The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education announced on December 7 that it has secured $3 million in funding from anonymous donors to preserve the Boy Scout Tract, the 24-acre parcel of land whose potential sale to developers over the summer caused a firestorm of community opposition. The center began exploring a sale after they received
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Nineteen University of Pennsylvania students were arrested for staging a protest at the Penn-Yale homecoming football game on October 22. The students, members of Fossil Free Penn (FFP), were charged with defiant trespass after storming the field at the end of the halftime show carrying banners and chanting, “Which side are you on?” Prior to
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portrait by Mark Likosky “Anything I list as an accomplishment resulted from collective power and voice. Social justice—whether for land and food sovereignty, education access, housing rights or protection from police abuse—must center on collaboration, shared leadership and community power. And on the crucial fact that Black lives matter—all Black lives.”— AC Amy Laura Cahn
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portrait by Mark Likosky “In the best of all worlds, we could buy local at competitive prices, growing jobs and the local economy.”— PB Sometimes we need a little help from our friends. It’s a simple idea that inspired the creation in 1854 of the Merchants Fund, which was there to step in and help
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portrait by Mark Likosky “Bricks and mortar alone do not build healthy and sustainable communities… the shared vision and engagement of residents into the development of the physical and quality of life planning is the key ingredient to stewardship of the community’s future.” — NR You can’t build a neighborhood or a community without building
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portrait by Mark Likosky “It’s all about finding those ways to connect with each other, and for us, that always happens around the dining room table.” — TG & HJ Some neighbors will lend you a hammer, but the really good ones will work with you to build up your community. It helps when you live
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portrait by Mark Likosky “I was privileged as a youngster to live on a North Philadelphia block with neighborhood families who celebrated and thrived on the simple aspects of life: family, clean streets, safe places for children to play, learn and love. Today, I’m sure that my work and service to the community is inspired
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portrait by Mark Likosky “Energy efficiency is such a win-win. It truly is the cleanest, cheapest, safest and fastest energy resource, and it creates the most local jobs. In a city like Philadelphia, it’s also transformative. Harnessing our energy efficiency resource will transform our energy economy and enable our wonderful old buildings to last another
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portrait by Mark Likosky “When I found myself back in my childhood neighborhood, ravaged by time, I set a course that—through guerilla gardening with children on crime-ridden parcels—has methodically proven that by reclaiming land and respecting human life, no matter how depressed, a community can recreate itself, catalyzing individual and community health.” — SW It’s time
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portrait by Mark Likosky “Amazing things happen in communities when its most resilient members—youth—are empowered to visibly take the lead in designing, building and problem-solving for its future.” — AG Any designer can draft plans. This one is drafting an army of doers, makers and earth-shakers. Alex Gilliam is the indomitable force behind the design consultancy
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