The We Are Mantua: Ten Years Later project is an effort to update the award-winning 2013 We Are Mantua! Transformation Plan. From the spring of 2024 through early 2025, our team of residents, urban planners, and community development stakeholders will look back on the last 10 years of life in Mantua and set a blueprint for the next decade of inclusive growth.
MANTUA RESIDENTS: WE NEED YOUR HELP! At this stage in the We Are Mantua planning process, we’re conducting a community survey to hear from residents about the changes that have taken place in the neighborhood over the last 10 years, and the biggest neighborhood needs for the next 10 years. By filling out this survey, you’ll help us make sure that this plan is truly by Mantua residents, for Mantua residents. All Mantua community members who complete the survey through this link will be entered into a raffle to win a $300 Visa gift card, which will be mailed to the address collected through the survey.
This survey should take no more than 10 minutes. To complete the survey, please click this link or scan this QR code: https://smdsv2.successmeasures.org/distributions/manipulatedistribution?key=4oXO4PLuWGMeXwrBZNpihAG8quprTPbkPaJWUH6tl67WeMFsjxqfY9UqPOVF4vFk
If you have questions, please email info@mvmcdc.org. THANK YOU!
WAMTYL BLOG SEPTEMBER 2024
Our 3rd Steering Committee meeting hosted at Transfiguration Church was an opportunity to reflect, challenge what’s been summarized and take a moment to dig deeper into exactly who speaks on behalf of Mantua and its most pressing needs in the next 10 years.
Our WAMTYL team has had much to reflect on in the neighborhood planning process from the over 200 community members surveyed, to the feedback gathered during our Visioning Session and the four thematic discussions on public safety, housing, youth development and physical environment. All the data gathered along with key interviews from community stakeholders has brought us to a present moment of cautious optimism.
Similar to basketball, the third quarter is by no means the end. In fact, it’s a defining moment that puts you on the edge of your seat to see exactly what actions might predict the end of the game and reveal the winner.
For the internal team of individuals involved in the planning process, each connection, event, discussion has offered a unique opportunity to see and hear from the projected winners – Mantua’s community members.
WAMTYL BLOG JULY 2024
Our second Steering Committee meeting was a time to dig into the details of Mantua’s more recent past and envision new priorities to help shape the future.
We kicked off our dinner meeting celebrating the phenomenal turnout at the Community Kickoff event back in April before turning our attention to the feedback that came out of discussing the 7 priorities captured on poster boards with new ideas and responses from Kickoff attendees.
It’s no surprise housing education and public safety were just as important ten years ago as they are now.
There were many discussion points among steering committee members around the challenges of what is considered “affordable” in housing to the area, homeownership programs complex criteria for qualification and eviction diversion becoming Philadelphia law. These and others topics grew from reviewing the highlights of the priority boards (see below).
We welcomed Principal Dr. Smith of Mantua’s only area public school McMichael to offer her unique perspective. The resulting discussion involved a fair amount reflection about what Mantua and by extension McMichael has lost and what it has been able to maintain despite pressures from school privatization advocates.
We look forward to the next opportunity to bring Mantua community together at our Visioning Session on July 23rd 6-8pm.
We will present trends and opinions from hundreds of Mantua residents surveyed and explore some interesting observations from the Neighborhood Walk. Please join us in-person for complimentary dinner and childcare provided or online via zoom.
WAMTYL NEIGHBORHOOD WALK
On June 1st, residents of Mantua joined the WAM team for a neighborhood walk. The goal was to discuss Mantua’s assets, opportunities, challenges, and trajectories as we encountered them in real time. Despite the heat, over a dozen of us strolled around our beautiful neighborhood and discussed many of the WAM’s key questions.
As we walked the above route, attendees shared perspectives on some key issues in Mantua: housing, greenspace, traffic safety, education, recreation, and overall wellbeing. Residents expressed a range of feelings about the patterns of development over the last ten years, and many people shared concerns about gentrification, lack of affordable housing, limited community engagement, and a need for more youth programs and public spaces. Longtime residents advocated for preserving the rich history and elevating the voices of elders. We spoke about the benefits of things like reduced vacancy and renovated affordable housing, as well as continued challenges regarding pedestrian safety, lack of access to after-school programming, restrictive homeownership opportunities, and disruptive construction patterns. The diversity of our participants served as an invitation for reflecting on Mantua’s shifting demographics, too.
The WAM Neighborhood Walk reinforced to our team that inclusive growth requires a community-driven approach. It was a crucial reminder that planning decisions are never inevitable, and that they always reflect a set of beliefs, priorities, and values. We look forward to continuing our WAM planning process with residents at the forefront. Through the remainder of our survey period, our Visioning Session on July 23rd, and our thematic conversation in August, we will continue gathering vital information about the neighborhood’s most pressing needs. We are eager to see how the WAM plan can catalyze positive transformation while preserving the spirit and strengths of this vibrant neighborhood.
WAMTYL BLOG April 2024
Greater expectations on the horizon after our We Are Mantua Ten Years Later Community Kickoff
The MCA was abuzz on the evening of the We Are Mantua Community Kickoff. With offers of childcare to the left and ample seating and community planning information to the right – a tone was set amongst Mantua community members and related stakeholders to bring their whole selves with their thoughts, concerns and questions to find out what exactly was literally and proverbially cooking.
Our delicious catering was provided by the Parkside’s Black woman-owned Star Fusion Express and supplemented with vegetarian delicacies from another West Philly favorite, Hibiscus Cafe. It was important to MVM that everyone was included in our dining options. We delighted in an assortment of soul-inspired dishes and enjoyed seeing a wide array of new and familiar faces.
At nearly 100 people in attendance, we set out to review what the last 10 years had brought into Mantua. The assets acquired included several priorities related to affordable housing, education, environmental justice, workforce development and civic engagement.
Sitting in the very space of the Mantua Civic Association, another product of the We Are Mantua 2013 neighborhood plan, there was also mention of things that some felt have yet to change. Conversation bubbled up related to opportunities for skilled local residents to provide contractor services to development projects or the need for comprehensive remedies for public safety and gun violence issues that too often are affecting our families.
There were many valuable moments like the much-needed greetings and goodbyes exchanged between community members and the engaging conversations with our consultant partners from Thriven and Community Capacity Builders that were memorialized with sticky notes that gave clear feedback on the identified issues.
We announced upcoming incentives like gift cards for those who open their doors to our surveyors and our Community Development Coordinator, Emma, administered the new and improved community survey right there on the spot!
Next in our WAMTYL calendar of events is a Neighborhood Walk on June 1st at 10:30am.
With light refreshments provided and our walking shoes ready, we will start just outside of MVM’s current office space at 631 N. 39th Street and join forces once again to continue adding to the next chapter of the We Are Mantua Ten Years Later story grounded in real accounts of our neighbors’ experiences anticipations and visualizations of something greater so we hope to have you join us!
Photos from the WAMTYL Community Kickoff on 4.30.2024
WAMTYL Blog March 2024
The story of Mantua told through its community members is at one end of the perspective a collection of memories of family and friends born in close proximity to their current residences and buildings that no longer exist. On the other end, there’s something new on the city’s horizon. A change that can go by a few different names – progress, development, gentrification, or urban renewal. At the intersection of Mantua’s memories and visions on what’s to come is my perspective as Deputy Director of Mount Vernon Manor Inc.
I have my own memory from nearly two decades ago working with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Work Camp Program in the neighborhoods of Mantua, Belmont and Parkside doing home improvement projects for community members and informing young people and their educational leaders’ Quaker-led community service.
I have my own vision too set by the literal and figurative groundbreaking in Mantua – three different sites for much needed affordable housing developed by Mount Vernon Manor and the next chapter in neighborhood planning, We Are Mantua Ten Years Later, that encourages a citywide assortment of stakeholders, Mantua residents, and business owners to reflect and celebrate what has been accomplished and what remains to be achieved.
In pulling together a passionate Steering Committee our team sought out individuals that also had equal parts of memory and vision.
For our first meeting, we gathered at Stomping Grounds Social Justice Cafe (pictured above) to review the past decade’s top statistics in Mantua for economic mobility and challenged each other to define success in the next ten years by the impact we make on the parts of our community still most in need.
By all accounts, there was no self-aggrandizing or centering of any individual who claimed to know how to make change happen on their own. Each one of us instead spoke of the inherent limitations and frustrations that come with attempts to change things out of sync with a collective and the resources we hear about twice as much as we see.
The call to action by the end of our Steering Committee meeting was clear. As our Executive Director, Michael Thorpe, often encourages “bring your time, your talent and your treasures” to the community table and exchange them for a Mantua we can all feel prouder of in the next ten years and beyond.
Upcoming in We Are Mantua Ten Years Later plans, we’ll welcome community residents and related stakeholders to our Community Kickoff on the evening of April 30th. It promises to be an open house-style gathering at the Mantua Civic Association (3729 Melon Street) with plenty of food and fun for your whole family to continue this conversation on neighborhood planning for and by the community here and now.
For more details follow us on social media accounts via Facebook and Instagram, check our website mvmcdc.org or call the office 215-475-9492 to stay aware of all of our upcoming activities.
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