Temple University’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) has launched a new center dedicated to the educational needs of young people and their families, as well as educators. The Center for Reimagining Excellence, Access and Transformation in Education, known as CREATE, will continue to offer long-standing family support services and programs for young people and expand through new grant-funded projects, serving as a hub for CEHD’s community-centered work.

Executive Director of CREATE, Juliet Curci, already led the College’s college access, dual enrollment and early teaching pipeline programs prior to the inception of CREATE. When the Intergenerational Center, an established CEHD center offering programs supporting and connecting people across generations, was added to Curci’s portfolio, the need for a comprehensive community-focused center became clear.

“By centralizing our programs, it’s much easier for someone who is trying to learn about what is available and how to get involved to have one place to go. It makes it more accessible in that way, which I think is really important,” explained Courtney S. Poprik, assistant director of family-based services with CREATE. Poprik leads CREATE’s family programs and helps connect caregivers to resources, learning opportunities and community support. Poprik’s programs, which include Grandma’s Kids, an afterschool program at WD Kelley Elementary School for children being raised by their grandparents or other kinship caregivers, and Family Friends, which serves families where grandparents are head of the household and their grandchild has a disability, were previously housed under the Intergenerational Center. Now, by including these programs within CREATE, Curci and her team are able to revamp a more unifying strategy.

In January 2024, Curci and Angela Campbell, a CEHD alumna hired to support Curci with the center’s development, began to envision what a community-oriented center could look like within CEHD, drawing connections across programs that were previously housed in separate parts of the college. After months of planning with program staff, Curci unveiled plans for the new center, and its name, in a March 2025 collegewide meeting. Curci pegged that date–March 12–as CREATE’s birthday. By the end of the calendar year, CREATE was formally approved by Temple President John Fry.

Rooted in a collaborative focus, the center draws on connections across CREATE’s programs and an intentional orientation towards reciprocity with the local community. CREATE’s mission is to dismantle the systemic barriers for educating youth and to foster collaboration across diverse groups of people. To achieve that mission in the community, the CREATE team works closely with schools and families in North Philadelphia and elsewhere in the city.

“We want to be responsible about how we’re engaging with the community and ensuring reciprocity; it’s important that we not extract things from the community, but provide benefit. We’re also leaning into the assets and the expertise of the community,” emphasized Curci.

Curci, a former Philadelphia schoolteacher with a doctorate in urban education, reflected, “My education background really lent me to think about how to do this work and create a new center that is collective and collaborative.”

The center’s program participants include youth, families, college students and educators. In addition to those previously mentioned, other programs include Future Focus, a career exploration summer camp held at Temple for rising seventh, eighth and ninth graders; Temple Education Scholars, a dual enrollment program with wrap-around supports for aspiring educators in their junior and senior years of high school; and Guiding Generations, which brings grandparents and their children, aged five to eight, for learning and bonding experiences. College readiness programs include Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math & Science, and Temple Future Scholars. Programs and initiatives that support educators include the Diversifying Early Education Leadership (DEEL) Fellowship, the PA Teacher Education Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education (CRSE) Initiative and the Restorative Justice microcredential. CREATE also serves as the operational backbone of the Temple Partnership Schools Network. During the 2025-2026 academic year, CREATE’s programs and activities engaged youth and adult participants across the region. All current programs and initiatives can be explored on CREATE's website.

Curci hopes the energy and great work happening in CREATE will serve as a beacon. “People who interact with CREATE will give it shape and be a part of its story,” said Curci, referring to both program participants and faculty, staff, and students.

CREATE welcomes Temple students and staff from across the university, not just those within CEHD, to engage with the center. Undergraduate and graduate students from many academic disciplines serve as paid staff and volunteers across CREATE, and the number of opportunities grow each year with the expansion of CREATE’s programming. CREATE serves as an opportunity for students to be community-engaged while exploring different professional trajectories. Additionally, there are opportunities for faculty to become involved by serving as liaisons between CREATE and their academic departments or by becoming CREATE Faculty Fellows, engaging deeply in service projects that assist CREATE while contributing to their own professional agendas.

CREATE is currently exploring several new initiatives, with hopes to expand Grandma’s Kids to additional schools. The center also recently received a grant from the William Penn Foundation to develop a comprehensive strategy for supporting early childhood education in North Philadelphia.

“I want to make sure that we are providing high-quality experiences for young people,” said Curci, “then by proxy, the families that are supporting them and the educators that are supporting them, so they have every opportunity available to them for their own futures around their education and profession and ultimately they will be engaged people who contribute positively to themselves, our community and society.”

At its core, CREATE builds on programs that have served Philadelphia communities for years. By bringing them together, the center seeks to strengthen their reach, improving coordination and expanding partnerships across Temple and the city.

Curci says, “We'll always be evolving to be responsive to the context and needs of the community and the people we serve.”

To get connected or learn more about the Center for Reimagining Excellence, Access and Transformation in Education, please contact the team at [click-for-email] or visit CREATE's website. Additionally, CREATE will be hosting a community showcase on Sept. 30, 2026, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. in Ritter Hall room 211. All are welcome to engage in this open house event to meet staff and learn how to get involved.