Here’s a reminder about a couple of great youth recreation programs held at local parks.

Soccer Shots is starting its fall season of soccer instructions for preschool age kids at Cedar Park (50th and Baltimore) on Saturday, Sept. 12, and there is still room available for children ages 2-5 to participate in the program. Class times are: 9 a.m. – ages 3-4; 9:45 a.m. – age 2; 10:20 a.m. – ages 4-5. Register online here or contact Thomas Rockett for more information: philly@soccershots.org or 267-630-1557.

Clark Park Youth Soccer League‘s fall season begins on Saturday, Oct. 3 (a week later due to the papal visit). This volunteer-run program provides soccer instruction and intramural games for children ages 5-11 on Saturdays at Clark Park (45th and Chester). The program emphasizes enjoying the game of soccer while learning soccer skills. Each 90-minute session includes both skills training and a game. Children are assigned to teams by age: Mornings (10:30-noon): ages 5 to 6.5 and ages 6.5 to 7; afternoons (noon-1:30 pm): ages 8 to 9 and ages 10 to 11. More information and forms are available here. Online registration is coming soon. If you would like to volunteer as a coach, assistant coach or to help with administrative work, please email: clarkparksoccer@yahoo.com.

The Department of Making + Doing (DM + D), a collaborative workspace among four Philadelphia organizations, The Hacktory, NextFab Studio, Public Workshop, and Science Center’s First Hand, will close in November, according to Technically Philly. The University City Science Center-based space has been hosting youth-oriented workshops and other programming in technology, design, fabrication, and art for more than two years. DM + D partners revealed that the reason for closing the workshop is sustainability issues at the current location at 3711 Market St.

The good news though is that the four organizations are planning to continue their work at other locations. The Hacktory, which joined the collaborative and moved to the Science Center last year, is currently looking for a new space in West Philly, according to Technically Philly. The tech group offers classes and afterschool programs for local youth. We’ll let you know when we have more information about their new location.

The Nesting House’s West Philly location is now open at 4501 Baltimore Ave. (Facebook photo)

In case you missed it, the West Philly location of locally owned children’s boutique and consignment store, The Nesting House, opened last week at 4501 Baltimore Ave. The West Philly store is currently looking for various items for its large consignment section, including strollers, high chairs, swings, bouncy seats, pack and plays, as well as books and toys up to age 6 (visit The Nesting House’s Facebook page for more information).

The store will also be offering workshops and classes for both kids and parents, starting next month. Rhythm Babies, an early childhood music class, will be held every Tuesday, beginning Sept. 8. A free cloth diaper workshop will take place on Sept. 24.

The store hours are: Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.

For more information, visit thenestinghouse.net.

This Saturday, June 6, Women in Transition (WIT), an organization that provides empowerment counseling and advocacy to women in Philadelphia, is hosting a class on self-defense and safety strategies. The class is part of the WAVE anti-violence education program by WIT and is open to women, girls (ages 14+), transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

WAVE classes teach safety strategies that students can use in situations ranging from verbal harassment to physical assault, including awareness, trusting your instincts, boundary setting, verbal assertiveness, and easy-to-learn physical techniques. Students of all skills, abilities, sizes and body types are strongly encouraged to join.

The workshop will be held at Studio 34 (4522 Baltimore Ave), beginning at 1:30 p.m., and is available on a sliding scale from $5 to $25, to allow for financial hardships. More info and registration is available at www.helpwomen.org.

Neighborhood Bike Works is moving! (Photo from NBW Facebook page).

Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW), a great neighborhood institution that has been providing bike education programs for youth and bike repair classes for adults for nearly two decades, has just announced its plans to open a new, larger hub and community shop in West Philly this Fall. The new site is located at two side-by-side storefront properties – at 3939 and 3943 Lancaster Avenue. It is one mile from NBW’s current headquarters in the basement of St. Mary’s Church on Locust Walk.

“By moving out of a basement space to a highly visible, street-level site, we hope more families will find us and get involved in our programs,” NBW Executive Director Erin DeCou said in a statement.

A larger space on Lancaster Ave will offer more flexibility and an opportunity for NBW to operate more than one class or event at a time. Located at the intersection of the Mantua, Belmont, and Powelton neighborhoods, the new headquarters will also allow NBW to be closer to more of the communities they serve.  Continue Reading

Those walking by the Science Center building on 37th and Market street can see colorful displays on the first floor windows, but little do most know that those colorful displays belong to an innovation tech camp called The Hacktory. The name was created to describe two goals the group set out to accomplish: find solutions and create products.

An early inception of the organization was created in 2007, which met on a monthly basis to celebrate do-it-yourself efforts in engineering and technology. Georgia Guthrie, The Hacktory’s executive director, began volunteering with the group right before it ran out of steam in 2009 but she was determined to keep it going in some sort of capacity.

Today, The Hacktory has three teachers and one teaching assistant. Currently one workshop is being offered, a micro controller programming class for Raspberry Pi. Past classes have covered topics such as building a bike bag, building a DIY arcade, intro to data mapping with map-making interface CatroDB and more.

The Hacktory also offers a weekly after-school program for 3rd to 5th graders (Kid’s Club), and enrollment has begun for its summer camp programs, which kick off on June 22. 
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