Serving Children from Germantown on the campus of Greene Street Friends School

Community Impact

Inspiring Learning, Building Community, Nurturing Joy

Strong community partnerships throughout Germantown, Mt. Airy, and beyond help make many of the meaningful experiences our students enjoy each summer possible.We are deeply committed to continuing to build these community partnerships in meaningful ways and we are grateful to have received programming support from the following local organizations over past summers:

  •  Germantown Life Enrichment Center (GLEC): Learning to swim is an essential life skill—and one that can save lives. Through our renewed partnership with Germantown Life Enrichment Center (GLEC), students swim twice each week, building confidence, developing skills, and becoming safer and more comfortable in the water. Community partnerships like GLEC, along with access to local pools, play an important role in ensuring that every Horizons student has the opportunity to learn to swim. By connecting students with quality swim instruction right here in Germantown, we’re helping build skills they can carry with them for a lifetime.
  •  Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Philadelphia Regional Library: Our local library allowed our teachers to deepen the pool of book choices for our students by giving us a school library card for us to check out student books on walking trips we would take to check out books as a class. Their summer programming also included read alouds and access to a children’s library on specific days each week. It was great to be able to have students connect with their local library to model early literacy habits for our students, as well.

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  •  Cheltenham Youth Tennis (CYT): This summer, we expanded our partnership with Cheltenham Youth Tennis, bringing weekly tennis clinics directly to our campus. Students learned the fundamentals of the game while developing coordination, focus, confidence, and perseverance through consistent practice and play.  Exposure to sports like tennis gives young people opportunities to discover new interests, challenge themselves, and build skills that extend well beyond the court. By creating access to a variety of athletic experiences, we encourage students to try something new, stay active, and continue growing in confidence, discipline, and resilience. 

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  •  Career Connected Learning PHL (C2L-PHL): Over the past two summers, we were privleged to welcome back alumni from our first two graduating classes. These bright and talented scholars returned to spend another summer with us as part of the city’s Career Connected Learning PHL program (C2L-PHL). This program provides paid work experience and career exploration opportunities for youth and young adults, connecting classroom learning with real-world experiences.
  •  Tree House Books: Our friends at Tree House Books are on a mission to grow and sustain a community of readers, writers, and thinkers in Philadelphia. The Traveling Tree House stopped by to provide free books to our PreK-6th scholars on The Book Mobile. What a cool way for our scholars to add to their home libraries over the summer!
  •  Los Bomberos de la Calle: This culturally-rich program provided one assembly performance that included traditional and contemporary styles of Bomba & Plena music from Puerto Rico. Their mission seeks to give a piece of Puerto Rican culture to Philly and the surrounding areas.
  •   Briar Bush Nature Center: Briar Bush provided a hands-on assembly where students were able to learn about the night sky by sitting in a planetarium and being able to learn by seeing outer space.
  •  Quiver Farms: Located in neighboring Montgomery County, Quiver Farms has visited us on campus, bringing animals for our students to learn more about including cows, pigs, and chickens. Our students were able to learn about these animals by feeding and petting them, while a knowledgeable guide explained more about the different animals.