Thanks to an $82,000 grant from The Barra Foundation, University City District’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI) will move employment training site, West Philadelphia Skills Center for Economic Advancement, from pilot phase to a fully-integrated, holistic approach.

The Center for Economic Advancement, located at Community College of Philadelphia West on 47^th and Chestnut Streets, was opened in 2012 as an intensive soft job skill training site that helps bridge the employment gap in West Philadelphia. The Barra grant will allow WPSI, which launched in 2010 to address issues of unemployment and poverty in the community, to implement the most effective strategies tested during the Center’s pilot phase over the last year.

“From recruitment, assessment and selection to programming and evaluation plans, we have studied which approaches work best with our participants and our employers,” WPSI Director Sheila Ireland told West Philly Local. “Although we will maintain a stance of continuous improvement, we know feel that we have a good understanding of what works.”

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ 2013 State of the City, the median household income for the University City region is $21,801, with 48.1 percent of residents living in poverty. In West Philadelphia’s West Market region, the numbers are slightly higher—$26,487 and 33.8 percent. West Philadelphia Skills Initiative aims to change that tide by connecting local residents with partnering employers that have operations in West Philadelphia through its three programs: the Center for Economic Advancement, Job Pipelines, and the Youth Employment Network. Last year, WPSI worked with over 130 participants across all three programs, which either provide training or professional internships in the medical assistance, information technology, landscaping, lab technology, administrative, and security industries among others.  Continue Reading

The tip of Cedar shot from Catherine Street looking east in 1955, a few years before the founding of Cedar Park Neighbors. Photo from Phillyhistory.org

Family, friends and neighbors are celebrating the life of Gerald McHugh Sr., the 80-year resident of Cedar Park and a co-founder, more than 50 years ago, of the civic association Cedar Park Neighbors, who died last week.

A viewing for McHugh, who was 92, will be held at Saint Francis de Sales (4625 Springfield Ave.) this evening at 6 p.m. and again tomorrow (Friday) at 10 a.m.

The son of Irish immigrants, McHugh lived in the Cedar Park neighborhood for the first 80 years of his life. He operated a real estate business for many years out of a storefront office at 48th and Baltimore (now the  Gold Standard Cafe).

McHugh founded Cedar Park Neighbors in 1960 in part to help foster racial diversity and harmony in the neighborhood. Many white residents in Cedar Park and across Philadelphia fled the city for the suburbs in the 1960s and 70s. Cedar Park Neighbors remains a vital force in the civic life of residents in that part of West Philadelphia.

McHugh passed away in his daughter’s home in Cedar Park.

West Philly-based Scribe Video Center kicks off its annual, month-long Street Movies! series on Thursday, Aug 1. Street Movies!, which is now a citywide event thanks to Scribe’s collaboration with community groups in various sections and neighborhoods in the city, will again bring entertaining as well as thought-provoking independent films and live performances outdoors.

Street Movies! uses short films as “a springboard to facilitate audience discussion about issues like immigration, the environment, and education,” according to Scribe Program Associate Jonathan Farbowitz.

This year’s lineup of animated, documentary and narrative shorts focuses on youth-produced videos and features films about refugees, the environment and the arts heritage of Philadelphia. The Street Movies! program also includes short animations from Nigeria and Kenya, as well as from New York-based StoryCorps’ oral history series.

In addition to film, select Street Movies! events open with a live performance. This year’s featured performers include renowned poet Ursula Rucker and guitarist Tim Motzer, musicians from Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, the South East Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC)’s Hip-Hop Heritage B-Boy Crew, and the all-female drumming group Music Over Matter. Notable media personalities and community leaders serve as emcees for each Street Movies! event, and facilitate post-screening discussions with the audience.

All events start at 7:45 p.m. and are free, open to the public and family-friendly.

In West Philly, there will be two screenings: in the Haddington section on Thursday, Aug 1 and in Cobbs Creek on Wednesday, Aug 21. More details below.

Thursday, August, 1
Haddington
Host: Urban Tree Connection
Location: The Memorial Garden
536 North 54th Street
Screening: Can’t Hold Me Back, about a first-generation high school graduate, youth-produced Messages in Motion films, and other shorts about the environment and other issues affecting youth.
Opening performance: Ursula Rucker and Tim Motzer
Rain Date: Monday, August 5

Wednesday, August 21
Cobbs Creek
Host: Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center (CCCEC)
Location: CCCEC
700 Cobbs Creek Parkway (63^rd Street and Catherine Street) by the creek
Screening: Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani, a short film about the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker.
Emcee: Serena Reed
Rain Location: CCCEC Building

For more information, please visit: http://www.scribe.org/streetmovies or the Street Movies! Facebook page.

A drawing of the proposed building at 43rd and Baltimore. The five-story section in the foreground would include first-floor retail.

The developers of 4224 Baltimore Ave. – across from Clark Park – unveiled drawings during a public meeting last night of a modern, glassy residential building that would include a terraced section that peaks at 10 floors and includes upscale condos.

The design also includes a 5-story section on the corner of 43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue with first-floor commercial units that would wrap around the structure and, if built, could house a large, street-level restaurant with outdoor seating along 43rd Street. A large rooftop terrace on this section would overlook the park.

The “if built” part is important. The development firm that is proposing the project, U3 Ventures, is a liaison between the community and the property owners, Clarkmore Group LLC, have not seen the drawings. There is no guarantee that the ownership group, which paid $3.5 million for the property in 2008, will go for the plan.

Clarkmore currently has as conditional permit to build a four-story, 92-unit apartment building with six parking spaces. That building would unlikely include any retail space. U3 is hoping the group can be persuaded to build a larger building that could support retail and underground parking. A large majority of the approximately 40 community members attending last night’s meeting gave tacit approval to the plan, which includes 108 rental units – mostly one bedrooms – and 55 resident-owned condos (though that number could drop considerably if the condos are built larger). Continue Reading

63-year-old Robert Jean-Louis who suffers from dementia and who went missing on Tuesday morning, has been found, according to a neighbor who knows his family.

Mr. Jean-Louis was found by the police on Wednesday night at about 10:30 p.m. and taken to the hospital where he later was reunited with his family. Many thanks to everyone who shared the alert about him and who helped look for him.

Photo courtesy of Bartram’s Garden.

As we first reported last fall, the Bartram’s Mile project plan in Southwest Philadelphia is currently being drawn up. Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, Bartram’s Garden, and the Schuylkill River Development Corporation are creating the plan and they are asking for your input in two public meetings over the next few days, including one tonight (Wednesday).

The Mile is proposed as a 1.1 mile extension of the Schuylkill River Trail and adjacent neighborhood park space that will run from the Grays Ferry Bridge to 58th Street along the river. Public input has been sought throughout the first phase of the project and now that the next phase of design has begun, the project stakeholders want to invite you to give your input once again.

Design drawings were made in early 2013 to show early ideas based off the last round of public input. They can be found by clicking on this link and going to the “Phase I Conceptual Design Results.” The planners have updated these ideas and are now holding two civic feedback sessions where they will present the concepts and ask residents for their thoughts and opinions.

Here is more information about the meetings:

Wednesday, July 24
6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Bartram Village Community Room
5404 Gibson Drive
Same entrance off Lindbergh as Bartram’s Garden, then bear right instead of left

Monday, July 29
6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Bartram’s Garden
5400 Lindbergh Boulevard
Coach House

Dinner will be provided at both meetings. Staff will be divided up into various tables/stations to respond to specific questions. Please RSVP by writing to: praxis@design.upenn.edu or calling 215-573-8720.