Welcome to the SCI-West Community News!

 

What is SCI-West ?  

 

The West Philadelphia Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI-West) addresses physical and human service needs in West Philadelphia by connecting, coordinating, and expanding efforts of community-based organizations already achieving success in the area. The strategy has five parts: expanding capital investment in housing and other real estate; increasing family income and wealth; stimulating local economic activity and connections to regional economies; improving access to quality education; and supporting healthy environments and lifestyles. SCI-West includes projects by individual agencies as well as a number of new, integrated efforts. SCI-West includes four neighborhood community partners: People's Emergency Center, West Philadelphia Partnership CDC, University City District, and The Enterprise Center CDC. These are all established and capable community-based organizations with significant track records that are now working collaboratively to plan and implement the initiative. 

 

PEC is serving as the lead neighborhood organization for this partnership, and the SCI-West office is housed at the PEC office at 325 N. 39th Street.

 
Besides these four organizations, SCI-West draws in a broader and still growing list of other partners that includes City of Philadelphia agencies (Police, Streets, Commerce, the Mural Arts Program, and others pending); University City institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Community College of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Education Fund; and city, state, and federal elected and appointed officials from the target area. These entities have distinct yet complementary roles in project planning, investment, and implementation.  The SCI-West strategy also involves identifying baseline data and tracking progress against goals over time.   A comprehensive communication effort ties the initiative and its partners together in support of the target area and its residents, as it promotes the success of the model to encourage replication.
 
Beginning in the fall of 2007, LISC has been regularly convening the various partners and helping to frame an overall revitalization plan for SCI-West.  The resulting unified strategy includes an array of short-, medium-, and long-term projects that span the five SCI priority areas and which will require a minimum of 1-5 years to complete. Many of the projects are drawn from the already completed quality-of-life plans of the four neighborhood partner organizations; others are the result of new collaborations and ideas that have emerged from the joint planning activities that LISC has supported.  Taken together, they form an integrated and comprehensive strategy with the potential to transform the entire target area and achieve lasting improvements in the lives of its residents.

 

Over the initial three year phase, SCI-West results are expected to include: 
§  Completion of approximately 93  units of mixed-income housing, with a variety of housing choices, plus planning for several hundred more new homes
§  Noticeable improvements in appearance and condition of residential and commercial properties along key corridors
§  More attractive streets, including hundreds of new trees, brighter street lighting, and new sidewalks
§  Completion of approximately 14,000 square feet of new retail and commercial development in the target area, plus planning for additional commercial projects
§  Launching of a new Center for Culinary Enterprises to incubate food entrepreneurs, create jobs, offer job training and host nutrition programs
§  Greatly improved appearance and amenities in Saunders Park and other local parks
§  Significant gains in the number of individuals receiving job training, financial counseling, and many additional social services.  (Because of our desire to generate momentum through high visibility projects in the initiative's early phase, physical projects have received greater attention early on and predominate in this list of anticipated outcomes. However, as we move into our next phase of planning with additional initiative partners, we will be developing aggressive benchmarks for educational and social services aimed at area families, youth and seniors.)

 

This newsletter does not replace the newsletter of any of the SCI-West partners. Instead this will come to give you a birds eye view of what happening across all four target areas. If you would like to have your neighborhood announcement distributed using this newsletter, simply email the SCI-West Director, Iola Harper at iola@sci-west.org.