ABOUT US

A collaboration of HYPE, Jordan Heights Neighborhood Partnership, Allentown Weed and Seed, and the City of Allentown, the Allentown Youth Source is an online network and community designed to connect youth more deeply to activities and services offline.

This project is dedicated to increasing young people’s access to youth resources and programming within the City of Allentown—through a website

for youth planned, organized, and developed by youth. In addition, this initiative focuses on increasing young people’s engagement in the community, provide an avenue for positive self-expression, and work to promote young people as leaders for a healthier community.

Contact Us

For Providers

HYPE (Healthy Youth Peer Education)

Located within the Media and Communication Department at Muhlenberg College, HYPE creates a safe, positive environment where youth can partner with adult allies to identify and understand family, social and community factors that impact their lives in Allentown. Using creative arts, community media and public health methods, HYPE youth envision the future they want to be part of and the steps required to make it happen.

During a 4-week Summer Leadership and Digital Storytelling Academy and continuous after-school support, HYPE youth learn methods for positive self-

expression and critical thinking through storytelling arts forms, from theater and spoken word to digital storytelling and community organizing. HYPE youth work with a supportive network of peers and adults to learn the tools of effective communication, healthy boundaries, conflict resolution, and community networking to mobilize resources and effect change.

For more information about HYPE, please contact Jenna Azar at 610-704-2534 or jazar@muhlenberg.edu.

Allentown Weed & Seed

Allentown Weed & Seed is a strategy originally created by the federal government in 1991. The strategy brings together a large and varied array of resources in a comprehensive and coordinated effort to control drugs and crime and improve the quality of life in identified high crime neighborhoods.

The initiative’s name describes a two-pronged or two-strategy:

  • To “weed” out violent offenders using intensive law enforcement and prosecution efforts.
  • To “seed’ neighborhoods with prevention, intervention, treatment and revitalization services & activities.
Weed & Seed is a community driven initiative. The initiative calls for the recognition and development of community leadership within the neighborhood. Weed and Seed is a collaborative effort involving neighborhood residents, the public and private sector, and state/local government all working together on strategies to improve the neighborhood.

For more information about Weed and Seed, please call the:
Allentown Weed & Seed Site Coordinator at 610-437-7679
or visit our website: allentownweedandseed.org.

Jordan Heights Neighborhood Partnership

Jordan Heights Neighborhood Partnership’s plan is to improve the quality of life in the 24 square blocks of Jordan Heights. The initiative’s goals include; connect residents to better quality services and programs, improve the housing stock for current and future residents, improve the physical conditions of the neighborhood through greening and art projects and get residents involved in their community through improved relations with city agencies and the police department.

The Jordan Heights Neighborhood Partnership is a collaborative project organized by the Community Action Development Corporation of Allentown and the Housing Association Development Corporation.

It is funded by the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation and by Air Products, PPL, Wells Fargo Bank and Lehigh Valley Health Network, each of which receives tax credits from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Also active in the collaborative are the City of Allentown, Sacred Heart Hospital and various neighborhood groups.

Jordan Heights is the neighborhood bound by Linden Street to the south, Tilghman Street to the north, Seventh Street to the west and the Jordan Creek to the east.

Please contact Ellen Denizard, the neighborhood manager, at edenizard@caclv.org.

City of Allentown’s Department of Parks and Recreation

The City of Allentown’s Department of Parks and Recreation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and providing recreational
and leisure opportunities for individuals of all ages and abilities while fostering stewardship of the environment and city parks.

Media and Communication Department at Muhlenberg College

The Media and Communication Department at Muhlenberg College is dedicated to the convergence of media analysis and media production for social justice in a liberal arts setting.
Students from a Media & Communication class, “Citizen Journalism,” worked with the Youth Source teens on this project.

Special Thanks To