Color Me Back: A Same Day Work and Pay Program
Color Me Back: A Same Day Work and Pay Program combines participatory art-making and access to social services in an innovative model that offers wage-earning opportunities to individuals experiencing economic insecurity.
The program draws on the successful experiences of other cities in offering “same-day wages” to help address economic instability, while transforming additional spaces through the power of collective good. Program participants are paid $50 in cash for four consecutive 3.5-hour work days, spent contributing to new public art projects that bring color and vibrancy to the built environment. In addition, participants are connected to outreach specialists who link them to support services, including social and/or behavioral health services and potential opportunities for longer-term employment.
Color Me Back participants benefit from an environment that fosters shared community, safety, and healthy relationships, while prioritizing opportunities for personal growth, with the following outcomes:
- Personal Wellness: Learning and developing interpersonal problem-solving skills, emotional regulation, mindfulness, self-confidence and self-awareness, healthy routines, coping mechanisms
- Skill Building: Mural-making, painting and drawing techniques, color theory, creative and critical thinking, textiles, mosaics, curation, exhibition planning
- Work Readiness: Time management, goal-setting, communication, workplace professionalism, interpersonal relationship building, resume writing, financial education, teamwork and collaboration, conflict resolution, and de-escalation, as well other training certifications
Designed in partnership with the Scattergood Foundation, SEPTA, the Sheller Family Foundation, and Mental Health Partnerships, the initiative is managed by Mural Arts’ Porch Light program, a collaboration with the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) focused on community wellness.
Color Me Back in the News
The Kelly Clarkson Show: “Philly Street Art Program Helps Homeless Get Back On Their Feet Through Murals” (January 2022)
CBS This Morning: “Philly’s Color Me Back program is helping city residents get back on their feet” (July 2021)
National Philanthropic Trust: “Mural Arts Philadelphia: Inspiring a City Through Civic and Social Change” (October 2022)
* Statistic reflects period of time between program inception in April 2019 and December 2025.
The History of Color Me Back
Color Me Back (CMB) was initially launched as a 28-week pilot program in April 2019, designed to reach individuals who were not necessarily connected to services. Each participant was paid $50 cash for four hours of work spent creating a new public art project—a payment amount that was specifically designed to exceed the living wage standard for Philadelphia.
During this pilot iteration of the program, participants were recruited from areas surrounding Philadelphia’s Suburban Station, leading to a lottery each morning in nearby Love Park. Up to 20 people per day had the opportunity to work with trained teaching artist Alvin Tull, design artist Gabe Tiberino, and outreach workers (Certified Recovery/Peer Specialists) to design and paint the murals. The first mural, in SEPTA’s Suburban Station concourse, was completed and dedicated on December 20, 2019.
In 2020, CMB designed and instituted a new “next step” work model that is still used today, in which 10–15 individuals are selected for four consecutive 3.5-hour shifts. This longer engagement with participants allowed for deeper connections to be made within the program, and increased time for training and skill-building. The participants received payments of $50 per day, for a total of $200 over four days of work. During this phase of the program, artist Lauren Cat West worked with CMB participants for six months to complete the Lovely Day mural, found underground at Broad and Walnut Streets.
In 2021, CMB launched a pilot program to do site-based work at the Emerald Street underpass in the Kensington neighborhood, led by artist Mat Tomezsko. The project, titled Garden of Rare and Resilient Plants, engaged almost 100 housed and unhoused residents and became the launching pad for the program’s successful collaborative mural-making process, also known as the Garden Wall series. As a result of the Kensington program’s success, CMB launched a second official site in 2022, providing a similar same-day work and pay program experience with a focus on mural-making training, led by Tomezsko.
In CMB’s current iteration, 20 participants are selected each week, on a rolling basis, to work at one of two sites in Suburban Station and Kensington. Recovery Advocates and/or Certified Peer Specialists are on site daily through a partnership with DBHIDS. CareerLink provides CMB with an on-site representative at both locations once a week, who provides support around employment and other work-readiness resources. A community health worker through the city’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity also visits the Kensington site twice each week.
In early 2026, the City of Philadelphia announced that CMB will be a major part of the revitalization of Philly’s interim intercity bus facility, located at 1001 Filbert Street. The facility’s transformation will include exterior murals created through CMB, as well as same-day employment opportunities and connections to resources for unhoused individuals at and around the site.
Links to More Information:
Scattergood Foundation’s Same Day Work & Pay Program Strategic Plan (August 2021)
“Transformative Journeys: The Impact of the Color Me Back Program on Participants’ Lives” (June 26, 2024)
“Color Me Back: Reflecting on Four Years” (June 28, 2023)
More Color Me Back in the News:
WHYY: “Ukrainian artists come to Philly to collaborate on trauma-informed public art” (March 2025)
WHYY: “Philly Mural Arts shows off new works near Suburban Station as part of Color Me Back program” (July 2022)
Al Día: “Color Me Back: The program using art to brighten public spaces in Philly” (July 2021)
City of Philadelphia, “Same Day Pay Program: A Model for Accessible Employment” (July 2021)
Philadelphia Citizen: “Putting Art to Work” (August 2019)
CBS News, “New Mural Arts Program Transforming Lives Of Homeless Philadelphians While Beautifying City” (July 2019)