Philadelphia Youth Organization

The Philadelphia Youth Organization consists primarily of an all-volunteer organization formed in the spring of 1989. We were incorporated and received our 501(c)(3) status in 1990. Our United Way donor # is 7389. We first began with one baseball team located in South Philly at the Mary Anderson Recreation Center. Today we serve over 1900 youth with multiple programs consisting of Athletics, Educational, Travel Clubs, Summer Employment, Performing and Cultural Arts. What makes us different from most youth organizations, is that we are not restricting ourselves to a specific area or a particular group of children. While most youth programs, groups or agencies restrict themselves to dealing with maximum number of people within a specific area, it is our intention to bring our programs to all areas of the inner city. While other groups are often single-focused in their programs, and seek to expand only those programs, we offer a multi-program approach that is continually changing with the growing needs of the youth of Philadelphia. In addition to seeking to improve the quality of life of the youth of Philadelphia, our ultimate goal is to significantly reduce the crime rate, drug use, violence, teen pregnancy, school dropout rate, to help bring RESPECT to all, and to help bring HOPE to where their is none. Our mission and short-range goal is to help the youth of Philadelphia in under-served communities fight the violence, drugs, crime, dropout rate, teen pregnancy and hopelessness, that is so prevalent in today's inner-city youth. Philadelphia has about 241,000 children who are living in poor families and under served communities. Our long-range goal is to influence the youth of Philadelphia, to receive a good education, and to provide a positive environment as they grow and develop into tomorrow's adults.