Seven schools and many families living in the federally-designated Promise Zone will benefit from a $30 million, multi-year grant to a consortium led by Drexel University. Drexel President John Fry, Mayor Jim Kenney, Superintendent Dr. William Hite, community members and area elected officials gathered at Morton McMichael Elementary School on Wednesday to announce that the community has won the 2016 Promise Neighborhoods Program Implementation Grant Competition.

The grant provides up to $30 million over five years. The $6 million award that was announced yesterday provides the first year of funding. Some $76 million in matching funds have also been secured from the City and area non-profits, including the William Penn and Lenfest Foundations.

The grant will provide “enrichment” for families living in the Promise Neighborhood, which mirrors the boundaries of the Promise Zone and stretches from the Schuylkill River to 48th Street, and from Girard Avenue to Sansom Street (see map). The grant will also support the following schools: Belmont Charter (K-4); Locke Elementary (K-8); Morton McMichael Elementary (K-8); Martha Washington Elementary (K-8); Samuel Powel Elementary (K-4); SLA Middle School (5-8) and West Philadelphia High School (9-12), according to a Drexel statement.  Continue Reading

Here’s a chance to participate in an important neighborhood planning process. Residents are invited to an open house on Wednesday, Dec. 2 to provide feedback on the draft Action Plan for the West Philadelphia Promise Zone. The open house will be held at People’s Emergency Center Community Room (325 North 39th Street). Participants are welcome to come anytime between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. to review key aspects of the Action Plan, and provide feedback.

At the open house, you can learn about:

• Strategies to help residents in economic development, education, health and wellness, housing, and public safety.
• The planning process that helped develop the Promise Zone Action Plan.
• Opportunities for ongoing public involvement.

Your feedback can help guide important work in the neighborhoods, designated by President Barack Obama as the Promise Zone, and in some adjacent areas, including Belmont, East Parkside, Mantua, Mill Creek, Powelton Village, Saunders Park, Spruce Hill and Walnut Hill.

You can register for the meeting here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/promise-zone-community-meeting-tickets-19431205258

As you may know, actor Kevin Bacon’s father, Edmund Bacon, was born in West Philadelphia and was a renowned architect and Philadelphia city planner. Kevin and his brother, well-known musician Michael Bacon, are encouraging both students and professionals to be part of the 2016 Better Philadelphia Challenge with a chance to win $5,000. The annual urban design competition was founded in 2006 in memory of Ed Bacon.

The 2016 competition focuses on the Mantua/Belmont section of West Philadelphia, which was designated as a “Promise Zone” by President Obama.

“As part of this neighborhood’s development, what physical design interventions could encourage healthy and active lifestyles, thereby improving public health among residents?” reads the competition announcement.  Continue Reading

Julián Castro, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be in town on Friday, Sept. 5 to tour parts of West Philly designated as a Promise Zone.

Castro will be in parts of Mantua, Powelton, West Powelton and Belmont. The tour is related to the recent $4 million initiative by the William Penn Foundation and Drexel University to transform early childhood education in West Philly. The initiative seeks to increase the number of neighborhood children in high-quality child care and to raise children’s performance on literacy tests.

Project organizers hope that improving early childhood education is the first step toward changing life in the Promise Zone, which includes some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.

Neighborhoods included in a “Promise Zone” are placed in the front of the line for federal grants and aid in an effort to help create jobs, reduce violent crime, improve educational opportunities and assist local leaders navigate federal programs.
 

The West Philadelphia neighborhoods of Mantua, Mill Creek, Powelton Village, Belmont and Parkside have never been short on hope, dreams and promise. But they have often been short on funding.

That will very likely change now that these areas have been declared a federally designated “promise zone,” which makes them more likely to get future federal funding. About half of the zone’s approximately 35,000 residents live in poverty. The zone runs from Girard Avenue south to Sansom Street and 48th Street east to the Schuylkill River.

Here are some reactions on Twitter to the announcement last week:

We’ve always believed that our community had #promise! Excited for the potential the #promisezone funds will bring! http://t.co/UaMxXLDRAz

— PEC (@PECCaresPhilly) January 10, 2014

Pres @BarackObama at the #PromiseZone designation announcement. Phila is proud to receive this award. pic.twitter.com/pZBnL7DvFm — Michael A. Nutter (@Michael_Nutter) January 9, 2014

Hope the #promisezone activities in #phl include voter education. Voting -> Power -> Economic Power http://t.co/SO3rR1gSGn — Stephanie Singer (@sfsinger) January 10, 2014

Obama Designates Philadelphia as A Promise Zone, Drexel Will Play a Key Role in the Education Effort http://t.co/gGoKTOLhYV #Drexel

— Drexel U. News (@DrexelNews) January 10, 2014

The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Jeff Gammage wrote a lengthy story published today that includes reactions from many of the players involved. They include grassroots organizations like the Mantua Civic Association and major nearby institutions like Drexel University. Wilford Shamlin III has a story in today’s Philadelphia Tribune on Drexel’s work with schools in the area.

The key strategies in the area include (from the White House website):

• Putting people back to work through skills training and adult education; classes on small business development to support entrepreneurs; loans and technical assistance for small resident-owned businesses; and the development of a supermarket providing both jobs and access to healthy food.

• Improving high-quality education to prepare children for careers, in partnership with Drexel University and the William Penn Foundation, through increasing data-driven instruction that informs teacher professional development; developing school cultures that are conducive to teaching and learning; mentoring middle and high school youth with focus on college access and readiness; and increasing parent engagement.

• Preventing and reducing crime in order to attract new residents and long-term investments, through strategies such as focused deterrence, hot spots policing, and foot patrol. 

These neighborhoods have heard “promises” before. University City High School, for example, was renamed “University City Promise Academy” during the 2010-2011 school year. Two years later it was closed. So as the dust settles from the announcement we look forward to bringing you future posts on actual projects and how to get involved with them.