Different Space. Different School

KenCrest West Center in West Philadelphia, Penn.

“He just said ‘hi’ when he looked at you,” the preschooler explains to a visitor about his classmate. “He doesn’t have words.” With two short sentences, the little boy speaks volumes about both children, and even more about the remarkable school they attend.

By societal standards, these boys are considered “different.” One is a special needs student with severe autism, and the other comes from a family who experience significant economic hardships. At the school these boys attend, KenCrest West Center in Philadelphia, being different is something to be celebrated every day.

This unique early childhood center groups together two very distinct populations. One consists of children with intellectual and developmental challenges, ages three to five, who travel here from across the southwest section of the city. The other group comprises three- to five-year-old preschoolers from the surrounding low-income neighborhood. Here, in an extraordinary setting and curriculum designed to foster mental, physical, and emotional growth, the children study, play, and earn each other’s respect, learning side by side. For these children, the unique school levels the educational playing field, creating a mutually beneficial environment.

Founded over a century ago by a Lutheran deaconess, the school’s parent organization, KenCrest, specializes in providing educational, residential, and social services to children and adults with a broad range of intellectual disabilities and autism. With 300 site locations throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut, KenCrest has grown to become a nationally recognized organization. Deeply rooted in its Lutheran heritage, KenCrest serves its audience with care and respect, empowering children and adults to lead fuller lives.

The West Philadelphia location of KenCrest West Center is no exception. Take a tour and you’ll soon understand just how resourceful its staff has been in creating an environment that benefits not only its students, but also its surrounding community.

Purchased with the help of a Mission Investment Fund loan, the center is housed on a five-building campus, once the home of a Catholic church. Every square foot is put to use with notable efficiency. An old assembly hall is now a gymnasium for physical education, movement, and dance activities. After school, on weekends and throughout the summer, the gym is used as a safe place for the neighborhood children and teens to come for organized sports, after-school tutoring and special programs through a partnership with the local Police Athletic League.

A well-appointed playground provides a place for the center’s students to enjoy fresh air in all kinds of weather. Outside each of the eight classrooms, a small vegetable garden is used to teach the children about plants, nutrition, and the value of getting their hands dirty to benefit their bodies and their planet.

Inside the stately former sanctuary, the center developed a large indoor active play area. When weather isn’t ideal for “outside time,” the children can play and learn here, with bright light streaming through stained glass windows.

The former rectory now provides ample space for the administrative and teaching staff’s offices.

Like the diverse mix of children who thrive on its campus, the entire facility is “different” – truly something special – especially when one considers how KenCrest West ended up here.

Prior to finding a home here five years ago, the program was shuffled around a variety of rented spaces, settling in spare room at yet another church. The enterprising teaching staff made the slightly weathered rented space work for over a decade – until the landlord informed them that a charter school with the budget to pay a higher rent would be moving in, and they had to vacate.

After begging for an extension on the lease, KenCrest searched high and low around southwest Philadelphia for a suitable space that could cater to the needs of its special needs children, while allowing enough space to start a local Head Start early childhood learning center. Three months from the extended lease’s termination date, the center still had no home. Director of Program Services Melanie Brennan recalls, “We envisioned being on the street corner with picket signs. To say we were desperate is an understatement.”

In the nick of time, the Catholic church property became available. With only weeks to close the deal, the Mission Investment Fund fast-tracked the financing process, helping KenCrest to close the deal in record time. “We didn’t have much time to get the space ready before our move date,” says Brennan. “But at the time, we were so grateful, we could’ve made anything work.”

And “make it work” they have. Today, the creative use of space allows for a creative curriculum, leveraging partnerships with outside organizations and educational experts.

Through a relationship with the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP), fourth-year USP occupational-therapy students work with the KenCrest children to use their “whole bodies” as learning tools. For children with conditions such as autism or Down Syndrome, learning how to use their five senses, plus their hands and bodies, is a critical foundational skill that will greatly enhance their abilities later in life.

Local non-profit Musicopia takes the children on “educational adventures in music,” teaching them aural skills and fostering cultural enrichment. KenCrest West’s curriculum also heavily involves parents, ensuring they understand the mutual benefits of combining low-income and intellectually challenged children in one classroom. Teachers here work very closely with the families, even visiting the children in their home settings at least twice annually.

But of all the progressive tactics that make up the educational experience at KenCrest West, perhaps the most important is the classroom format itself. “We don’t group children by age or ability, by economics or family characteristics,” says Brennan. “The truth is that the real world doesn’t group people into these nice, neat categories either.”

Here, the learning strengths of each child benefit those of his or her classmates. They are taught not to judge each other, but to empower. Not to assume, but to support. They are taught to think of communication as a very broad concept. One child’s shy smile just might be his way of saying “Hello. I want to be your friend.”

Yes, the children at KenCrest West Center learn: We are different. And being different is a wonderful thing.