Thrive Philly · Postsecondary pathways
What comes after
is the whole point
High school ends. A job ends. An idea arrives. Every one of those moments drops a woman at the same question, and almost nobody gets a straight answer to it: what now, and who is going to show me how? Thrive Philly builds the answer as a pathway you can actually walk, with a credential in your hand at every stop.
Start with the words
What we mean by postsecondary success
The word usually gets used to mean college, and only college. We use it wider, because the women we serve live wider.
Postsecondary success, defined
Postsecondary success is holding a verified skill, a credential somebody else recognizes, and a next step you chose — and being able to name all three out loud. It is measured by what you can do and prove, not by where you sat.
Under that definition, a certificate that leads to a job counts. So does a degree. So does a business with a model and a budget behind it. So does a promotion you were finally eligible for. What does not count is a year of effort with nothing you can show at the end of it.
What it includes
- Industry and state credentials
- College credit and degrees
- Apprenticeships and paid work-based learning
- A business or nonprofit you can fund
- A documented skills refresh that moves you up
What we refuse to call success
- Attendance with no evidence attached
- A certificate nobody in the labor market recognizes
- A plan that depends on you never needing rest
- A door that is free but locked to the people who need it
Who this is built for
Five people walk through this door
Different starting points, same pathway. You do not need a diploma, a business, a job, or a plan to begin.
Still in high school
You want something real before graduation, not a pamphlet about your options. Start building skills and a credential now, while you still have people around you who are paid to help.
Out of high school
Graduated, left, or got a GED, and college either was not the fit or is not the answer right now. There is a route that does not run through a campus.
New professionals
You are in your first or second real role and you can feel the ceiling. You need the credential and the language that turn a job into a career.
Entrepreneurs
You are already building. What you need is the model, the budget, and the proof that make funders, banks, and partners take you seriously.
Refreshing your skills
You have been out of the market, or your field moved without you. Come get current, get it documented, and get back in.
Not sure yet
That is a real answer and a common one. Start with the free course. Deciding what you are building is the first thing it teaches you.
Two ways in
One is open today. One opens in January.
They are different programs, not steps in a sequence. Take either one, or both.
Thrive Unbound® Leaders Course
For anybody ready to explore and jump into postsecondary success. You build the thing underneath every credential and every business plan: a model you can say out loud without hedging.
- Module 1 is free and takes about 45 minutes
- Leaves you with your model on one page, in your own words
- A badge for every module, all nine converting into the Thrive Unbound Certificate of Completion
- Live kickoff October 1 at 7 PM and live closing November 5 at 7 PM, both virtual and both optional
Free to start · $97 for all nine modules
Start the Leaders CourseThrive RISE® Pathway
A full program, not a course. Three tiers of stackable, digitally verifiable credentials that carry a learner from foundations through occupational training and into paid work-based learning.
- Founding cohort of 30, beginning January 2027
- Built for young women roughly 16 to 24, with no academic prerequisites
- Two lanes at launch: community and behavioral health, or digital and tech
- Every competency mapped to a recognized external standard
Interest list open now
Read the overviewComing January 2027
Thrive RISE®
A competency-based credential pathway for women across Philadelphia, designed around a problem the field has largely left alone.
A free program that a population cannot enter is not access. It is a door with a lock on it.
Excellent occupational training already exists in this city, free and close by. Most of the young women Thrive serves cannot enroll in it, because admission asks for an age, a diploma, a clear record, and a passed drug test — and for young Black and Brown women shaped by adultification, school-discipline disparities, early system contact, and chronic exposure to violence and overdose, those four requirements are not a formality. They are the wall.
Thrive RISE gets learners to the door with a key. It builds durable, technical, and healing competencies to a documented standard, and it treats eligibility for occupational training as something the program produces rather than something the learner must already have. That reframing is the innovation.
Three strands, braided
Strand A
Durable and professional
Mapped to the Durable Skills Advantage Framework.
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Critical thinking
- Self-management
- Leadership and initiative
- Fortitude and growth mindset
Strand B
Technical and occupational
Mapped to third-party assessments and, at Tier 2, to state and industry credentials.
- Digital literacy
- Financial capability
- Career foundations
- Occupational skills by lane
Strand C
Healing, identity and wellness
Thrive's original contribution. Not a wraparound service — an assessed, credit-bearing part of the credential.
- Self-awareness and regulation
- Healing-centered self-care
- Identity, culture and voice
- Wellbeing practices
- Healthy relationships and boundaries
- Navigating systems and eligibility
Three tiers, stackable
Tier 1
RISE Foundations Credential The on-ramp. Cohort-based across an eight-month cycle at the 504 Cecil B. Moore hub. Competencies from all three strands, a career action plan, and a chosen Tier 2 lane.Tier 2
Lane badges Occupational skills in community and behavioral health, or digital and tech. Each badge maps toward a state or industry credential delivered by an approved training partner.Tier 3
RISE Career Credential Paid work-based learning with demonstrated on-the-job competencies, ending in job placement or documented articulation into college credit.Thrive RISE is in development for a January 2027 founding cohort. Training partnerships, articulation agreements, and employer placements are in progress and not yet final; nothing on this page should be read as a confirmed partnership or a guarantee of enrollment, certification, placement, or wage. Thrive Philly is not an accredited institution. Details will be published as they are confirmed.
How our credentials work
Earned by demonstration, not by attendance
The same rules govern everything we issue, in both programs.
Competency-based, not seat-time
You earn a badge by demonstrating a skill against a rubric — a performance task, portfolio evidence, a third-party assessment, or observation by a coach or employer. Hours logged prove nothing on their own.
Stackable and portable
Every badge stands on its own and stacks toward the next. If you stop out, you still leave holding something verifiable.
Mapped to recognized standards
Each competency aligns to an external framework or a state credential, so an employer already understands what the badge certifies.
Whole-person by design
Healing, identity, and wellness are assessed competencies inside the credential rather than support services beside it.
Digitally verifiable
Badges are issued to the Open Badges 3.0 standard with embedded evidence, assessment method, and standards alignment — shareable to LinkedIn, résumés, and employer systems.
Credit for what you already know
Skills you gained through work, life, or a prior program can be assessed for credit. Nobody should have to re-earn what she can already do.
Start where you are
You do not have to wait for January
The Leaders Course is open right now, and Module 1 costs nothing. Forty-five minutes from now you can have your model on one page and a badge with your name on it. Bring that to whichever pathway you choose next.
Thrive Philly credentials are certificates of completion and carry no academic credit. Thrive Philly does not provide substance use treatment, recovery services, or clinical care; where a learner identifies a need, she is connected to a licensed provider. Program details, partnerships, and dates described on this page are current as of September 2026 and subject to change.