On a cold night in late January, more than 100 people took to Franklin Field to celebrate the public launch of the Young Quakers Community Athletics (YQCA) initiative, an after-school mentoring program. YQCA is a partnership between Penn’s Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics (Penn Rec), and pairs intercollegiate and varsity players with athletes from three West Philadelphia K-8 schools: Comegys, Huey, and Lea.

Penn President Amy Gutmann joined representatives of Penn’s Netter Center; YQCA donors; Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Lacrosse, and Track & Field coaches and athletes from Penn Rec; civic leaders; and Huey, Lea, and Comegys school officials and athletes for speeches, sports demonstrations, and lots of hot chocolate and pretzels.

“This is exactly what Penn can do best,” said President Gutmann. “When you pair the enthusiasm of our students, staff, faculty, and coaches with the energy of some of the most talented members of the West Philadelphia community, amazing things happen.

“We at Penn are so committed to bringing the most talented students and student athletes here and providing them with need-based financial aid and showing what they can do on the field and in the classroom—and we really want to educate our students to pay it forward, and the best way of doing that is by rolling up your sleeves and doing something in partnership with our community.”

The program provides additional resources such as uniforms, sports equipment, staffing, coaching, bus transportation, and access to the University’s playing fields at no cost. YQCA is a new component of Penn’s University-Assisted Community Schools program.

A pilot for the YQCA program was begun in 2012, involving boys’ lacrosse at Comegys. Building on its success, YQCA has grown to include girls’ lacrosse at Comegys and co-ed track and field at Huey and Lea, with plans to expand the program to include other sports and other K-8 schools in the West Philadelphia and Sayre High School catchment areas.

Chuck Leitner, chair of the Board of Overseers for Penn Rec and a founding donor to the YQCA initiative, served as the master of ceremonies for the event, which he described as a kind of “coming out party” for the program following “a careful and thoughtful pilot begun in 2012.

“We had an idea to do something that really could make a difference on the lives of many people and, most importantly, our students here at Penn and our neighboring students in the West Philadelphia public school system,” said Leitner. “We have over 100 Penn student athletes who gave to this program so far, and that is just a beginning, and about 110 student athletes from the Comegys School, Lea, and Huey.”

Three others spoke as part of the event: Karin Brower Corbett, coach of Penn Women’s Lacrosse; Zaire Witherspoon, an eighth-grade student-athlete from Comegys School who participates in boys’ lacrosse as part of the program; and Penn junior Gabrielle “Gabby” Cuccia, a Track & Field athlete of Wappingers Falls, N.Y., and a YQCA mentor.