How will city funds be spent on your local parks?
Updated June 2023
Planning Timeline
Where we’ve been and where we’re going
Community planning is a flexible, collaborative process! You can expect this timeline (and this website) to change often with changing circumstances. Please join the planning process as an individual neighborhood resident, neighborhood group, or supporter. Read our email updates and check back here for updated actions everyone can take.
Timeline
2021
March for Safety and Solutions
In March, after SEPTA suddenly announced that Somerset Station was closing “indefinitely,” hundreds of people representing residents, civic groups, faith communities, nonprofits, and city councilmembers organize in solidarity with SEPTA workers to demand “Safety and Solutions.” Within two weeks the station is reopened as repairs continue.
City Council hearing at Elkin School
After a City Council hearing in Kensington in August 2021, a coalition of neighborhood groups summarize concerns and solutions from the hearing, and send the summary to Mayor Kenney. Over the next two years they continue to meet, add new members, and update a list of priorities for the Kenney administration.
Impact and NKCDC partnership
Two local community development corporations—NKCDC and Impact Services—begin working together on a Health and Wellness Corridors Plan to make collaborative investments on Kensington and Indiana Avenues.
2022
Community outreach
Civics, community groups and other interested parties meet to talk about the success of existing community plans in Kensington, and the potential for a larger community-driven planning process.
Meeting with City of Philadelphia
In April, NKCDC and Impact Services meet with the Managing Director’s Office and ask the city to support a community-driven planning process in Kensington.
2023
FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2023
Adjusted plans in light of Opioid Settlement Funding
In its announcement of the Opioid Settlement Funds, the City of Philadelphia says it will follow this community-driven planning process to determine how funds will be spent. With additional interest in the process, civics, community groups, and key partners met to talk about their vision for planning. Leaders clarify misunderstandings that Planning Kensington Together is a city initiative or is receiving city funding—it is not.
Mayoral candidate forums
Many mayoral forums are held, sponsored by many different organizations, on a wide range of themes including education, housing, and building wealth in communities of color. A forum at Gloria Casarez Elementary School in Kensington includes questions from community members and students.
JANUARY 2023
Opioid Settlement Funds announcement
The City of Philadelphia announces that a portion of its first Opioid Settlement Funds will be invested in Kensington. “We have spent the past 18 months regularly meeting with community leaders as a result of their awesome community organizing and call to action, summer 2021,” Noelle Foizen, director of the city’s Opioid Response Unit, writes on Twitter.
APRIL 2023
Mayoral candidate forums continue
Because of the many, diverse candidate debates and forums already scheduled, Kensington planners don’t see a need to host an additional forum as originally planned. We encourage residents to attend scheduled events, read about candidate responses, and watch recorded segments, such as the PHL 17 forum from on April 18.
MAY 2023
Primary election
The municipal primary election for Philadelphia is held May 16. Voters choose candidates for mayor, commissioner, city controller, register of wills, sheriff, at-large Council members, and district Council members.
JUNE 2023
Six parks are notified as candidates for Opioid Settlement funding
In the Opioid Settlement Fund announcement the city specified that funds would be dedicated for Kensington parks, schools and programs to keep people in their homes. Parks groups become Kensington’s first planning pockets.
Six Kensington parks are in line to receive money from the city:
Harrowgate Park
Hissey Playground
Hope Park
McPherson Square
Scanlon Playground
Trenton & Auburn Playground and Park
Public meetings are scheduled to involve as many neighbors as possible in the process.
JULY 2023
Pockets Toolkit
Planners distribute a toolkit to help community members host small planning groups that can help set priorities for their neighborhood. The toolkit includes a slide presentation to introduce the planning process, handouts for group reference, and report forms to return so that there is a record of the neighborhood needs each group prioritized, and the suggestions they have to address those needs.
Home repair and eviction prevention funding
An application process is announced and Kensington renters and homeowners begin applying for rental assistance and home repair funds from the Opioid Settlement.
AUGUST 2023
Public meetings around funding for Kensington schools
Kensington schools are announced as candidates to receive money from the city’s Opioid Settlement funds. The first public meetings begin to rally community members and spark planning on how money will be spent to support those schools. Neighbors who live near or are involved with those schools are strongly encouraged to attend the public meetings!
SEPTEMBER 2023
Pockets Release
The Pockets Toolkit is a resource to help small groups have productive conversations that will result in a set of priorities related to the future of Kensington. The priorities set out in the coming months by your pockets will serve as an essential resource for state and city agencies and nonprofits looking to invest in Kensington with funding or programming.