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Conventioneers invited to Camden

Hopeworks wants to help visiting Democrats, not vice versa

The youth development organization Hopeworks N' Camden doesn't want help from the Democratic National Convention next year in Philadelphia.

Instead, the respected nonprofit -- which assists 300 city kids annually through high-tech job training and other programs -- wants to help conventioneers understand how best to help their own cities.

"We don't need them to tour Camden. They've already seen buildings falling down -- it's called 'poverty porn,'" says Dan Rhoton, Hopeworks' chief impact director. "We need them to talk to our young people, who were part of the problem and now are part of the solution.

"We're not interested in the impact the convention will have on us," Rhoton continues. "We want to have an impact on them, and their policies. If we can get one or two politicos to cross that bridge, they will see the changes we're making."

Hopeworks is collaborating with other organizations in Camden; a new effort called Healing 10 (healing10.org) holistically treats the traumatic effects of poverty, violence and other social ills on physical and psychological health, as well as on learning, in children. "We focus not on what's wrong, but on what works," Rhoton says. "And if it can work in Camden, it can work where [the conventioneers] are from."

--KEVIN RIORDAN