#onthegroundphilly

How does a neighborhood offer social services for the homeless without hindering its relationships within the community? With its mission firmly planted in "creating community through the power of art", Gayle Isa, Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative, reached out to the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission to give the Sunday Breakfast Dining Hall a makeover. In Collaboration with Cecil Baker + Partners, Asian Arts Initiative, and Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission created a space accessible for those in need.

Join StoryUP! on Saturday, April 9th starting at 2pm for a Free Show at Smith Memorial Playground, located at 3500 Reservoir Drive in East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Co-sponsored by Flying Kite’s On the Ground program  and hosted by Smith Playground this free family event is a perfect way to kick off the playground season! 

Watch improvisational actors present a wildly imaginable show based on ideas and stories from children in the audience. Recommended for ages five and up, this show is going to be a hit! 

Words at Play Vocabulary Initiative is a community-wide, grant-funded initiative taking place at Cecil B. Moore and Widener libraries, both located in North Philadelphia, west of Broad Street. The grant’s focus is families with children ages birth to 5 years. Through playing, singing, and reading at “Play Parties”, families will discover new ideas to help strengthen their child’s vocabulary while playing with their children. Five organizations are working collaboratively to offer this initiative: the Free Library of Philadelphia, The Franklin Institute, the Kimmel Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Zoo. PNC Grow Up Great® and PNC Crezca con Éxito form a $350 million, multi-year, English/Spanish initiative to help prepare children — particularly underserved children — from birth to age 5 for success in school and life. Grow Up Great was founded in 2004 by The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

This past Sunday, we had the pleasure of being a part of The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s Community Bike Build at First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. In just two hours, volunteers and friends of Neighborhood Bike Works, Philly Pump Track, Gearing Up, and Cadence Youth Cycling built all one hundred bikes donated by Advanced Sports International!

Show your support by becoming a member of The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia today!

One Street Philadelphia: Jimmie from Keystone Crossroads on Vimeo.

Meet Jimmie Moore, resident of our current #OnTheGroundPhilly neighborhood #StrawberryMansion for 14 years and a former municipal court judge and ward leader. Moore is one of the subjects of Photojournalist Jessica Kourkounis’ “One Street Philadelphia: Montgomery Avenue.” He discusses architecture, vacant properties, and some of the perceptions and misperceptions people have about the neighborhood.

As part of the Keystone Crossroads series "Locked out: Pennsylvania has a housing problem," Kourkounis explored one street in three cities, getting to know the residents and seeing their homes as a way of telling a greater story about the city.

“If you move along one street in a city, you can get a good look at the differences and similarities of its residents and their homes. It may include high-end condos and new developments where people make six-figure salaries, but just down the road could be a neighborhood plagued with vacant lots and dilapidated homes where residents are struggling to make ends meet. Essentially all of these people are neighbors looking for the same thing; a safe and comfortable place to call home.”