This story is part of “Paths for Youth,” a three-part series focusing on organizations that empower Kensington teens through workforce development, mentorship, and mental health support. This reporting was supported through the HEAL Fellowship program of the Solutions Journalism Network.

For the past two summers, 18-year-old Nayelis Laracuente has spent her time playing with kids in Kensington and getting paid for it. This is her first job, and she says it’s boosted her confidence and made her feel like she has a better chance at job seeking in the future.

“I feel like I've been more open to talking about my ideas to other people,” she said.

Since 2017, Fab Youth Philly has supported over 500 teens and young adults in the city through summer and after-school job opportunities, workshops, training, and field trips to colleges with guest speakers. The organization also offers lifeguard training and Red Cross babysitting certification programs throughout the year.

Fab Youth Philly’s most popular initiative is the Play Captains program. Each summer, the organization hires up to 30 teens between the ages of 15 and 19 to lead play groups on multiple streets in the city, including many in Kensington. The teens, called ‘Play Captains’, break into teams of five and engage with younger children who live on the chosen streets, leading games like basketball and tag, as well as activities such as science experiments and storytime on the sidewalk.

Some folks in the neighborhood recognize Play Captains by their red shirts and shake their hands as they walk by, or wish them a good day at work.

Fab Youth Philly is one of a small number of youth-serving organizations in Kensington that pays teens for meaningful work – a strategy that experts say is key to improving economic mobility in this low-income, high-crime neighborhood. 

The starting salary for Fab Youth Philly’s teen jobs is $15 an hour, which is more than twice the Pennsylvania minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Founder Rebecca Fabiano says that this was an intentional decision.

“We really want to think about how we are setting young people up to either expand the pathway that their families are on, or change the direction altogether,”  she said.

In 2023, Fab Youth Philly created a database for youth-serving organizations and programs operating in Kensington. The database categorizes only Fab Youth Philly and Hope Works as workforce development, meaning only 4% of all neighborhood youth groups they inventoried had a jobs component. 

The lack of workforce development programs and job opportunities for youth is not just specific to Kensington. With recent federal funding cuts for nonprofit organizations, groups across the city now require increased support to serve more youth.

It’s a crucial issue in neighborhoods with low median incomes and high rates of crime, said Oren Gur, the Director of Research at the District Attorney's Transparency Analytics (DATA) Lab,

“Investing in community based organizations that prevent violence will reduce the amount of work that people in [the District Attorney's Office] have to do,” he said.

One-fifth of 15-19-year-olds in Philadelphia live on or around blocks with the highest recorded number of shootings, according to the Lab’s analysis. Some of the streets are in Kensington. 

Roughly 18,50074 youth jobs would be needed to employ all of the teens in these areas, which would require $55,722,000 to pay them $15 an hour for 20 hours for the summer (10 weeks), Gur said.

Gur notes that increasing the number of jobs would benefit the teens themselves and the city overall.

“Most people know a 15 to 19-year-old who would benefit from one of these summer jobs,” he said. “This type of preventative work and coordination is really needed and often, unfortunately, for a range of reasons, not there.” 

Helping kids play safely

Another significant challenge for programs like Fab Youth Philly’s Play Captains and Kensington youth initiatives in general is safety. 

In 2023, Fab Youth Philly was forced to shut down playstreets on certain streets due to concerns about drug and violence-related crimes. Blocks affected included the 2900 block of Kip St., the 800 block of E. Hilton St. and the 2000 block of E. Orleans St. 

Fabiano said that she was only able to hire 25 teens that summer, which is one team less than what she had planned to serve that year. 

“Children who live on those streets didn’t get the benefits of having Play Captains,” Fabiano said.

Some of this year’s Play Captains shared with Kensington Voice their concerns about the summer play in the neighborhood, not just for themselves but also for the children they serve. 

They spoke about the struggle of using public transportation amid the open-air drug market, and about their safety concerns surrounding gun violence.

Laracuente said she felt unsafe on her commute to the worksite.

“It’s really bad getting down here,” she said. “Sometimes, I'm walking and I see a whole group [of people] down the street. I just move to the other side of the street and keep going. Hopefully, they won’t stop and say something to me.”

But meeting up with her peers and group leader helps her feel comfortable while working, she said.

Fabiano says that the organization created strategies like walking the teens from the bus/train drop-off location to the worksite. The Play Captains also use shopping carts to carry supplies and play loud music while traveling for visibility and safety.

The organization also holds events in the neighborhood and introduces youth to other local organizations to build connections between them and other community members or future jobs.

“There's so much on the ground, walking through Kensington, that makes it a challenge and makes it feel overwhelming, disheartening,” Fabiano said. “We try to, you know, just help navigate safely through the neighborhood.”

Long-term impact

Fab Youth Philly tracks its success with youth through pre- and post-programming surveys. According to its data on the Play Captains program, 85% of the teens the organization has served had no prior job experience. 

Teens who participated in Fab Youth Philly also reported that they enjoy being play captains because they can help younger children in the neighborhood reduce summer slide, or the learning loss that occurs for many children during the summer months.

According to Fab Youth Philly’s data, the Play Captains initiative has long-lasting effects on the children living on the play streets as well. In summer 2022, Play Captains spent 45 minutes leading playful learning activities on the play streets. After the Play Captains left for the season, children continued to show positive emotions, increased social and physical activity, and used high-quality language.

Jose Cosme, who is 15, says being a Play Captain has taught him a great deal of patience and allowed him to help shape the next generation of kids.

“It helps to build the community, and you become a good role model for the little kids on the street.”

A 2023 study by Education Next, Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) found programs like the Play Captains initiative increase on-time high school graduation, encourage better work habits and boost youth’s employability and family finances. Youth who participate in SYEPs are 11.4% more likely to report saving for college, compared to 7.1% of youth who do not, and are more likely to exhibit job readiness behavior.

There are other programs that pay youth to work during the summer with a similar model to Play Captains, such as Career Connected Learning PHL(C2l-PHL), which oversees the general summer youth employment program for Philadelphia. Through C2L-PHL, teens are connected to other organizations and businesses, where they can work in positions such as Youth Camp Counselor at a local summer camp or recreation center.

But SYEPs on their own have shown no increase in rates of formal sector employment for the average participant after the program ends, according to research done by Poverty Action Lab. The Poverty Action Lab pointed to emerging research suggesting that adding post-program job search resources may improve longer-term employment outcomes.

Fab Youth Philly connects teens to other jobs, training and education through introducing them to organizations like College Together, HopeWorks and the Community College of Philadelphia. Fab Youth Philly’s adult staff also regularly reviews and helps alumni update resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and can connect the teens with professionals to conduct Informational Interviews.

Fabiano is trying to learn more about what happens to Fab Youth Philly teens after they leave the program.

“We don’t currently track youth after they’ve completed participation in Fab Youth in any formal ways; having a formal mechanism is something we’re working on and preparing to implement.”

The Play Captain teens believe that the organization is also ensuring brighter futures for kids on play streets, and for the neighborhood as a whole. 

“They’re like the light in Kensington right now,” Laracuente said.

Leilani Lozano, 15, says that the kids she sees on the play streets inspire hope and playfulness in her while she works.

“They're the future police officers, the future firefighters. So it's cool to think about the fact that these kids are going to be something one day,” she said. “They just bring out the kid in you.”

Have any questions, comments, or concerns about this story? Send an email to editors@kensingtonvoice.com. Or call/text the editors desk line at ‪(215) 385-3115‬.