2022 Annual Report

In Local Public Schools

Our daytime Family Resource Center staff, based in Carnell Elementary school, support over 600 students, teachers, and parents. We've introduced trauma-therapy counseling, lunch groups, parent support, and Social-Emotional Learning in all 2nd & 5th grade classrooms.

Carnell now ranks in the top 10% most improved public schools in PA.*

After School Programs

Our After School Program received funding to multiply from 1 to 3 sites in 2022; we now serve 130 students in 2 Elementary Schools & 1 High School. Students are engaged in STEAM learning activities, and Social-Emotional Learning.

Teachers report improved behavior and classroom participation, and grades maintained or going up.**

FRC Infographic

*Footnotes at end.

Community Literacy

116 students & 8 volunteer teachers participated in our Adult Education classes. English language learners progress through 5 levels of ESL classes, to GED class, open to anyone wishing to get a high school diploma. In 2022, we added Digital Literacy classes help increase skills for workforce and job readiness.

Our 2022 GED graduates went on to get higher paying jobs, and enroll in higher education.

Early Childhood Literacy

Our Parents As Teachers program grew from 30 to 80 children in 2022, and was identified as a model site. Our multi-lingual staff mentor parents of kids ages 0-5 in their kids' literacy development, in our 5 key language groups: Arabic, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Spanish, and English.

Our Community Literacy Activities program hosts monthly fun literacy events for young families, led by multi-lingual staff, drawing up to over 100 children per month.

Employment & Household Economics

Pairing relief & development, we meet 180+ families weekly with food needs (4,237 families served to date), and use it as a point of connection to move people into long-term sustainable solutions through our workforce development program.

Of the 87 people we've helped with resume writing and job placement, we've hired 4 as key staff in our own programs!

Tax Program

In partnership with Campaign for Working Families, OCCCDA opened our first free tax prep site in 2022. Volunteers completed 223 tax returns, which returned about $274,000 to our community members in tax refunds.

We partnered with Councilmember Kendra Brooks to assist 14+ families in negotiating water/tax payments with the Revenue Department.

Business Corridor

Place-Making

A clean business corridor changes how our neighbors view our home and each other. We've partnered with city & state representatives* to create jobs for 9 workers to clean up trash, installed big belly trash compactor cans on street corners, and added artistic banners to street posts, creating a sense of identity and pride in our neighborhood.

650 families attended our Community Day festival, promoting our local economy, where we distributed gift certificates to 7 participating small shops & restaurants. Business owners are excited to report as a result, they're seeing an increase in customers.

Corridor Management

We share our expertise in writing grants, by coming alongside small businesses to help them do the same. We make the rounds to over 300 local businesses and we have assisted with over 25 grant and loan applications.

Receiving these grants has given store owners the capital to expand / improve their services and increase revenue.