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About Us


Since 1987, CLC has served more than 6,000 adult and teen learners. CLC fosters personal growth, economic self-sufficiency, and the pursuit of lifelong learning. We help our learners not only to seek employment and admission to college and job training programs but also to overcome difficult societal and personal issues — poverty, crime, violence, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, discrimination, and domestic abuse — that often impede the attainment of goals.

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Family Reading Book

CLC Core Values


Access to Education

CLC values access to education for all students and their families. We promote individual growth and community change through lifelong learning.


Mutual Responsibility

CLC fosters a shared commitment to learning with an expectation of excellence for both teachers and students.


Respect

CLC respects the life experience that learners bring into the classroom. We provide a nurturing place for learning and sharing, with curricula that are sensitive to our students' needs.


Holistic Approach to Teaching and Learning

CLC meets learners' needs by using student-centered teaching techniques, with an emphasis on individual attention. Our holistic approach honors teachers as learners and learners as teachers.
Jose Marrero 2009 Graduates
 Elise at Falstaff
Linda and Barbara Dale LaShainnia

CLC Programs


Education Program 

Community Learning Center provides no-cost instruction in Adult Basic Education and  GED Preparation. Classes are held at several community locations. In addition, CLC participates in the state's Move Up initiative and is a Pennsylvania Workforce Improvement Network (PA WIN) affiliate.


Student Support Services Department

With the guidance of CLC's transition and life skills counselor, students explore career interests and set self-directed goals. Our counselor helps students acquire life and employability skills and advance to job training, college, or other post-secondary education. Our counselor endeavors to communicate with former students to gauge CLC's impact and to assist those still in transition. We counsel our students about issues that may be obstacles to attendance at CLC and the attainment of financial self-sufficiency and other goals. We inform students of, and link them with, additional community resources that can provide further support.

Literacy Initiative

Striving to end the debilitating cycle of low literacy that is passed from parent to child, CLC advances family literacy by building home libraries for the youngsters in our students' homes. Through book drives and grants from foundations such as First Book, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own new books, we acquire and distribute children's literature. We teach caregivers the importance of reading to children, and we explain, through book talks and storytelling, how to select and read literature to youngsters. By reading to children, our adult learners improve their own skills, too.

Pennsylvania Workforce Improvement Network

As a Pennsylvania Workforce Improvement Network (PA WIN) affiliate, Community Learning Center provides customized foundation skills training for employees in the workplace. CLC works with Pennsylvania CareerLink, local Workforce Investment Boards, and employers, assisting them in assessing employers’ and workers’ foundation skills and designing high quality, customized foundation skills training programs to meet those needs. Foundation skills are those skills employees need to be effective and safe in their work environment. CLC can also customize a workplace language program for employees who speak English as their second language.

Who We Are

CLC Students


CLC is based in North Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, which bears the 19134 zip code. 

In 2005, the birth rate among girls ages 15-17 in the 19134 area was 76 per 1000. This rate was the highest of the city's 42 zip codes and was substantially higher than the overall citywide rate of 43 per 1000.

Of all Kensington families, 28.3% are headed by single women. Of those families, 50% live below the poverty level, compared with 32.2% of families headed by single women citywide.

Of the 10 largest U.S. cities, Philadelphia has the highest poverty rate. In Kensington, 38% of individuals and 33% of families live below the poverty level, compared with 22.9% of individuals and 18.4% of families citywide. In 2007, the estimated unemployment rate in Kensington was 18.4%, compared with 12.7% citywide.

From 2002 to 2006, the number of gunshot victims ages 7-24 in Kensington rose by 84%. In 2006, there were 254 juvenile drug arrests in 19134—more than in any other Philadelphia zip code.

Only 53.4% of Kensington adults age 25 and older have a high school diploma, compared with 71.2% citywide; 13.8% of Kensington adults age 25 and older have less than a ninth grade education, compared with 7.5% citywide.

In 2005-2006, the public high school dropout rate in the region formed by the Kensington, Bridesburg, and Richmond neighborhoods was the highest of the city's 11 regions; 35.9% of first-time ninth graders dropped out of public school before graduation. Only 47.5% of first-time ninth graders graduated from public high school in four years, and the public school average daily attendance was 85.3%—the lowest such rates of any region.

Twenty-two percent of Philadelphia's adults lack everyday literacy skills.

(Above statistics are from Community Report Cards 2007, Mayor's Commission on Children; U.S. Census 2000; Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/30/07; National Center for Education Statistics Literacy Survey, 2003; Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/9/2009)


GED Graduates


CLC students who obtain their GED are honored at our annual Awards and Graduation Ceremony. Our graduates have gone on to post-secondary education, job training programs, and career-path employment.

CLC Professionals

Our team's talent, dedication, creativity, and commitment to our mission make our program a success.

Ruth Greenberg

Ruth  teaches Adult  Basic  Education/GED. Ruth earned a B.A. in Spanish  and  anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.B.A. from Emory  University, and an M.S. in elementary education from St. Joseph's University. Ruth previously served as a CLC volunteer, and for 22 years she was co-owner and president of The Accent Group, customizing international educational programs for graduate business schools throughout the United States.  		Carol S. Miller

Carol Miller serves as associate director and an Adult Basic Education teacher. She received a B.S. in Education magna cum laude from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and she earned an M.B.A. from Villanova University, where she was a member of the Phi Kappa  Phi and Beta Gamma Sigma National Honor Societies. A former middle school language arts teacher, Carol had a 25-year career in management at a large corporate law firm. She has also had broad and in-depth experience as a volunteer for nonprofit organizations, domestic and international.
Patricia Haggerty

Patty Haggerty serves as transition and life skills counselor in our Student Support Services Department, and she teaches Adult Basic Education/GED. She earned two bachelor's degrees from Rutgers University, one in art and the other in biology. A trained teacher, Patty has experience in adult, elementary, and preschool education. In addition, she has management experience. Before joining our staff, Patty served as a volunteer at CLC.

Rebecca Serfass Wagner

Becky Wagner, executive director, holds a B.A. in medical technology from Shippensburg State University, an M.S. in medical technology from the State University of New York, Buffalo, and a D.Ed. from Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg. She was previously coordinator of the Southeast Professional Development Center, Lancaster Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13; an ABE/GED and ESL teacher in the Adult Education Program, Lancaster Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13; an adjunct faculty member at Millersville State University and Pennsylvania State University Great Valley; the owner of a computer software and application training company; a substitute science teacher in the Manheim Township, Manheim Central, and Ephrata School Districts; a clinical chemist at St. Joseph's Hospital and Health Care Center; a clinical chemistry instructor at Harrisburg Hospital School of Medical Technology; and a corporate trainer.
Barbara E. Wilcox

Barbara Wilcox, our Move Up teacher, has a B.A. in psychology from Bucknell University and an M.Ed. in elementary education from the State University of New York at Cortland. Barbara previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia; a case manager and job developer at the Tompkin-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services; a case manager at the Village Prep School, Family Service of Philadelphia; a teacher in the School District of Philadelphia; and a coordinating case manager for PMHCC's Maximizing Participation Project.

Leadership

Executive Director

Rebecca Serfass Wagner

Board of Directors

 Mary Flournoy, President
Retired Librarian, The Free Library of Philadelphia

Daniel V. Johns, Vice President
Partner, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP

Fred Baumert, Treasurer
Civil Engineer, Keast & Hood Company

Jeffrey K. Daman, Secretary
Attorney, McCarter & English, LLP

Branville G. Bard, Jr.
Captain, 22nd District, Philadelphia Police Department

Vera Da Vinci
Program Manager, Division of College, Career, and Technical Education, School District of Philadelphia

Joseph Hilton
West Area Administrator, The Free Library of Philadelphia
Irvin H. Hurwitz
Director of Institutional Advancement,
National Museum of American Jewish History

Ronald Kim
Vice President, Information Technology-IT PECO Solutions & Customer Platform, Exelon Corporation

Dale Mezzacappa
Contributing Editor, Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Maria E. Mills-Torres
World Languages Content Specialist,
Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Development,
School District of Philadelphia

Karen Michael
Vice President, Clinical Services,
Keystone Mercy Health Plan AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies

Celinette Olmo
CLC Graduate; Student, Esperanza College of Eastern Unversity;

Kerry Rowe
System Audit Project Leader, Internal Audit,
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Anita Scott
Vice President, Director of Human Resources,
Radian Group Inc. 		Advisory Board

Charlotte Blake Alston
Storyteller

Mary Anderson
CLC Graduate; Student, West Chester University

Janice M. Borlandoe
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs,
University of the District of Columbia

John Cugini
Business Consultant, IBM Corporation

April J. Dungy

Barbara Guido
Human Resources Consultant

Patricia Lewis
Special Events Manager, JEVS Human Services

Lisa Lusby
Director, Passport Advantage, Keystone Mercy Health Plan

Helen Mullen
Retired Coordinator, Office of Work with Children,
The Free Library of Philadelphia

Kristen Rantanen
Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs,
JEVS Human Services

Natalia Quinteros-Guevara
Student, Community College of Philadelphia

Tracey Ray
Public Coordinator, The Free Library of Philadelphia

Harold Russell, D.V.M.

Andrea S. Taylor
Director of Training, Center for Intergenerational Learning,
Temple University

Ellen Wise

Peter W. Yenawine
Founder and Chief Designer, Crystal Signatures 


Funders
We are profoundly grateful to our many government, foundation, corporate, and individual donors, whose financial support enables CLC to offer its classes and other services free of charge.

Annual Report

Read our Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2007-2008.

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