 Early Learning Play Spaces planning team touring a space.Always Saving Space for Collaboration By Sarah Vrabic
Project Manager, PEC Everyday Learning Play Spaces The first collaborative Meet & Greet between Everyday Learning Play Spaces and The BELL Project was a success! On May 24th, BELL team members gathered with the Everyday Learning Play Spaces team on Zoom to facilitate “Play & Learning: Fun for Families and the Developing Child.” Parents staying in housing assistance programs with their children, the staff from those programs, and staff from high quality early childhood education programs joined us to play games and learn new ways to integrate play and learning into their daily lives.
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 To Prevent or Not to Prevent Homelessness – That is the Question, Philadelphia!Rachel is a single mom of 3 children, all of whom have disabilities. She owed five months of past-due rent and was being taken to court in three weeks for eviction when she reached out to PEC’s Homelessness Prevention Program. She lacked the ability to pay back all that debt and was preparing to be evicted and enter emergency shelter.
 Children Cannot Wait Campaign Update: Leadership from PA Senator Vincent Hughes, and US Senate Candidates Malcolm Kenyatta and Conor LambA trend that concerns the Children Cannot Wait Campaign is that from 2011 through 2019, the number of school-aged children experiencing homelessness in our commonwealth jumped from 28,000 to more than 40,000. A quarter of those are younger than school age. At this rate of growth, PEC estimates that Pennsylvania could identify more than 50,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness by 2026.
 Housing Challenges Facing Our FamiliesJade and Mark (their names have been changed to protect their privacy) have three children and have been struggling to keep up with rent. They are both employed, but their hours were cut drastically due to the pandemic. They often went weeks without any income. As a result, they fell behind on their rent payments and were served a notice to vacate by their landlord in January.
PEC was able to pay their entire debt and work with their landlord to remove the threat of eviction. Since receiving rent assistance, Jade and Mark went back to work. They are now able to move forward without fear of losing their home. Upon exiting the program Jade said, "Thank you so much. This is so appreciated. Everything is falling into place because of your continued help and my faith. Thank you.” |