Two high school students crouch together on the second floor of a two-story row house.

Dominic, from Edison High School, and Dominique, from Franklin Learning Center, share a microphone as they record a radio segment using Audacity sound editing software.

The topic? School, of course — teachers, uniforms, homework.

The youth are participating in Open Borders’ Youth Radio Project, a special program dedicated to helping young people share ideas and develop a voice of their own through the production of digital stories. Participants in the program acquire technical skills and learn to utilize their cultural identities to develop literacy and leadership abilities.

Founded in 2001 as an initiative of Christ and Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, located near Sixth and Venango streets in North Philadelphia, Open Borders is a community-based non-profit organization committed to empowering and educating its constituency of low-income families and individuals.

“We’re starting at the ground level to put on a radio show,” said Renita Burns, the Temple University senior political science major who teaches the radio course. “We start with interviewing techniques and how to use the equipment, and we are working toward posting podcasts and audio blogs.”

Last year, Burns worked with six participants ages 12 to 16. In addition to developing their technical skills, the participants polish their people skills. They visit local radio stations and invite guest speakers to discuss careers in the media.

“The kids are really working hard and having fun. Sometimes I can’t get them to go home once they’re here. But I don’t think they fully appreciate that they are really on the cutting edge of a new technology. I keep telling them, ‘don’t you know how marketable you are going to be?’ Some day, they’ll understand,” said Burns.

Scene 2:

A group of elementary school students passes by an inconspicuous storefront at 1430 W. Susquehanna Ave., located just off Temple’s Main Campus — the home of Tree House Books. They drop in to say hello. Darcy Sebright, director of Tree House, hands out permission slips for an upcoming field trip to see Sleeping Beauty at the Arden Theater in Philadelphia’s Old City section.

“I think my mom will want to come,” says one student. “Can she come, too?”

“Of course,” Sebright responds.

“What’s your name?” Sharon Turner, a neighborhood volunteer, asks one of the youth whom she doesn’t recognize. Apparently, he has come in with one of his buddies from school.

“Would you like to join us for the trip?” she adds.

Tree House Books is a non-profit initiative founded in January 2005. The mission of the bookstore is to stimulate a literary culture — a culture marked by creative community projects, family emphasis on reading and writing, and the availability of quality low-cost books — in its surrounding North Philadelphia neighborhood.

During its two-and-a-half years, Tree House has partnered with nearby Duckrey Elementary to develop creative after-school programming for kids, such as a Young Writers Workshop. This year, in addition to sponsoring field trips, Tree House holds a morning story hour for pre-schoolers, after-school tutoring time, monthly interest events such as author birthday parties, and a weekend chess class for all ages.

“We see ourselves as a family literacy center — with a used bookstore as our base,” says Sebright, the director. “This is a place to have conversations. We are not imposing ourselves on the community, but developing strategies with them to discover and meet their needs.”

A unifying theme

Both programs are the beneficiaries of a $24,500 grant from Verizon to Temple University’s New City Writing: Institute for the Study of Literature, Literacy and Culture. New City Writing will use the grant to recruit, train and supervise Temple students who conduct literacy-related activities at both non-profits. One premise of the institute is that helping others in literacy-learning activities enhances university students’ learning and attainment of professional goals. In addition, the grant will enable Temple to rent space adjacent to Tree House Books for showcasing performances and for developing a rich variety of projects with the community.

The brainchild of Eli Goldblatt, associate professor of English at Temple, New City Writing grew out of his interest in demonstrating that it is possible to do principled academic work and still be involved in the community. With this as its goal, the institute is pioneering a new model for community engagement. Goldblatt’s model places literacy instruction within a network of relationships across an array of institutions and organizations.

To this end, the institute has imagined and implemented a number of projects, including publishing community-based books and journals and developing media- and arts-based projects in partnership with neighborhood non-profits, such as Art Sanctuary and Asian Arts Initiative. The institute operates writing centers at two area public elementary schools, where two Temple graduate students in English supervise more than 20 Temple undergraduate education students, working with more than 100 children, each semester. Last year, the institute’s new summer program for teens, the Temple Writing Academy, worked with more than 60 high school students during a four-week program on critical and creative writing.

Now in its 11th year, New City Writing has been supported by grants and gifts totaling $1.5 million, including a series of grants from the Knight Foundation reaching $1 million.

“The whole idea behind the Knight grants was to develop an institutional commitment inside the university that connects to a strong presence outside the University,” explained Goldblatt. “Not only did the grants allow us to fund community projects, but more importantly, they enabled us to develop a conceptual model for working within the community.”

It started with lunch

In an age when everyone is talking about social and professional networking online, Goldblatt is building his network the old-fashioned way — in face-to-face conversations that lay the foundation for real partnerships and real success.

Goldblatt outlines his model for capacity-building within a community in his new book, Because We Live Here: Sponsoring Literacy Beyond the College Curriculum, from Hampton Press. The book contains the influential essay "Alinsky's Reveille: A Community-Organizing Model for Neighborhood-Based Literacy Projects," for which Goldblatt was named the 2005 winner of the prestigious Richard Ohmann Award.

Figuring prominently in Goldblatt’s award-winning essay and accompanying Goldblatt to the award dinner was Manuel Portillo, director of the Open Borders Project.

In many ways, the relationship between New City Writing and Open Borders acts as the model for all of Goldblatt’s community literacy efforts. It’s a model based on making connections and forging relationships across disciplines and beyond campus.

Significantly, this relationship began not in one of Temple’s buildings, but at a lunch counter around the corner from Portillo’s North Philadelphia office. The pair left their first, impromptu meeting with no particular plan — just a notion for how they might work together.

“From the beginning, working with Eli has been a success because he is interested in true collaboration, not just in placing something in the community that represents Temple’s interests,” said Portillo.

Today, six years later, Goldblatt serves as chair of Open Borders’ board of directors, and New City Writing provides funding and guidance for various projects, among them the Youth Radio Project.

“Eli is great at just putting people in touch and building powerful and empowering relationships. It’s hard to accurately quantify the extent of his contribution because he really serves as a catalyst. Every time you meet with him, he says, ‘You should talk to so-and-so,’” said Sebright.

His method is similar to the way one writes a poem, added Sebright — poet being one of Goldblatt’s other hats. His community work evolves organically from attention to the process.

A good example of the organic process Goldblatt follows in constructing his web of relationships is the story of Tree House Books’ new Playhouse. Scheduled to open officially this spring in available space adjacent to Tree House Books, where Goldblatt also serves on the board, the Playhouse will bring an intimate, flexible, storefront theater to Broad Street and Susquehanna Avenue for use by the bookstore, Temple’s Theater Department and the neighborhood.

When asked how she got involved in the Playhouse project, Roberta Sloan, professor and chair of the Theater Department at Temple University, explained, “Eli approached me one day after a committee meeting. We are thrilled by this opportunity to break through departmental barriers and to work with the community.”