During Phase 1 of Leadership Lehigh, students will be placed into teams and have the opportunity to be paired with a local community agency in order to make a positive impact on the community. In these teams, students will work with their community agency to execute a project to benefit the community members targeted by the specified agency. This year, Phase 1 members will be working with:
- Hispanic Center
The mission is to identify, represent and respond to the needs, interests and concerns of the Hispanic community and the community at large.
Services Provided: Brand new food bank for South Bethlehem residents, Senior Citizen hang out space during the day, social service assistance, and a community garden.
- Bethlehem YMCA
Our mission is to be the Greater Bethlehem Area's community leader in providing the services to enhance family life, healthy lifestyles and to help our youth develop leadership qualities through values based on Christian principles.
Services Provided: Youth programs, wellness programs, and family programs.
- New Bethany Ministries
New Bethany Ministries is located in the heart of South Side Bethlehem. The mission is to provide care, services and facilities to the homeless, the hungry, the mentally ill and the poor with a level of quality that exceeds that of secular agencies.
Services Provided: Facilities for the Homeless, daily lunch soup kitchen, food bank, and educational programs for residents.
- Donegan Elementary
Donegan Elementary School is a place of realized potential that offers students the opportunity to learn and grow. It is a place that offers challenging work. It is a place that heals children with trust, caring, and forgiveness. It is a place that forgives the mistakes of growing up. It is a place of realized potential opening itself to change and keeps an open mind to the fact that potential is a mystery.
Services Provided: A brand new Community School with Lehigh University as the lead partner. A community school functions as active agents of change in the lives of students and families, with initiatives that recognize schools, strong families and healthy communities are intertwined. New programs are developing daily ranging from after school initiatives for children, to evening courses and activities for parents.
- Burnside Plantation
The mission of Historic Bethlehem Partnership is to bring history to life by educating the public about Bethlehem's rich heritage, by preserving historic sites, and by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting historical and artistic objects that can be used to tell the stories of Bethlehem's people.
Services Provided: Assistance with upcoming festivals, and historical preservation.
- Broughal Middle School
The mission at Broughal Middle School reads:
Understanding that diversity is our strength, we believe all students:
- should celebrate their uniqueness and that of others
- deserve a quality education regardless of race, gender or socioeconomic status
- can learn and achieve increased academic levels of success
Services Provided: A community School with Lehigh University as the lead partner. After school Initiatives for students would be a priority.
- Bethlehem Area Public Library: South Side Branch
BAPL has an extensive collection of recreational, informational and educational materials for the whole family. The library has served as a home away from home for generations of South Side residents. The importance of the library dates back to the early 1900s:
The Public Library is an absolutely essential part of the equipment of every city that undertakes to care for the real welfare of its people. It is the People's University, and its doors must be open to the public all the time, and every citizen, whether he or she happens to make direct personal use of the library or not, needs it—needs it for the welfare of the city as a whole, for the rising generation, for the possibilities of real advancement of the community's highest interest.
Paul De Schweinitz, Letter to the Editor
Bethlehem Globe-Times – October 28, 1924
Services Provided: Children’s Programming, Computer Access, and currently undergoing expansion program titled “Room to Grow” a major renovation project for the South Side Branch.
Victory House
Victory House is a nonprofit, community-based organization committed to addressing the problems of homeless men -- veterans and non-veterans between the ages of 18 and 65. The Victory House provides transitional housing and supportive services such as counseling, life skills education, medical care and employment assistance to males who have found themselves displaced due to recent incarceration, mental health or substance abuse issues or other related dependency problems. They also provide a comprehensive life re-education program designed to aid in a successful transition to self-sufficient living and insure success upon discharge.
Services Provided: Housing for men and daily dinner. Would be interested in having programs for the men on computer skills, and other life skills (ex. Accounting).