Temple’s community gateway program connects local residents with university support

Darla Beasley met Shelbie Ulysse of Temple University’s Community Gateway program at a kickoff networking breakfast last year.

The gateway is designed to connect local residents and families with the university for a variety of programs, including educational programs, job training, healthcare, and small business development. Beasley told Ulysse she had a high school-age grandson who would like to be part of Temple.

Though Beasley has lived a few blocks from the university’s North Philadelphia campus since 1995 and taken classes through its lifelong learning program, she said she never realized the extent of what Temple had to offer or how to access it. She recalls decades ago wishing she could have sent her children there.

“I didn’t know, how do you get in there, what do you do?” said Beasley, 69, a retired Philadelphia Parking Authority analyst.

But since that community breakfast, Beasley and her family have become an illustration of how the program can work.

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Her grandson, a rising high school senior who looked out his window for years at the big university down the block and dreamed of attending it, is enrolled in a summer STEM and leadership program there. He also attended a program last summer, did a Saturday program during the school year, and will take dual enrollment classes at Temple this fall. Ulysse, who also is a Temple graduate student, coached him on how to apply.

Ulysse helped Beasley’s granddaughter, Briyell Leary, 22, apply to a Philadelphia Job Corps Center program where she just received her certified medical assistant’s credential; she’s now eyeing a nursing program, possibly at Temple. Another granddaughter took a course in small business development.

And Beasley’s daughter, Keiyona Abdullah, 42, who previously worked for Philadelphia’s traffic court, was hired to work for the gateway program as a “navigator,” helping to connect other families and community organizations with Temple. She had previously become a certified life coach and found the Temple job a perfect fit for her skills. Abdullah’s 12-year-old daughter is participating in Temple’s summer youth rowing program.

Beasley herself ended up taking basic computer classes on Excel through the school’s continuing education program.

“My family has really gotten a lot out of Temple,” Beasley said.

The Community Gateway effort came out of a 2022 task force recommendation that cited the links between violence and social and economic inequality and charged the university with trying to address structural disadvantage in its local neighborhood, said Valerie Harrison, vice president for community impact and civic engagement. A 2023 safety report by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey’s firm made a similar recommendation.

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The gateway launched a little over a year ago, and when John Fry arrived as president Nov. 1, he asked the team to increase its efforts, giving Harrison a new title and creating a new office of civic engagement.

Since its launch in May 2024, the program, with its full-time staff of four — three of whom live in the Temple neighborhood — has had contact with more than 3,400 people, Harrison said. It has more than 350 “active clients” and had received interest forms from nearly 500, Harrison said.

While the growing numbers are positive, program director Antonio Romero said his team sees success in each person reached and the ripple effect it can have, like in the case of Beasley.

“We pride ourselves in treating a stadium full of people just as much as ... a one-on-one interaction,” Romero said.

The gateway staff has a menu of several hundred programs for which it can offer potential connections.

They include educational selections, such as Temple Future Scholars, a mentoring and college-readiness program for public middle school students launched earlier this year, and its dual enrollment programs for high school students to take college classes for free. The university is helping residents brush up on basic skills and then connecting them with job training workforce development programs. Harrison said the hope is that local residents will get jobs created through Fry’s vision to spur more businesses and educational programming along the Broad Street corridor from City Hall to Temple’s health sciences campus.

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“We want to equip local residents to take advantage of those opportunities and so we’re going to train to the jobs that are coming out of that space,” Harrison said.

The school also plans to launch a new program aimed at connecting staff, students, and alumni with volunteer opportunities in the city and, in the case of staff, give them time off to participate. The school is building a database of opportunities this summer, Harrison said.

In addition, the school plans to train interested faculty and students to serve on nonprofit boards in Philadelphia, giving the university a larger civic presence citywide, she said.

To connect with local residents, gateway staff have set up lemonade stands outside their Cecil B. Moore Street office and manned tables at community and university events where they look for people like Beasley, eager to take advantage of Temple’s offerings.

Abdullah, Beasley’s daughter, said she invites those interested to come to the office for more information or to visit virtually.

“Sometimes people just want to have that conversation right there, and if we can, we do,” she said. “We meet them where they are.”

Last week, the team partnered with Temple’s Charles Library on its first ever open house for the community. The library for years has offered a variety of services to the public; they can access the internet, print, and scan for up to two hours a day, and are offered digital instruction. They can even self-publish a book. Staff members have helped visitors write resumés and apply for jobs and housing. Pennsylvania residents can borrow books.

But not enough people know about it.

“This is going to be the first of hopefully many instances where we have our arms wide open for our neighbors, our family, our friends,” Romero told attendees.

Among them was Sherry Tanksley, who works at at a local school.

“It’s an amazing opportunity for those of us that are in the community, that live in the community, yet understand that Temple is here, but don’t understand all of the resources that are available to them at Temple,” said Tanksley, a school social worker.

She said she came to the event to take what she learns back to parents, students, and teachers.

Kathleen Lyons, who lives in the community, has been involved with gateway for about a month and recently completed a computer course through Temple, which entitles her to a free computer.

“I’m getting my free computer tomorrow,” Lyon excitedly told the gateway staff.