives that build and strengthen partnerships with Philadelphia non-profits and charities.
Founded by College sophomore and former-ILP participant Haywood Perry, U-Serv launched its operations and assembled its first executive board early last month.
“Student organizations want to do community service and service is something that is beautifully influenced here at Penn,” Perry said. “We are filling a void by designing community service projects specifically tailored to individual campus organizations.”
And U-Serv is already up and running. U-Serv has coordinated a partnership between ILP, KWPP and the newly-founded Penn chapter of First Book, an international project that supplies new books to underprivileged children. Through the partnership, members of Penn cultural groups will read culturally themed books to students at KWPP.
“ILP came to us and said, ‘We have 25 amazing international students and 25 domestic students who were coming together and learning about culture,’” Perry said. “They explained that ... they wanted [the students] to contribute their cultural interaction right here in our backyard.”
According to Perry, U-Serv was “captivated” by KWPP’s model, which requires its students to participate in extra-curricular activities every other Saturday, and will specifically target those weekends for ILP participants to work in the school.
According to University Chaplain Chaz Howard, U-Serv is “a testament to the creative and innovative spirit that emerges from Penn students.”
He said U-Serv will make things a bit easier for Penn community service groups that wish to foster relationships with Philadelphia service-based organizations.
“You can never have too many service agencies on campus,” Howard said. “But sometimes building that bridge between institutions that aren’t traditionally service-centered to non-profits and other places off campus isn’t always easy.”
The initiative designed by U-Serv in collaboration with ILP has also received tremendous praise from KWPP administrators, most notably School Leader Shawna Wells.
“My students are in school from 7:30 to 5:00 p.m. working hard to climb the mountain to college,” Wells wrote in an e-mail. “Having mentors in the building to teach our kids about the world will be invaluable and something they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
