Powelton Village: Park Cleanup Initiative Brings Both Community And University Students Together
Love Your Park, a citywide initiative to keep Philadelphia’s parks clean, had it’s fall cleanup Saturday morning on Nov. 11 at Saunders Park on 39th Street and Powelton Avenue. Community members and Drexel University students came together to pick up leaves, throw out trash and begin planting flowers that would bloom by spring. The initiative does […]
Bartram’s Garden: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Plants Opportunities For People Leaving Prison
Darnell Drayton didn’t know anything about landscaping or gardening before joining the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s (PHS) Roots to Re-entry program. Drayton (pictured above) just wanted something to do while in prison. “I didn’t want to be in a cage all day,” he said. He completed the program and was taught how to landscape so he […]
Overbrook Farms: Community Members Memorialize, Demonstrate At New Wilson Goode Sign
On the 2400 block of North 59th Street, just below the newly named W. Wilson Goode Sr. Way, stands a four-foot-tall shrine that reads, “To honor former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. with a street, is to dishonor the 11 MOVE ancestors and the Osage Avenue/Pine Street neighbors.” The shrine was created by Philadelphia activist […]
Mill Creek: Building And Serving The Community Through Art
Every Saturday this past October, children and residents have gathered at the Mill Creek Recreation Center, 4700 Brown St., for art classes hosted by the community group Fine Art Through Our Eyes (FATOE). The classes run through the beginning of December, This past week, the class celebrated the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, which translates to […]
Powelton Village: Community Education Center Actors Create Self-Narratives
The Community Education Center, located at 3500 Lancaster Ave., is a nonprofit organization founded by community members in 1973. Housed in a former Quaker school and meetinghouse, the building is now filled with artists of all forms. On any given day, visitors can find African dance classes, yoga sessions, art workshops and more. The space […]
Mill Creek: Pushing Millennials To Have A Seat At The Table
Ted Smith, 38, is often the youngest person in the room when attending various community meetings in West Philadelphia. Smith, born and raised in Mill Creek, said that while growing up, he often woke up and went to bed angry because of the lack of care for his community. One thing that particularly bothered him was […]
Mill Creek: Free Fried Fish Platters Encourage Residents To Vote
Many West Philadelphia residents registered to vote for the first time, then ate in celebration along 47th and Brown streets as The Men of Mill Creek, along with other Mill Creek organizations, ran their first voter registration drive Saturday, Oct. 6. This is the first time five local groups came together for any community development […]
Haverford North: The Health And Resource Festival Returns To West Philly
St. Ignatius Nursing and Rehab Center collaborated with Alain Locke School, West Philadelphia Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Department of Public Health to bring back the Health and Resource Festival Saturday Sept. 29, which had been absent from the neighborhood since 2015. The center started what had been the annual festival in the early […]
Mill Creek: Groups Collaborate To Build A Stronger Community
Pastor Derrick Long (pictured above), leader of the faith-based nonprofit organization Men of Mill Creek, wants community activism in Philadelphia to live on after he is gone. Young people are the way to do it, he said. “I’m happy young people are here to keep the legacy,” he said to a small crowd of other community […]
Mantua: Despite Lack Of Funding, Miles Mack Recreation Center Continues On
Khadijah Muhammad, the on-site supervisor at the Miles Mack Recreation center, prepared about three dozen hot dogs for neighborhood children after school on Friday, Sept. 14. Every day, she makes lunch for children that come through the recreation center, located at 36th and Aspen streets. She pays for most of the food out of her […]