We are proud to announce the first round of Kensington Community Resilience Fund grants. The Kensington Community Resilience Fund is a public-private-community partnership between the Kensington community, regional funders, Bread & Roses Community Fund, and the city of Philadelphia. The fund supports organizations in the Kensington, Harrowgate, and Fairhill neighborhoods that are working to build a community in which all residents can thrive.
On July 14, the Community Advisory Committee for the fund announced that $10,000 grants were awarded to twenty grantees:
Community Center at Visitation provides a safe place to connect residents to resources and a central location for recreation, educational programs, and health services. A grant from this fund will support one year of hosting family-friendly monthly dinners and resource fairs.
Good Host Plants is a native plant nursery promoting biodiversity in the region by growing open-pollinated, local-ecotype plants. A grant from this fund will help them convert five to ten empty lots into community pollinator gardens.
Harrowgate Civic Association strives to help the Harrowgate community become a safe and beautiful community. This grant will go toward their plan to help residents with neighborhood cleaning by distributing trash cans and other cleaning supplies.
Hart Lane Neighborhood Farm is a group of neighbors and stakeholders dedicated to creating and tending to a healing, safe urban farm in the Kensington community. This grant will help them replace broken sidewalks in their garden and reconnect the space safely to the neighborhood with an ADA- compliant access point.
Kensington Soccer Club provides high-quality soccer and youth development programming for everyone, regardless of ability to pay. This grant will support their core programming, which includes connecting families to legal assistance, health care, college financial aid, and leadership development.
Papermill Food Hub is an all-volunteer operation that provides weekly deliveries of food, diapers, and other supplies to Kensington, Fishtown, and Port Richmond families in need. This grant will support them in renting permanent space to store and prepare food for their weekly deliveries, launch a garden to grow produce for families, and hire a staff member to lead garden classes with neighborhood children.
Photography Without Borders teaches young artists to tell their stories through photography to a wider audience. This grant will be used to expand their youth photography program to Kensington Health Sciences Academy in an after-school setting.
Power Street Theatre is dedicated to connecting multicultural and intergenerational communities through the performing arts by sharing original stories that innovate and inspire. This grant will support their programs, including free bilingual performance and playwriting classes.
Providence Center provides children, teens, and adults a safe space to overcome trauma and grow to their full potential. This grant will be used to hire former Trauma Ambassadors in the recruitment and training of a new cohort.
Ride Free provides Kensington- area youth with opportunities for creative self-expression, skill-building, and mentorship that help them envision a positive future and avoid or build pathways out of cycles of trauma, violence, and incarceration. This grant will complete their new studio’s fit-out with professional-grade instruments and equipment.
Rock Ministries directly addresses many of the needs of the Kensington neighborhood: youth activities, addictions treatment assistance, homelessness, GED education, street cleaning, beautification, and more. This grant will fund a subscription to medical record software that tracks patient treatment and a mini-split heating/cooling system to operate their Wellness Center year-round.
Sisters Returning Home help women returning from prison to re-establish connections to family and community and build and develop self-esteem, self-respect, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency. This grant will support ongoing programming and beds and bedding for clients transitioning into long-term housing.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph Welcome Center offers immigrants and others opportunities to access education, support and free legal services, and programs leading to self-sufficiency. This grant will improve their ESOL and Citizenship Test Preparation Classes and expand their Outreach program that provides food and gift cards to students.
Taller Puertorriqueño is a community-based cultural organization whose primary purpose is to preserve, develop, and promote Puerto Rican arts and culture. This grant will support investments in staff, upgrading data entry technology capacity, general operations, and educational arts programming.
Team NAS is a volunteer group of resident leaders that elevates neighborhood voices, connects residents to resources that promote wellness, and addresses inequities through advocacy and local action. This grant will support them in creating a cooperative neighborhood-wide block initiative through ongoing outreach, providing needed equipment, and cultivating platforms for neighborhood exchange and celebration.
The Block Gives Back targets issues within the Philadelphia community and devises plans to recruit local volunteers, businesses, organizations, and community leaders to help in working toward a solution. This grant will be used to support ongoing programming such as affordable events and services to youth aged 5-24 in the Kensington neighborhood.
The Salvation Army operates the New Day Drop-In Center, a safe, trauma-informed, welcoming, and non-judgmental space for sex workers and survivors of human trafficking. These funds will be used to maintain staff, cover transportation costs to appointments, purchase supplies for clients, secure increased security measures, and other operational costs.
The Simple Way supports neighbors in building a neighborhood where everyone can belong and thrive and collaborates locally to increase neighborhood food security. This grant will be used to pay one of their current volunteers, digitize systems, and purchase inventory software.
Urban Extreme Youth Development helps to rebuild communities by influencing the lives of youth and their families in addressing education, health, economic, and social needs. This grant will help them implement programming for mentoring, youth community engagement, and family engagement and support a third Bold and Beautiful Girls Conference to build power among female Kensington High School students.
Youth United for Change develops young leaders in Philadelphia with a critical political, historical, and economic understanding of society and empowers them to improve the quality of their lives and communities. This grant will provide stipends for members to participate in community outreach efforts for their upcoming community campaign dealing with trash and litter.