PLA Summer AdVenture
2025 PLA Summer Adventure Highlights
A Journey Through Legacy and Liberation
Congratulations to PLA youth leaders, families, staff, and community for an immensely successful 2025 Summer Adventure!
The adventure began in Chester and Philadelphia with intention setting and a ropes course at West Chester University’s Adventure Education Center, building trust and teamwork from the start. The group then shared a meal at Honeysuckle Restaurant and visited the site of the MOVE bombing, guided by Anthony Smith, co-director of Reparations Work, and longtime freedom fighter Pam Africa.
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From there, the youth spent five days at the historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, hosted by Director of Operations Kevin Holman, MPA. They learned from community leaders including John Kamara, the groundskeeper who shared his journey from Sierra Leone to St. Helena, and Ms. Jennifaye Singleton, who taught the traditional Gullah Geechee craft of sweetgrass weaving. The group also visited the Tubman Museum in Macon, Georgia, participated in drumming and art-making, and engaged in dialogue about the legacy of slavery, incarceration, and collective resistance.
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​In Savannah, Georgia, cultural keeper Sista Patt Gunn led the group through historic sites including the Cluskey Vaults and Johnson Square, reclaiming truth where silence had long prevailed. They also visited Morning Glory Homestead Farm, where Tony and Belinda Jones welcomed the youth with a meal, song, and lessons in cultural resilience.
The journey concluded in Washington, DC, where the youth practiced Capoeira Angola with Mestre Santemu, reflected at the U.S. Capitol and National Mall, shared a community meal from La Caj Seafood provided by owner Monique Rose, danced at the Words Beats & Life DMV Made Festival, and closed in community at Friends Place on Capitol Hill.
We give our deep appreciation to all who made this amazing journey of legacy and liberation possible.
the 4CB Team
A message from
PLA Summer Adventure
Director Victor Cabral
​​The PLA Summer Adventure is a 10-day immersive journey designed to empower Chester youth to explore creativity, history, and collective transformation through travel, reflection, political education, and artistic expression.
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This reimagined program builds on the legacy of the PLA Summer Camp—which has served Chester youth since 2008—by taking learning beyond the classroom and into the world. Through visits to cultural and historical sites across the East and South Coasts, participants will connect with stories, movements, and communities that embody struggle, resilience, and liberation.
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Rooted in the values of peace, justice, creativity, and community, this adventure invites youth to see themselves as part of a living legacy of resistance and transformation.
This is not just a trip. It is a journey of becoming—into self, into community, and into the work of justice. Through art, movement, dialogue, and site visits rooted in history and culture, youth will emerge grounded in legacy, bold in vision, and connected in purpose.
The Peace, Liberation & Arts (PL&A) Summer Camp provides a multi-week experience for youth, ages 13-18. In order to foster peace and liberation for Chester youth, we must address at least three circles – the personal, the family and the larger community. PL&A Summer Camps include goals that seek to impact each of these important circles of influence. We recognize that peace-making is an inside to outside job and that building strong, young activators of liberation requires an inner strength and balance that must be nurtured. We must also acknowledge and provide education about the systems of oppression and discrimination that hold communities like Chester in cycles of poverty and violence. Therefore, our approach provides tools for inner reflection, historical and current events education, skill-building, artistic expression and opportunities to learn and serve through cultural exchange.
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2024 PLA Camp Highlights
Zip Lining
Audio Production
NYC Broadway Trip
PLA
Camp
2023
Check out the video from PLA Camp 2024!