From Vision to Legacy: Celebrating Barbara’s Retirement and a New Chapter Ahead

After 28 years of impactful work at UCC, we’re still embracing new beginnings. Our founder, Barbara Ferman, is retiring—both from her role as Executive Director of UCC and as a longtime professor at Temple University. Barbara has poured countless hours into building and strengthening the UCC, and her legacy has left a lasting imprint on our community and the lives of so many individuals. 

Read Barbara’s own words as she reflects on her journey and leadership at the University Community Collaborative:

After 28 wonderful years as Executive Director of the University Community Collaborative, I will be stepping down on June 30, 2025. The College of Liberal Arts, where I have been a professor for 33 years, will house the Collaborative in the Office of Community Engagement under the direction of Heather Lewis-Weber. With a background in youth development and education, Heather is the perfect fit for this position. Heather and I, Collab staff, and key stakeholders have been working with The Nonprofit Center at LaSalle University on the transition for the last five months. They have guided us through this process with integrity, passion, and a deep understanding of who we are both as individuals and as a team. I am fully confident that the Collab will continue its great work for a long time to come.

When I started the UCC in 1997, I had no idea that it would be a 28-year journey. During that time, I was privileged to meet and collaborate with many amazing people and organizations who contributed to making it a remarkable journey. For the sake of neutrality, I am going in alphabetical order—funders, participants, partners, and staff.

Funders: This work takes money. But it also takes buy-in, trust, sharing, and confidence, especially when your work is unconventional. I am grateful to the funders who invested in our vision and trusted us to carry it out. I am sure some of you had doubts, but you went with your gut. Your confidence has meant a lot to me personally and to the organization. I also want to thank the many individual donors who helped us along the way.

Participants: My hat is off to the young people who face more challenges in their short lives than most of us do in a lifetime. Despite that, they rose to their potential, going to and graduating college, volunteering in their communities, and pursuing careers in education, social justice advocacy, and the nonprofit sectors. Of course, not all have journeyed this far. The sting of poverty and discrimination is a cruel one, robbing participants of their potential and sometimes, their lives. In their names we continue helping young people to advocate for what should rightfully be theirs.

Partners: As part of the ecosystem of social justice and youth media organizations, we have collaborated on advocacy campaigns in education, criminal justice, human rights, and other critical issue areas. For our participants, we have leveraged networking opportunities, internship possibilities, and cross-cultural summer programs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, experiences that were life changing. Partner organizations have also hosted screenings for our youth-produced media and provided workshops for Collab staff in a variety of areas including social emotional learning, art and poetry as advocacy tools, mindfulness, and trauma informed youth development practices.

Staff: I have had the fortune of working with some of the most talented, creative, and enthusiastic individuals imaginable, many of whom started with us as participants when they were in high school. Unselfishly giving their time and love, they have provided excellent mentorship for our participants, sympathetic ears for family members, and sought out housing, counseling, educational, legal, and other services for participants who needed it. I have truly been humbled by your dedication and commitment.

To use the often quoted cliché, It takes a village, I have been fortunate to be part of such a vital, energetic, and loving one. You have enriched my life in many ways. While I will no longer be the Executive Director of the Collab, I will stay close, lending my support to this village in any way that I can.

                                                                                                                              Sincerely,

                                                                                                                              Barbara Ferman