Programs
Programs and Activities
Core Programs for Youth Aged 8-17
Earn a Bike:
Fourteen two-hour after-school lessons, free to participants, are held at our two locations and in public schools (See class dates and schedules on our blog). There are ten sessions that cover bike repair & maintenance, and two sessions that cover riding safety, bike handling skills, and riding in traffic. The course also includes a lesson that covers health, nutrition, transportation choices, and the environment. After a few lessons, students select the bike that they will fix up to keep after graduation. Each bike is inspected by staff before a student is allowed to take it home. In order to graduate and keep a bike, a student must attend at least 20 hours of NBW classes with good behavior , pass the bike safety lessons, and attend the graduation. Families and friends are invited to the graduation ceremonies when successful students are presented with their bikes, helmets, and tools. Graduates are entitled to attend drop-in sessions and participate in group rides and other activities. Benefits for participants are an increase in awareness of how to use a bicycle, increased awareness of the importance of a good diet, increased helmet use, and increased bicycle use. These are measured by participant surveys and caregiver surveys.
Earn-a-Bike is currently at the Lamberton School, Bluford Elementary School, Martha Washington Middle School, the our 40th and Locust location, our Salford St location, and our Broad and Susquehanna location. The program can be done at any place with a suitable room for working on bikes and space to securely store bikes and tools.
RIDE Fitness Program:
Sixteen two-hour sessions total, free to participants. Students ride stationary bicycles (wind-trainers) indoors in a program designed by doctors from Children’s Hospital. Actual exercise time represents about half of the time spent in the course. The desired outcomes are increased knowledge and a change in attitude towards diet and exercise. The course also includes sessions that cover health and nutrition. Parents and family members are encouraged to take part. Optional lessons may be included to cover cycling safety, including on bike handling skills and safely riding in traffic. In these cases students may earn bikes as in the earn-a-bike classes.
R.I.D.E. program can be done in a space where there is room for 8-12 bikes and the wind trainers that the bikes fit into. The space needs to be somewhere where loud noises is permissible because we get pretty excited and there is loud music. This program also needs a secure area to store bikes and equipment. RIDE is currently at the Penrose school and can be replicated as needed.
Summer Cycling Day Camp
This program is a two-week day camp with the same curriculum as the after school Earn-A-Bike program. There is a fee, but scholarships are available. Given the extra time available in all-day sessions, the lessons are supplemented with field trips and other activities. For more information about our 2009 Summer Day Camp sessions, please visit our blog.
Drop-in sessions
On Saturdays and school holidays, the shop is open to graduates who may work on their own bikes or do productive tasks to earn credit ”hours,” which may be applied to purchase other bikes or bike parts.
Drop-ins are currently held at both the St. Mary’s and Haddington shops.
Advanced Mechanics Classes
These classes are available for all NBW graduates at our two locations. Graduates of the basic earn-a-bike classes may take additional lessons that cover bicycle repair more in depth or cover more advances topics. Students who successfully complete these lessons may earn “Junior Mechanic” certification.
Group Rides
We offer group rides twice a month (weather permitting) and invite all graduates, their parents, and sometimes members of current classes on a ride. We usually try to pick an interesting destination within biking distance. Students earn hours with good behavior on the ride. Some rides are more strenuous and are limited to students that are stronger riders. Also, some rides are combined with other NBW activities such as Bike Safety Checks, which will limit the number of students invited.
Bike Safety Checks
Several times a year we run bike safety checks, usually sponsored (for a fee) by some other group at a block party, health fair, and etc. Selected graduates are invited to participate for credit hours and a share from any tips collected. We inspect important safety aspects of bicycles and present the owner with a checklist of what is working and what is not. Many small repairs can be done at the time.
Bike Parking
This is a fundraising and publicity event. We are often contracted by other groups to do Valet Bike Parking for events. Frequently, we are able to employ a few youth for credit hours or a small hourly rate and a share of any tips collected. See more details.
Leadership Group
Ad-hoc programming regarding youth put into programming, shop organization, and activities. There are currently two youth advisers for NBW’s board whom meet with staff and board to discuss their concerns. Group members are also working closely with volunteers and staff to assist in classes, write articles for publication within NBW and elsewhere, and to promote the program in their schools and other youth groups.
Entrepreneur Group
Youth are working on bikes that they can sell individually and through eBay. eBay group led by instructors meets when leadership group members are available during drop-ins and after school classes at 40th street. Youth learn digital photography, how to post items on web site, and how to write item descriptions and customer service e-mails. 60th street entrepreneurs wrote their own grant proposal last year and were awarded money which is being spent on bike parts for bikes that they are selling at the Haddington shop. Bikes are sold by individual youth who work with Mustafa Abdul-Rashid, Sean Donnelly and Kevin Gorum to renovate bikes.
Youth Employment
We occasionally, mostly in the summer, employ graduates or other youth to help with classes or various tasks in the shop or office. Some are paid through the City of Philadelphia’s Youthworks program; some are paid directly by NBW.
Community Service Projects
Young people completing certain high school grades sometimes choose to perform community service at NBW. Projects include bike donation solicitation, helping to run youth programs and shop improvements. Other youth come to NBW through the District Attorney’s Youth Aid Panel Program, a volunteer-run project that places first time offenders in community service projects as an alternative to being charged with non-violent offenses. 80% of Youth Aid participants are not arrested again during high school.
Occasional other events
Sometimes we have the opportunity to take some kids to an event, (movie, basketball game, etc.) that may or may not involve biking to get there. Invitations to such events are made to currently active youth.
Programs
Bike Church - adult repair co-op
Adult (age 18+) open bike repair sessions that provide some income and serve as a volunteer recruitment tool. Staffed by volunteers, shop space and tools are made available for free to the general public. Participants are expected to sign in with name and addresses and are encouraged to donate money or volunteer time. Help is often provided but not guaranteed as to availability or quality. Select bikes are available for sale on an as-is basis. Used parts are also available for sale.
Tuesday - Thursday - Sunday — 6.30pm to 9pm — all adults
Saturday — 3pm to 6pm — all adults
Wendesday — 6.30pm to 9pm — woman & trans adults only
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This repair class is fee based and four 2.5-hour sessions cover routine procedures and the use of basic and specialized tools. More advanced procedures can be covered on request. Participants are encouraged to bring their own bikes. This program provides some income and serves as a volunteer recruitment tool. The class usually meets Monday evenings, call us for the start time of the next session.
Urban Survival Biking
This program has a fee and is around 9 hr. total in one or two days. LAB Road 1 classes are taught with an emphasis on urban riding and less time spent on mechanical issues.
This is a fundraising and publicity event. Artists are given access to excess parts to use as art material. The remaining parts are donated to NBW, placed in a show, and sold.
Shape up Our Shop (SOS)
Once a month volunteers, usually referred from Greater Philadelphia Cares, spend a few hours on a Saturday helping with housekeeping tasks at the shop. NBW youth and their families are encouraged to participate as well. Youth can earn double hours if they bring a family member.
Major Taylor Birthday Ride
Usually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we invite all graduates, their families, and others to ride to a picnic shelter in Fairmount Park on the Belmont Plateau near the site of the Woodside Park Track. We cook a hot lunch and have a presentation about Major Taylor.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service
This is a large scale version of Shape up Our Shop that includes a speaker or other programs commemorating Dr. M. L. King Jr.
