New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC)

This past Saturday was a beautiful day that brought together residents and partners to plant more than 1,500 trees at the Jasper Street Greenspace, enhancing an important community space with a legacy of industrial activity situated in an ecosystem of support that NKCDC and partners have been activating for years. Part of a partnership with Rewilding Philadelphia, Mural Arts Philadelphia, We Are the Seeds, RAIR, and ArtPhilly, we engaged hundreds of residents in the design and planting to ensure enhancements to the Jasper Street Greenspace reflected the Kensington community's desires. Using The Miyawaki Method for planting, this ecological method will regenerate soil and heal land that was never designed with people or plants in mind. Thank you to our partners for bringing their expertise – we're excited to see the Pocket Forest mature and enhance a cool, shady, biodiverse public space for humans and plants to thrive! In the coming years, this project will also support workforce opportunities for teens in partnership with Klean Kensington and be an opportunity for scientific study of how post-industrial spaces can benefit from this method of planting. The new micro-forest will then become a self-sustaining ecosystem, expected to mature 10 times faster than a natural forest!

CeaseFirePA is highlighting the lifesaving work happening across Pennsylvania by Community Violence Intervention programs and a powerful network of violence interrupters who work in the streets, hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods to stop shootings before they happen. Watch the story of how one of NKCDC's Cure Violence Outreach Workers, Jamall, used his skills and relationships to prevent a shooting at the link here: https://lnkd.in/e3tfbAPf. Learn more about the project at violence-interrupted.org. (https://lnkd.in/evfW5wpP)

Thank you to the Lenfest Institute for Journalism for supporting NKCDC's work to expand civic engagement at the Kensington Engagement Center as part of the Every Voice, Every Vote 3.0 program! Philadelphia needs a responsive, transparent civic ecosystem where residents have ongoing opportunities to access trusted information, understand how local government works, discuss community priorities, and co-create policies and strategies that shape their neighborhoods. We're grateful to be among 46 other community and media organizations who will expand access to trusted civic information and opportunities for residents to have their voices heard in the upcoming election year!

In September, seven Kensington small businesses completed the Strengthen Your Business Cohort, a 10-week program focused on building the capacity of small businesses! Throughout the cohort, businesses dove into sessions about business planning, marketing, technology, and systems, allowing them to build their capacity and take away new skills. Thank you to our participating small businesses: Morris Auto Parts, Castillo Mattress and Furniture, Kensington Powerlifting, Incredible Liquidations, Lua Vietnamese Restaurant, Pure Organiks, and Q&A Smoke Shop! Congratulations to the Strengthening Your Business cohort, and thank you to our trainers, Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, Temple University Small Business Development Center, and Black Squirrel Consulting! Support our small businesses by giving them a follow, visiting their website or visiting their stores: - Morris Auto Parts (2861 Kensington Ave) https://lnkd.in/e_ZE684y - Castillo Mattress & Furniture (3528 I St Suite 1) https://castillo.store/ - Kensington Powerlifting (1833 N Howard St, #300) https://lnkd.in/eca3VVGN - Incredible Liquidations (2316 N Front St) - Lua Vietnamese Restaurant (2534 Kensington Ave) https://lnkd.in/e9vDY2uh - Pure Organiks https://www.porganixs.com/ - Q&A Smoke Shop, (2749 Kensington Ave) NKCDC supports economic development by supporting small businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists with supportive services, technical assistance, real estate opportunities, and connections to resources. For more information on NKCDC’s Economic Development work, head to our website at https://lnkd.in/eY6TUnjN or read our annual report (pages 19-26): https://lnkd.in/e9pyKeyV

Join NKCDC and partners for an upcoming volunteer day leading up to a tree-planting celebration that will bring 1,500 new trees to the Jasper Street Greenspace! There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer with restoring and healing this greenspace in Kensington: - On October 21st from 11AM-3PM, we’ll be hosting a community volunteer day! Help us rake and shovel the site to prep it for planting day! Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eRbkZdeW (link in bio). - On October 23rd from 9:30AM-12PM, we’re looking for folks to help us organize the 1,500 trees for planting and volunteers to help us place trees where they will be planted! Sign up here:https://lnkd.in/eZKcQDUW (Link in bio). - On October 23rd from 4PM-6PM, there will be an opportunity to train to be a planting guide for the planting event! Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eRbs7XnD (Link in bio). - On October 24th, there will be an opportunity to provide support on the planting day from 9AM-3PM. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/enNsfvrT (link in bio). Do you want to help restore a greenspace and plant trees in Kensington? Save the date for October 24th! We're partnering with Rewilding Philadelphia, artist and educator Pedro Ospina, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Mural Arts Philadelphia, and Natural Urban Forests to bring a pocket forest to the Jasper Street Greenspace! While conducting soil remediation tests and bringing in a landscape architect to create design concepts for the space, we’ve also been engaging neighbors to share their input on the future of the space and to imagine what the Jasper Street greenspace could look like with a new pocket forest. The final design balances environmental restrictions and flexibility for the space to continue to be used in a variety of ways! Come help us plant 1,500+ native trees! Join us for food, live drumming, art, and native plant education! RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/ehGg346k Questions? Reach out to our team at urbanag@nkcdc.org!

Over the last few months, NKCDC and partners including Rewilding Philadelphia, artist and educator Pedro Ospina, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University , Mural Arts Philadelphia , and Natural Urban Forests, have been engaging Kensington residents in imagining and designing a new pocket forest that will be planted at the Jasper Street Greenspace on October 24th. We want you to join us! The Jasper Street Greenspace is a former industrial site turned greenspace located along the Conrail tracks. Like many post-industrial sites, making any plans for the space requires thoughtful planning, partnerships with expertise, and resident input to safely bring the space back for human use and to remediate and heal the land. As part of this process, we've been working with environmental partners to test the soil onsite to better understand the site's history and soil conditions. Any designs and implemented plans will consider the site's industrial history for the safety of plants and people. Planting a Pocket Forest on the site will provide an opportunity for afforestation. Using the Miyawaki method for rapid native forest creation, ten years after the planting, the site will mature into a cool, shady, dense, and biodiverse public space teeming with life, enhancing an already existing native plant haven occupying part of the space! Are you interested in caring for plants and a community greenspace? There are still opportunities to get involved with restoring and healing the Jasper Street Greenspace in Kensington: - On October 21st, we’ll be hosting a community volunteer day! Help us rake and shovel the site to prep it for planting day! - On October 23rd, there will be an opportunity for kids to volunteer at the space as we finalize the prep for planting day! - Join us for a planting day on October 24th! RSVP here https://lnkd.in/ehGg346k Come help us plant 1,500+ native trees! Join us for food, live drumming, art, and native plant education! Questions? Email urbanag@nkcdc.org!

NKCDC regularly seeks community feedback so that our work continues to reflect the priorities of neighbors throughout our service area. In a yearly resident survey about economic development we conducted this summer, we learned from 115 neighbors what their priorities are for neighborhood economic development and safety on the commercial corridors! As a part of our process, we asked for feedback on what kinds of businesses residents would like to see in the neighborhood, what they’d like to see to improve the safety of the commercial corridor, and how NKCDC should focus our work on the commercial corridors. In response, we learned from 115 neighbors that: When asked what type of businesses residents would prefer to see in their neighborhood, the top 5 answers were grocery stores/produce stands, restaurants, cafes/bakeries, healthcare offices, and specialty food stores. We asked what measures the city of Philadelphia should take to increase safety along the commercial corridors that included strategies beyond increasing and decreasing police presence, with the top answers being better traffic calming measures, improved street cleaning, and increased community outreach and social services. When asked what NKCDC should do to best serve our service area, respondents outlined Beautifying public spaces, filling vacant commercial spaces, increasing access to grants and city programs, advocating to local government, and workforce development. This feedback is essential to shaping a community-informed vision for the neighborhood's commercial corridors. The input you provided will help NKCDC's efforts to support long-standing businesses and empower the continuing economic development of the neighborhood. Are you a Kensington business owner who wants to help shape the economic development in the neighborhood? Join us for our monthly Kensington Business Coalition Meeting at the Kensington Engagement Center on the second Tuesday of every month! For more information on NKCDC’s Economic Development work, head to our website at https://lnkd.in/eY6TUnjN or read our annual report (pages 19-26): https://lnkd.in/e9pyKeyV