As Thanksgiving approaches, we want to express how grateful we are for our Mt. Airy community. Today we are highlighting some of the exciting things you have helped us achieve throughout the year. We hope we can count on you to support these programs as we launch our end-of-year fundraising campaign.
- Community Events
- We hosted four immensely popular Supper Sessions festivals, expanding to two full blocks and 60 vendors. These events provided an economic boost for more than 50 brick-and-mortar businesses and an opportunity for thousands of residents to engage with their neighbors and support their commercial corridor.
- We also continued our Moonlight Movies tradition with a public screening of Summer of Soul at Lovett Park, hosted Shopping Happy Hours and Autumn on the Avenue, and we have 2 more events coming up soon – Small Business Saturday and a Decemberfest holiday market!
- Housing Counseling | Empowering Long-term Homeownership
- We hosted over 40 first-time homebuyer workshops, attended by over 850 individuals.
- We directly assisted 55 homebuyers through the purchase of their first house.
- We saved 35 households from homelessness, keeping them in their homes through emergency foreclosure mitigation and eviction diversion programs.
- We offered 958 individualized, private housing counseling sessions, helping clients prepare themselves for homeownership.
- We focused on serving those most in need, with 92% of clients earning less than 80% of Area Median Income (which is the midpoint of income in our region, as calculated by HUD).
- Affirming the value of diverse communities and rectifying the legacies of prejudice in mortgage lending, 90% of clients we served were people of color.
- Business Services
- We delivered marketing and business development services to more than 65 businesses through the Mt. Airy Business Association.
- We organized 5 PhillyiHub cohorts, providing intensive entrepreneurship education at no cost to more than 50 Philadelphia business owners.
- We helped merchants obtain $28,500 in competitive grant funding.
- We hosted a Business Expo that brought a full-day of expert training, workshops, and networking to area small business owners at low cost to attend.
- Real Estate & Infrastructure
- We managed 28,000 sf of rental space, providing facilities for 24 small businesses and affordable, quality living quarters for two households.
- We provided flexible coworking office space to 18 local entrepreneurs at Work Mt. Airy.
- Literacy & Schools
- Over 65 children who were reading below grade level completed our summer reading camps, measurably improving their literacy skills.
- We opened “The Nest,” the first installation of our Literacy-Rich Neighborhood Initiative, a groundbreaking project funded by the William Penn Foundation which will create permanent reading-themed installations to engage youth on the streets where they live and play.
- We collaborated with Mural Arts on the completion of a new mural at Germantown ArtHaus, near Germantown Avenue and Washington Lane, beautifying the commercial corridor and highlighting the faces of youth in the community.
- The Mt. Airy Schools Coalition published the first-ever Mt. Airy Schools Guide, bringing information on local public schools to parents’ fingertips.
Help us continue and expand these programs in 2024! Make your year-end donation now.
