New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC)

Rite Aid Healthy Futures held their Strengthening Cities Summit last week in Cleveland, Ohio, where NKCDC's executive director, Dr. Bill McKinney, and Urban Agriculture Program Manager, Catherine Reuter, attended with other Rite Aid funded partners! Our team had the opportunity to meet with farmers and land stewards across the country and visited several food sites in Cleveland including Rid-All, Greater Cleveland Food Bank and Village Family Farms. Dr. McKinney moderated a session to highlight the food systems work of Food Access Raises Everyone, which builds capacity of community members most affected by the social determinants of health and partners with grassroots organizations. Funding from Rite Aid Healthy Futures allows NKCDC to support urban agriculture and community gardening across Kensington to improve health and wellness, increase access to nutritious food, and promote urban land sovereignty. We're grateful to learn from partners locally and across the U.S.! Thank you to Rite Aid Healthy Futures for your continued support and to all the growers and community organizations who made the conference a success!

Join us for an insightful exploration of how immigrant entrepreneurship shapes and revitalizes Philadelphia's commercial corridors in the workshop: Where Global is Local: Immigrant-Owned Businesses in Commercial Corridors with Yvonne Boye, Department of Commerce, Stephanie Michel, Olney Community Collaborative (N5SRP), Lee Nentwig, NKCDC, Sunny Phanthavong, Vientiane Bistro, Haoyi Shang, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, and Ying Jing, Artiva Hair Salon. Registration ends Monday! https://shorturl.at/mm8CY #PACDC2024EDC?#Immigration?#Philadelphia?#Philly?#Smallbusiness?#housingsecurity New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC) Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) Artiva Hair Salon Philadelphia Department of Commerce

This year, NKCDC received grant funding through the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund (PHARE), which will allow us to preserve homeownership and affordability in Kensington. We were proud to join state and local officials last Thursday as recipients of the PHARE grant when Governor Shapiro announced Pennsylvania’s first ever Housing Action Plan: an executive order which will help to preserve existing housing, build new affordable housing, address houselessness, and repair aging homes throughout Pennsylvania. Just like Whole Home Repair Program Senator Saval authored (which is a critical investment to ensure residents can remain in their homes), this new executive order to address the affordable housing shortage in Pennsylvania is essential to fighting displacement and preserving our communities.

Check out this job at New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC): Commercial Corridor Coordinator

Our partnership with New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC) is off to a fantastic start. So far, we have successfully: -Piloted two free drop-off locations -Launched a building-wide composting program at a 51-unit affordable housing building, -Launched an expanded curbside composting pilot program with over 20 sign-ups in the first week and -Kept nearly 5,000 lbs of food waste out of landfills All at no cost to Kensington residents!?Want to learn more? Sign up for updates here: https://lnkd.in/enRrBpbV ???Catch Us Slinging Compost This Saturday at NKCDC’s Fall Native?Plant?Sale!?? Join us this?Saturday, September 14th?for a fun-filled day of?plants?and compost at the Fall Native?Plant?Sale?hosted by NKCDC. We'll be at the former Greensgrow site helping you gear up for a sustainable fall season! ??2501 E. Cumberland Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125 ??10AM - 1PM ???Native?plants?from?Good Host Plants & fall veggies, herbs and flowers from Star Apple Nursery.

In 2021, after the sudden closure of the SEPTA Somerset El station, residents, community groups, SEPTA employees, elected officials, and neighborhood nonprofits came together to march for Safety and Solutions. This moment for collective action and resistance is an anchor event that has led to our current moment. Historically, outside stakeholders have designed and implemented plans for Kensington and have left residents out of the planning, implementation, and evaluation process. Reversing decades of isolation and disinvestment requires coordination and mobilization of significant resources that are invested to improve the lives of current residents. Co-Creating Kensington, a community-driven planning and implementation process, advocates for just that. Over 650 residents have been coming together to create a shared vision for Kensington so that we can begin to address the historical inequities and intersecting crises together. For the first time, we have an opportunity for community-driven change if everyone can commit to and continue adopting actionable steps to connect a theory of change that centers trauma-informed, participatory, and comprehensive strategies with proposed or implemented intervention strategies for Kensington from government and private sector stakeholders. Learn more about this process at the report Co-Creating Kensington: Alignment, linked in our bio or at https://lnkd.in/eyura-J6.

We joined Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities today at City Hall to advocate for affordable and stable housing for Philadelphia residents who need it most. PCAC’s Housing Justice Campaign outlines how Area Median Income, which for Philadelphia is $114,700 because it includes wealthier suburban areas and surrounding counties, does not accurately portray Philadelphia's affordability. Most programs that are intended to create or sustain affordable housing are based off of Philadelphia’s AMI ($114,700). What does this mean? Most programs designed for affordability aren’t actually meeting the existing needs of Philadelphia residents who could benefit most from affordable housing. In Kensington, the median income is $29,000 - nearly 25% of Philadelphia’s AMI. Factor in rapid market rate development, rising home costs, and increases in property taxes, and Kensington residents are at a significant risk of displacement. Through an ongoing planning and implementation process in Kensington, over 650 community members in Kensington have been identifying housing stability as one of six priorities to address for neighborhood revitalization. The recommendations outlined in PCAC’s Housing Justice Campaign can begin to address the housing crisis in Kensington and throughout the city. Head here to read their report: https://lnkd.in/eYFJkmd9 and learn more about what Kensington residents are defining as their priorities here: https://lnkd.in/eyura-J6.

As part of an ongoing and participatory planning and implementation process in Kensington, over 650 community members have been engaging with us and one another to identify their priorities for neighborhood revitalization. Through this ongoing process, six community-identified priorities have emerged: Public Spaces, Community Health, Investing in Human Capital, Housing Stability, Public Safety, and Economic Development. To develop sustainable solutions in Kensington and ensure we are all successful, any investment or strategy must align with the community’s self-determined priorities and be informed by resident expertise. Learn more about this co-created process and suggestions to align with the community’s priorities at https://lnkd.in/eyura-J6.

Join our growing team! NKCDC is hiring a National Health Corps member! The NHC Supportive Housing CHW will work with NKCDC's resident services team to help grow and prepare the program to better serve individuals and families who are current tenants of our affordable apartment buildings. They'll also work to identify structural oppression and barriers to housing and research common pathways that lead to houselessness to help inform how NKCDC can best support these populations towards housing security. The National Health Corps member is service position with benefits and stipend pay. To apply to serve, head here: https://lnkd.in/e8QJWbF4! For questions, you can reach out to Renee Horst [email protected] and Debra Ortiz-Vasquez at [email protected].

This summer, NKCDC’s Urban Agriculture and Nutrition Education teams were out at Tusculum Gateway Garden every other Tuesday grilling in the garden. We cooked, ate, and witnessed the garden grow and flourish all summer long, even incorporating produce freshly harvested from the garden in each meal (like this purple basil!). Every community cookout also used seasonal veggies that can be found in local grocery and corner stores in the neighborhood. Thanks to all of our partners and neighbors who came out to eat, pick flowers, water plants, taste veggies, and be in community with us and one another! We’ve loved cooking, eating, and composting together all summer long. Stay tuned for more food systems work happening in Kensington in the coming months!