‘This is home. This is their sanity. This is their happy place.’

On any given Tuesday or Thursday in West Philadelphia, hundreds of young people from across the city come together for a free carnival held inside a church.

Here, they eat snacks and freshly prepared burgers and chicken and waffles. They watch sports and movies on massive TVs, play arcade games, dance in a studio large enough to host citywide competitions, and take art classes. The music is lowered on Tuesdays, so they can receive academic tutoring, receive cash for improved grades, connect with workforce development programs, get a haircut, or sometimes just take a nap. And it’s all for free.

Pastor Aaron Campbell, the founder and executive director of Level Up Philly, knows that some people might say his safe space for the city’s youth sounds too good to be true. “I’d say you’d have to come see it,” he replied.

Level Up is both a hangout space and community organization for Philly’s young people, ranging from ages 10 to 25, held at Campbell’s Antioch Christian Fellowship church at 47th and Chestnut Streets. They come to the repurposed warehouse space from 81 different schools, representing all corners of the city.

But Level Up works with its young people outside of the church walls, too; in order to enter the building, the young people have to fill out surveys that let Campbell and his team know their personal information, what their needs are, and how best to support them.

Campbell spoke with The Inquirer about his organization, how to create an environment that Philadelphia youth are interested in, and what it means to see the value in every kid, regardless of the things they’ve done.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

I grew up with all my best friends being drug dealers. I was getting caught up into that because I felt that that’s what it meant to be a man. Plainfield is where I’m from, but Newark and New York City are the streets that I ran.

But then I had kind of a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde life because I also was determined that I didn’t want my kids to have to struggle the way I did growing up. So I worked very hard in high school and I got into the University of Pennsylvania. I started the church where Level Up is held, in my living room, 23 years ago, on 48th and Larchwood.

Now we’re on 47th and Chestnut and we have a 12,000-square-foot building. Four years ago, I decided to make a separate nonprofit called Level Up Philly, where we would start this massive program. I took 10 West Philly High students that I was mentoring, and I asked them, how would you like to turn the city upside down?

Our goal from the beginning was to touch the city. They went out and recruited friends, our first gathering had maybe 30, 25 kids. We bought every used leather couch we could find on Facebook Marketplace. We knocked out all the walls in our building, ground down the floors with diamond blades and painted them, put in a commercial kitchen. It was all designed to bring the city inside of our building.

I’ve been doing this work for 25 years, mentoring young Philly folk. I’ve buried seven mentees. Seven mentees who called me “uncle” or “dad,” who slept at my house, ate with my wife and kids. So I have a lot of experience.

I also just took the time to learn from them, instead of taking the posture of, “Hey, I’ve created this, I’m the adult.” I took the time to sit with them in the beginning and say, “Teach me your culture. How can we make a place that’s culturally relevant? What would you guys like to have?”

» READ MORE: Philly teenagers would like safe, accessible, and interesting places to hang out. They can’t find any.

I am still making sure I remain a student, because this is a fast, evolving culture. I had to accept the fact that I’m old. I’d like to think that I’m 49, I’m hip, but I had to accept the fact that I’m not a young buck. Even though I might have been cool, there’s stuff I think is cool that they might consider corny.

And then the last part is consistency. Back-breaking consistency, delivering on your word with these kids.

If I say there’s gonna be hamburgers and it’s a downpour of rain and that means I’m grilling burgers in the mud, then I’m grilling burgers in the mud. If I say we’re gonna be open and it’s a blizzard, then I’m still gonna cook. I’m still gonna be consistent, you know? So that consistent skin in the game, that’s what’s earned their love.

If everyone just wants to say, “Those kids are not my focus.” or “One bad apple spoils the bunch.” I say, “You have intrinsic value.” We have to see the value in them and give them the chance.

I have eight state agents that do mandatory weapons checks out on the street. We’re taking knives, we’re taking mace, we’re taking combs turned into daggers. We’re taking everything. No vapes, no ski masks, to really make it safe.

You’d be shocked at just how much kids, even our 23-year-olds, never had a chance to be kids. So we have ex-offenders coming straight to us from jail, and they’re already in a virtual reality headset eating water ice. They just feel safe enough that they just melt.

Sadly, some of the kids I feed on Thursdays, I ask them, when’s the last time they ate? And they tell me on Tuesday when I fed them last. Some kids just go to sleep on the couches because they’re homeless and they don’t usually sleep.

I think a safe space doesn’t just mean that there’s not gonna be any bullets. A safe space means that you’re safe to actually be who you are. Some people say, “It sounds like you’re just getting the roughest ones in the city.” Well, no, we also get the nerdy ones. The introverts. The ones that wanna pull me to the side and read me an article on Paul Robeson or want to read me a poem they wrote.

Many adults confess to me when they visit us, that they’ve grown callous to this generation. And coming to Level Up is causing them to realize that these kids are just babies. They’re not a mob, they’re not little monsters. They may act monstrous, but they really just want a shot.

They’re sharp. They know the city’s failed them. They’re very resentful for that. It’s a lot of anger and just feeling that society is just throwing them to the curb.

» READ MORE: Where is a Philadelphia teenager supposed to hang out?

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s also the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. We can only be open two days a week, but our dream is to open five days a week. But we can’t afford it. I’m basically working around the clock to raise money, like donation by donation, just to keep taking care of them.

Because we’re too big to fail at this point. To many of them, this is home. This is their sanity. This is their happy place. This is what makes them want to change.

Seventy-five percent of the work is offline. It’s the conversations, 1 in the morning, 2 in the morning, who do they call if they’re suicidal? It’s knowing that they have us. And it’s not just me. I have an amazing team and I could not do it without my team.

We celebrate life every time we meet. We always give long goodbyes. This is the reality of Philadelphia. It’s long goodbyes. Many of them will tell you that before they came to Level Up, they did not think they would live past 25 years old. And now because of Level Up, they believe they’re gonna have a long life. They talk about families now. They believe it.