Judy and Michael Van Hoy Papers

Judith Anne Cunningham, born February 17, 1960, was a birthright member of Green Street Monthly Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents, William A. and Elizabeth Cunningham, had joined the Society of Friends in 1958. Judy graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1978, started college at Cheyney University, and then transferred to Temple University. She graduated in 1981 with a B.S. in elementary education, spent the following summer in Greece studying modern Greek, and began a graduate program in Philosophy at Temple.

From a young age, Judy expressed concern for social justice issues and peace. In 1983 she spent the summer at a workcamp in Botswana. Her "Peace is a Group Effort" illustration has been widely used, and she designed other banners and posters for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and related organizations. Judy worked for the Yearly Meeting as an office assistant 1982-1984 and associate librarian, 1995-1999. She served as director of Friends Weekend Workcamp Program from 1984 to 1989 and again 1997-2003. The program sent high school and college-aged volunteers to assist in low-income homes in Philadelphia. Judy led workcamp groups to Kenya in 1987, 1988, 1989 where she represented the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Oversight Committee. In 2003 she resigned from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and resumed teaching. In 2012, she returned to Temple to complete a Masters Degree.

While serving as the Director of the PYM Workcamp, she met Michael Van Hoy who came to Philadelphia as an intern in 1988. Michael Van Hoy was born July 7, 1963, in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in an Evangelical Quaker family in Asheboro, North Carolina. In the 1970s, his father, Bill Van Hoy, was the lead advocate for the desegregation of schools in Ashboro. Michael earned a B.A. from Haverford College in 1985. Following graduation, he was awarded a prestigious Watson Fellowship to study Christian Ecumenical Organization 1985-1986, traveling in Africa and Latin America. In the fall of 1985 he spent several months at the National Council of Churches of Kenya representing Friends United Meeting.

Michael Van Hoy interned at Friends Committee on National Legislation in 1986-1987 and was drawn to urban ministry. He interned at Friends Workcamp program 1988-1989 and assumed the position of Director in 1989-1998 when Judy Cunningham took the job of associate librarian for PYM. Michael Van Hoy and Judy Cunningham married May 27,1990, at Green Street Friends Meeting House. They home schooled their foster son Romanze and Judy's nieces in 1998-2000, and subsequently Michael worked in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Development Office. The Van Hoys organized and led a Green Street Monthly Meeting trip to South Africa in 2001. In 2007 he served as Director of the AFSC China Summer Workcamp. Following employment with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, he taught in private schools in Philadelphia.

The Weekend Workcamps Program originated on the eve of World War II. It provides volunteers and opportunity to work in an inner city community, interact with neighbors, and dialog on peace and justice issues. In 1977 the Weekend Workcamps Subcommittee was set off as a separate committee of Philadelphhia Yearly Meeting.

In 1983, the Committee bought the house in which its activities were centered, at 840 N. 42nd St. in West Philadelphia. Today the Friends' Workcamp Program operates under the auspices of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's Standing Committee on Peace and Concerns.