Kensington Community Resilience Fund | Bread & Roses Community Fund

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About the Kensington Community Resilience Fund

Rich in civic pride, cultural diversity, and neighbors who care deeply about one another and their community, the Greater Kensington neighborhood of Eastern North Philadelphia embodies the meaning of community resilience. As a result of years of disinvestment and lack of economic opportunity, this community has been particularly devastated by the ongoing opioid epidemic in Philadelphia. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these conditions while bringing significant economic challenges for families and local businesses.

Through these challenges, residents and community-based organizations have joined together to support one another and advocate for the quality of life improvements and opportunities they deserve. Area CDCs and social services agencies, faith-based organizations, and civic associations work tirelessly to build a community where community members can live safely and provide for themselves, but have been asked to do far too much with far too few resources.

The Kensington Community Resilience Fund (KCR Fund) answers this need through grants that will advance three key pillars: community empowerment, neighborhood investment, and economic opportunity. Core to its approach is a participatory grantmaking process that elevates resident and community provider experiences and priorities, placing the power to make funding decisions in the hands of those who know best – community members.

A public-private-community partnership between the community, regional funders, Bread & Roses Community Fund, and the City of Philadelphia, the KCR Fund will work to advance the following goals:

To promote wellness, build resilience, and improve the quality of life in the greater Kensington community
To increase agency and support equity and racial/social justice by having community partners and residents direct funding decisions
To build cohesion and connectivity among community providers, residents, and city agencies to support collaboration, information sharing, and alignment of services
To expand capacity of participants – both organizations and individuals to pursue sustainable, quality-of life focused programming to support the community
To serve as a catalyst and build the infrastructure to support long-term, sustained investment and partnership with funders in the Kensington community

To learn more about the KCR Fund and hear directly from residents participating in the fund, view the “Building a More Resilient Kensington Through Community-Driven Grantmaking” session presented at the October 2021 B.PHL Innovation Fest Conference.

Community members gather to dance and sing. — Photo: NKCDC/Lowell Brown

Round Two Grantees

On March 3, we announced the second round of grants from the KCR Fund, which went to 20 community-based organizations in the Kensington, Harrowgate, and Fairhill neighborhoods.

You can find Round One Grantees here.

Grant Focus Areas and Guiding Principles

Informed by resident surveys and determined by community providers and residents on the KCR Fund’s Community Advisory Committee, the KCR Fund will provide grants targeting the following six issue areas that have been identified as being most important to community residents. Applicants should be able to demonstrate how their work aligns with, advances, and supports at least one of these areas.

Public Safety and Gun Violence
Youth Development (birth to age 24)
Workforce Development and Training
Beautification and Blight Removal
Connecting Residents to Resources
Building Resilience Addressing Community Trauma

In addition to these issue areas, KCR Fund grantees should share a commitment to advancing the following guiding principles that cut across all key issues, either currently or in their future work:

Building social cohesion, collaboration, and connectivity
Utilizing trauma-informed principles and practices
Being informed by community voices
Advancing equity and racial and social justice
Demonstrating cultural competency and relevance
Being informed by data, evidence, and best practices

Kensington community organizers march for public safety solutions. — Photo: Cassandra Avila

Grantee Eligibility

The KCR Fund encourages any organization located or providing services in the Kensington community (see boundaries below) to apply for this new place-based funding opportunity. We particularly encourage smaller and grassroots organizations/projects to apply. Additional eligibility requirements include:

Must be physically located within the following boundaries in the Kensington, Harrowgate, and Fairhill communities, or bring a track record of providing programming/services in this area: Lehigh Ave. to Erie Ave./Castor Ave and 5th Street to Aramingo Ave
Have current 501(c)3 IRS status OR a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)3 status* and be in good standing with the IRS, including faith-based organizations (*We can help applicants identify a fiscal sponsor if they do not already have one)
Can demonstrate that funds from this grant will benefit community members living in the boundaries noted above
Can document how work supports at least one of the six funding issue areas stated above
Can document and report on use of grant funds
Demonstrate a commitment to equity and inclusion with respect to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical and cognitive ability, immigration status, and religion, among participants, board members, leadership team and staff
Have decision makers (board members, leadership team, staff) that reflect the communities being served by the organization/project

Grant Award Size and Uses

All grants will provide flexible, general operating support in the amount of $10,000. This level is intended to give grantees of all sizes the ability to think creatively about their work and to work sustainably over the one-year grant period, including being able to provide fair compensation to those carrying out the work. Small, grassroots organizations and community groups are far too often asked to work from a scarcity model and the KCR Fund seeks to rectify this mindset.

For example, for those who might typically seek smaller ($500 to $1,000) grants for one-time projects like cleanups or block parties, we encourage thinking about ways to build these projects out for a more sustainable impact. Please contact grants@breadrosesfund.org if you would like to discuss your proposal.

As general operating grants, funding can support a wide range of uses, including overhead costs (salaries, rent, etc.), program costs, training, events, supplies, stipends, etc. These grants are intended to give organizations and projects as much flexibility as possible to carry out their work supporting the Kensington community.

Kensington community members gatther for a clean-up project. — Photo: Impact Services

Deadline & How to Apply

The deadline to apply for round two has now passed.

Helpful Information and Tips

We held a virtual information session on November 3 to support applicants with questions about the process, application questions, or other details about the fund.

View the recording

You can also view the recording of our May 6, 2021 information session about the first round of grants.

Questions: For round one of the fund, we received and answered questions and posted them in this document. If you still have questions, please submit them to grants@breadrosesfund.org.

Fiscal Sponsorship: If your organization/project does not currently have a 501(c)3 or fiscal sponsor, we have identified several community-based organizations that are willing to serve as fiscal sponsors for KCR Fund applicants. If you would like more information, please email grants@breadrosesfund.org with the following information:

Project/organization name
Key staff or project leaders
Brief summary your work or specific initiative to be funded (1-2 paragraphs)
Location of your project/organization and the geography being served

Our Participatory Process

The Kensington Community Resilience Fund Community Advisory Committee gather over Zoom. — The Community Advisory Committee meeting in April 2021

Grantmaking priorities, levels, and eligibility criteria have been developed and approved by a Community Advisory Committee that is comprised of individuals representing Kensington-serving community-based organizations, civic associations, and faith-based organizations, many of whom are also Kensington residents.

Special thanks to the KCR Fund Community Advisory Committee for their dedication and contributions to this work:

Hector Ayala, Hispanic Community Counseling Service
Rev. Luis Centeno, Barnabas Transformation Ministries Inc.
Craig Cerrito, The Rock Ministries
Jannette Diaz, Congreso
Carolina DiGiorgio, Congreso
Edward Esquivel, Kensington Neighbors Association
Shannon Farrell, Harrowgate Civic Association
Maria Gonzalez, HACE
Susan Jones, Salvation Army
Pastor Richard Harris, Somerset Neighbors for Better Living
Casey O’Donnell, Impact Services
Debra Ortiz-Vasquez, Esperanza Health
Beatrice Rider, New Kensington CDC (NKCDC)
Harry Tapia, HACE
Patrick Vulgamore, Temple University Health System, Episcopal Campus

Grant applications will be reviewed and evaluated by a Community Grantmaking Committee that is comprised entirely of Kensington residents. These residents will provide recommendations for grants that will be approved by the Bread & Roses Community Fund board of directors.

In addition to funding support provided, grantees of the KCR Fund will be eligible to participate in a Peer Learning Community that will offer training, capacity building, and peer networking. Specific content shared through the Learning Community will be developed based on input from grantees and other community participants.

Supporters

This fund is possible because of generous support from the following funders:

Pictured (left to right): Douty Foundation, The Scattergood Foundation, 10 Kids Foundation, The Nelson Foundation, the City of Philadelphia, Patricia King Family Foundation, William Penn Foundation

Bread & Roses Community Fund serves as the fund administrator and facilitation partner.

History of the KCR Fund

The genesis of this Fund is the work of the Philadelphia Resilience Project (PRP), launched in 2018 as a holistic, multi-faceted emergency response to the situation on the ground in Kensington. The PRP activated and engaged 35 City agencies, as well as a diverse range of community providers, civic organizations, and neighborhood groups, and continued the extensive resident engagement that began with the Gurney Street encampment resolution process in 2017. The PRP has since transitioned into the Opioid Response Unit (ORU), a permanent office charged with implementing a set of long-term strategies to address the opioid crisis in key hot spots, including Kensington. A key mission embodied by both the PRP and ORU has been to mobilize community response, both among residents and partners on the ground, but also among the funding community in order to target critically needed resources and investments into the Kensington community.

In the spring of 2020, the Opioid Response Resource Mobilization Advisory Committee (ORRMAC), comprised of individuals from the funding community, corporate sector, and other institutional partner organizations, was established by the Managing Director’s Office and the ORU, in order to support the City’s efforts around funder engagement and coordination. Since the ORRMAC launched, members have explored various opportunities to support the Kensington community, with several members providing grants for various rapid response needs related to COVID-19, while others have led the planning of a pooled fund to leverage investments of a wide range of funders. This KCR Fund is the result of these efforts.

Make a gift to the Kensington Community Resilience Fund

The Kensington Community Resilience Fund welcomes contributions from foundations, corporations, and individual donors. You can make a gift to the Kensington Community Resilience Fund using our secure online form. Please contact Ashley Feuer-Edwards at ashley@afestrategies.com with any questions or to discuss a gift to the fund.