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Frankford SafeSchools, Safe Neighborhood Social Contract
Ratified, June 24th, 2004
Negotiated by the Institute for the Study of Civic Values
To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, we, the principals and teachers, the community organizations and agencies, and elected
representatives serving Frankford, pledge to work together with students, parents, and community residents to build a safe and supportive environment in our schools and throughout the neighborhood.
To achieve this goal:
We pledge to build a Frankford Youth Safety Network, composed of school administrators, teachers, students, Home and School Associations, the police, human service
agencies, and community organizations dedicated to insuring the safety of young people in Frankford High School, Harding Middle School, Edmunds Middle School, Smedley Elementary School and other schools in the
area and to providing effective responses to youth violence wherever it occurs in the neighborhood.
Specifically:
The schools serving Frankford make a commitment to establish specific indicators related to safety and youth violence which will measure the work undertaken through this
social contract.
The principals and school administrators make a commitment to involve teachers and student leaders in the ongoing effort to reduce youth violence in and around each school campus.
The schools pledge to work with active parents, community organizations, and human service agencies to broaden the participation of parents in the Home and School Associations
and in the ongoing effort to reduce violence in the schools and the neighborhood.
The schools and community organizations will work to insure that all parents are aware of and support the Code of Student Conduct governing student behavior in school.
The schools and community organizations pledge to support the Student Social Contract and to work with the students to implement its recommendations.
School officials will make a commitment to work with community organizations to provide area-wide publicity on the availability of the dedicated phone line that residents
can call if they witness truancy or dangerous student behavior
The community organizations make a commitment to work with Operation Town Watch and work with the schools to establish a junior town watch as part of the program.
The community organizations, human service agencies, and faith based institutions in Frankford commit themselves to recruit volunteers for safe corridors around area schools as
students arrive in the morning and leave in the afternoon.
The community organizations and school officials make a commitment to help establish a safety network around the school to protect young people facing trouble in the
neighborhood and to identify churches, libraries, and recreation centers that can serve as Safe Havens for young people in Frankford.
The community organizations make a commitment to secure pledges from local businesses that they will post anti-truancy signs in their stores and report young people in the
neighborhood during schools hours to the truancy hot line.
The schools and groups serving the neighborhood pledge to work together to expand the range of positive programs available to young people in Frankford that can
provide positive alternatives to disruptive behavior and violence. The following steps will be taken to strengthen community values, encourage families to provide a stable home environment, and broaden citizen
participation in these efforts:
The schools will assign the maintenance of hallways, classrooms, and bathrooms to different student groups, with an incentive award offered at the end of each quarter to
encourage participation in the program
Frankford community organizations will work to create a Frankford Schools Greening Team that will work around the schools regularly to improve landscape and appearance.
The schools and the neighborhood organizations will work to insure that young people are aware of all after-school, recreational, cultural, and civic programs available to
them in Frankford and to encourage their participation in these programs.
The neighborhood organizations will sponsor a wide range of events aimed at bringing adult residents and young people together to improve the community, including a
Frankford Avenue clean-up day; Frankford, Harding, and Edmunds Parent Day dinners; and the Frankford Idol competition.
The organizations serving Frankford will work to aid and strengthen the Frankford Special Service District, by increasing volunteer participation and exploring new funding
sources for the Ambassador program, with an emphasis on involving young people and senior citizens in the ongoing work of improving the District.
We pledge to uphold the principle that violence will not be tolerated in either the schools or the neighborhood, and we will seek the active involvement of school-based and
community agencies in enforcing this principle and in insuring that young people behave in accordance with this standard.
Specifically:
The principals, teachers, and student leaders pledge a quick and effective response to disruptive behavior in and around the school and to support the removal of disruptive
students from classrooms and the school itself until they can function as responsible members of the school community. We will work to insure that programs are available to help disruptive students behave
responsibly in the schools.
We will encourage the development of programs that provide counseling to victims of violence.
The schools pledge to work with student leaders and community organizations to strengthen and reform the school court.
The school administration pledges to sponsor a quarterly student forum which will allow students, teachers, and administration to share their concerns and to develop strategies
to respond to disruptive and violent behavior in and around the school.
The school administration pledges to continue to work with the School Office of Climate & Safety, PAAN and other city-wide organizations and agencies in developing effective
strategies to reduce and ultimately eliminate violent and disruptive behavior in the schools.
The community and schools pledge to support the assignment of a school based probation officer in FrankfordHigh School to work with students under delinquent court supervision.
The school administration pledges to work with Education Works and community partner organizations to implement any of the following organizations that meet the needs of the
student body: the Anger Management Training Program, the Sister-to-Sister training program, the Student Resource Council, the Smart Program, and the Teen Court Division Program that currently work to prevent
violence from arising in the schools.
The Elementary and Middle Schools in Frankford will create a formal process at the end of the school day for students to resolve conflicts.
We support the development of programs and services available to young people and their families whose problems give rise to violent behavior.
The following steps will be taken to support the mental health and well-being of the greater Frankford community:
The Frankford Beacon Community Center pledges to develop programs that can help students cope with and respond to disruptive and violent behavior in the school and the community.
The schools and the community pledge to seek the support of the Department of Human Services sponsored program that enables DHS case managers to work in conjunction with school
based probation officers.
The community organizations will support the implementation of the Philadelphia Family Courts Parent Project in Frankford.
The schools and community organizations will strengthen their relationship with area Drug and Alcohol prevention programs to insure that all students and parents in the
Frankford community can take advantage of them.
The schools and community organizations will work together to broaden participation in youth mentoring and support programs in Frankford, both in and out of school.
All signatories to this social contract pledge to fight for increased City and State funding for programs aimed at helping young people make a positive contribution to the
community.
Frankford Social Contract Implementation
Created the Frankford Social Contract with 24 area organizations participating including the following:
4 Philadelphia public schools
9 community-based organizations
4 civic associations
7 city-wide agencies
For a complete list of participating agencies, contact ISCV at 215-238-1434.
Dwveloped a Frankford Student Social Contract with 32 high school students.
Created a Frankford Community Resource Guide with contacts and resources for youth and family support in the Frankford area.
Formed PhillyBlocks Frankford community email network to establish online dialogue between community members and to disseminate information concerning safety initiatives.
Established the Frankford Social Contract Advisory Team to implement and measure progress of social contract initiatives.
Developed indicators to measure progress of social contract initiatives.
Commitment from participating schools to provide the Advisory Team with monthly reports based on the following indicators:
Negative Indicators: school attendance, suspensions, assaults, # of student arrests, and cost of vandalism damage
Positive Indicators: community service hours, # of students engaged in extracurricular activities, # of students with jobs, # of parents in Home and Schools
Association, # of volunteers in school, and PSSA Test Scores
Planned the following community events: Frankford Avenue Clean-Up Day, Father & Son and Mother & Daughter Dinner for Frankford HS, Harding MS, and Edmunds MS, and
the Frankford Idol contest
Sent a letter on behalf of the Frankford Advisory Team to the Philadelphia Family Court advocating the need for a school-based probation officer to be placed at
FrankfordHigh School.
Coordinated the Philadelphia Family Court "Parent Project" to be instituted at a Frankford community site, with 3 Frankford community members successfully trained
as Parent Project Facilitators.
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