In the summer of 2017, through a generous donation from Lew and Janet Klein, PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com invited five former students (Jonathan Ginsburg, Jared Phillips, Ramona Roberts, Brianna Spause and Bob Stewart) to participate in a fellowship program to continue reporting throughout the summer.
Each week we posted stories online about the happenings of particular neighborhoods from the previous week, what was coming up the following week, various how-tos and explainer stories, as well as feature stories.
Our reporters found out the process of becoming a block captain, getting neighborhood streets cleaned up,overturning wrongful convictions and how to select a high school. They also spoke to folks at the city’s Office of Homeless Services, the Office of Adult Education, city council members, and institutions such as Casa del Carmen and Pew Charitable Trusts, among various other stories.
They also took deep dives and a look into what private-public partnerships look like surrounding public property, the refugee and immigrants experience when coming to Philadelphia and what having or not having a high-school degree can mean in today’s economy.
Many of the packages produced are evergreen and will provide helpful information for the people, communities and neighborhoods long after they move off the website’s front page. In the spirit of this and trying to provide a service to residentsof Philadelphia, we decided to turn the stories into magazine.
We have been trying to make sure the people and places we covered received copies, there’s much more to go around.
You can check out the digital version here, or email us if you’d like a physical copy.
Photos by Brianna Spause, Bob Stewart and George Miller.
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