FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 27, 2007

Contact:
Marion Forsyth
(703) 489-6059
marion@phoenixproject.org

Sonya Brown
(804) 862-1600
Executive Director, House of Restoration Community Development Programs
restorefam@aol.com

PHOENIX PROJECT NONPROFIT LEADERSHIP PROGRAM STUDENTS KICK OFF SUMMER OUTREACH TO PETERSBURG

      This Saturday, thirty students from the Phoenix Project’s Nonprofit Leadership Program will kick off their summer outreach to the community by joining Petersburg’s children for a day of fun and games at the House of Restoration Church at 210 South Market Street, Petersburg, VA.  House of Restoration runs a free program for youth in Petersburg ranging from six to eighteen years of age.  Phoenix Project students will spend the afternoon playing games with the children and running various indoor and outdoor activities.
      Saturday’s event will be held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and it is the first time that the Phoenix Project will be teaming up with Sonya Brown, who has been running the House of Restoration Community Development Programs for the past eleven years. 
“It’s very exciting to be working with the Phoenix Project,” said Brown. “It will be great for the kids to meet these students and enjoy a special day of fun!”
      The Phoenix Project’s Nonprofit Leadership Program students, who hail from fourteen different universities across Virginia, are spending eight weeks this summer in Petersburg learning about nonprofit leadership and social entrepreneurship.  They will be working on community-identified capacity building projects with over two dozen local nonprofits and municipal agencies throughout the summer. The activity at House of Restoration will be one of several direct service projects the students will be taking on in addition to the capacity building aspect of the Program.
      “The folks in Petersburg have been incredibly welcoming and friendly to us,” said Emily Martin, a Phoenix Project student from Washington & Lee University. “We are all so eager to get out into the community and to meet as many people as possible, and this weekend is our first real opportunity to do that.”
      The Phoenix Project brings resources from multiple institutions of higher education to meet community-identified needs in Petersburg and trains the next generation of nonprofit leaders for Virginia.  The Nonprofit Leadership Program was piloted in Summer 2006 and this summer goes to scale with thirty undergraduate and graduate students taught by forty-five guest faculty members.  The students are being housed at Virginia State University, and will be studying and working in Petersburg until August 4th. 
More information about the Program may be found at www.phoenixproject.org/leadership/nlp.

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