Sunrise After School Programs start next week, on Tuesday, September 4th. We are still accepting applications, and you can get yours online here. 

On August 2nd, our middle school students held a College and Career Fair at the Fleisher Art Memorial and it was a great success. Participating in college and career fairs can help youth express their interests and identify the steps to reach their goals. To see more photos from the career fair, see more photos of our programs, and stay up to date on events you can follow us online.

For over 10 years, Sunrise of Philadelphia has partnered with the Philadelphia Youth Network to provide summer work experience for high school students. These students are matched with sites, paid for their work, and gain valuable exposure to job experiences enabling them to build their resumes.

This summer, our high school students obtained on the job training and apprenticeship in upholstery thanks to the Philadelphia Youth Network and a partnership with CFI / Boomerang, "the East Coast's pre-eminent specialist in high quality, pre-owned office furniture." The student participants made their way to Pennsauken, NJ four times a week for their work and learned a lot about the different kinds of jobs needed to make an office run smoothly and look great. 

Boomerang principal, Joshua Smargiassi, believes opportunities can arise in unlikely places, so when he had the chance to start a company refurbishing office furniture, he jumped right in. When he spoke with our Executive Director, Vince Litrenta, recently about the lack of programs for youth to participate in job training he was inspired to offer his own opportunities to youth at Sunrise. "Take opportunities as they come."  Smargiassi said. "Don't let anyone tell you what your best opportunity is, you decide that for yourself and make the most of it from there." 

The Philadelphia Out of School Time Literacy Initiative identified the work of Sunrise as having a significant impact on our students' reading levels. For our students at Key and Southwark School, none were reading at or above grade level when starting the 2017-2018 school year. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our staff, by the end of the school year over 50% of our Southwark students were reading at or above grade level and every student at Key increased by more than one whole grade reading level. 

Did you know that reading together as a family not only helps children become stronger readers? With just 5 minutes of reading together a day, families can help children also develop stronger listening and critical thinking skills. Learn more about the benefits of reading together as a family at the Children's Literacy Initiative website.