Point Breeze: Urban Farmer Shares His Craft With Community
Twenty-seven-year-old Atiba Ellerby is a part-time barista and full-time urban farmer. When he’s not making coffee at The Pharmacy, a coffee shop in Point Breeze, he is tending to gardens throughout the city. Farming is a craft he learned 14 years ago through the Urban Nutrition Initiative. How do you feel you impact your community? […]
Latinx: Hispanic-Owned Businesses Continue To Grow in the Greater Philadelphia Region
On a national level, the Latinx baby boom is expected to increase the population by 167% in the next thirty years. With an ever growing population of about 1.6 million residents, the Latinx community in Philadelphia brings vitality not only culturally but economically. Concentrated in Hispanic-populated areas, these businesses are multiplying just as fast as […]
Southwest: The Rewards of Helping a Community Grow
Donna Henry loves the feeling of helping someone in a tough situation. It’s part of why she loves working for the Southwest Community Development Corporation. She first went to the Southwest CDC for a position she thought was preservation-based. She was quickly appointed the executive director of the organization, a position she has held for […]
Kingsessing: African Cultural Alliance Pushes For Small Businesses
As a young child in Liberia helping her mother and aunt in the kitchen, Nafisa Sillah stumbled upon her passion for cooking. “I would mess up the food but I would fix it, cook, cook, and then, I just enjoyed it,” Sillah said. “I would cook and feed everybody, even if I don’t eat.” Once […]
Kingsessing: In Changing Neighborhood, ‘Play Terrains’ Project Opens Dialogue
Meghan Talarowski thinks play can bring anyone together. “There’s no race, there’s no economic status related to play,” Talarowski said. “Everybody plays. That’s what we do. It’s like a basic human nature.” Talarowski, a landscape architect, developed such a passion for play that she made it her career. Almost three years ago, she founded Studio […]
Technology: New Grant Helps Job Seekers in Southwest Philadelphia
As more job applications migrate to websites, under-served communities struggle to connect with opportunities. At the Southwest Community Development Corporation and the Paschalville Library branch, new computers purchased with grant money offer applicants a chance to find work and learn new skills to explore the digital landscape. The CDC opened a Job Readiness Center to help job seekers in […]
Kingsessing: Seniors Find Creative Outlet At Open Mic
Poems about New York and chapters from a romance novel echoed through the Kingsessing Library’s sunlit basement. On Sept. 28, the library hosted an open mic poetry night for older adults— the first of many, Rachel Hayes hopes. “I think it’s important for the community,” Kingsessing Library Supervisor Hayes said. “Anything positive, anything that builds […]
Southwest Philadelphia: Local Churches Open Its Doors To The Hungry
While it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact number of homeless individuals living within a city, the city of Philadelphia’s count as of January 2016 determined 705 people living within the city were entirely unsheltered. Local nonprofit organization Project HOME states one of the main causes of homelessness is poverty, which stems from lack of jobs at competitive living wages. With […]
Sustainability: The Philadelphia Orchard Project Provides Fresh Fruit to Communities
Just when you think the fast-paced, industrialized, city life is dry and desolate, the Philadelphia Orchard Project brings nature’s beauties to brighten up Philly’s urban neighborhoods. As a nonprofit, community-based organization, the Philadelphia Orchard Project transforms vacant lots, schoolyards, community gardens and areas in low-wealth neighborhoods into green spaces to harvest useful and edible plants for the […]
Amateur Sports: Where People Run Around On Broomsticks and Peg People with Dodgeballs
The name of the game is quidditch. Based off J.K. Rowling’s fantasy literature series Harry Potter, United States Qudditch was founded in 2010. Quidditch is a co-ed contact sport that is a mixture of dodgeball, flag football and rugby. There are seven athletes on the field for each team at all times, and players must […]