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 […]
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 […]
Southwest Philadelphia: African Cultural Alliance Seeks to Help
The African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA) has stood as a focal point in the Southwest Philadelphia community for the past 15 years. Founded in 1999, the nonprofit organization started out with the goal of being an institution based around arts and music, but over time ACANA has grown into something more. From providing […]
Southwest: Training Program for Troubled Youth
For the past several days, students from the Southwest have been collecting signatures regarding the placement of the Philadelphia Training Program within the former M.A.B. Paint Factory, which is rumored to soon be turned into a prison. John McCullough, director of the Philadelphia Training Program, explained that the factory would be used to offer vocational skills training […]