There is no question that Kensington needs support in its healing process. On my daily walks, some things remain consistent: In the statistically youngest part of the city you do not see families and children out and about, as it is not physically or emotionally safe for most. You also continue to see the richest country in the world discarding human beings into the streets at their worst point of suffering. I can’t make it to work without having a conversation with a resident who has reached a breaking point over the situation or stopping to check the pulse or for breathing from someone before potentially trying to reverse an overdose. All the while, as I have previously shared, we continue to repackage previously failed strategies. As we repeat the past we now have a mayor, City Council, and even national entities who have placed an incredible focus on Kensington.
On May 8, walking the three blocks to work from my home at McPherson Square, when I got to Kensington Avenue, to the left was the City’s latest encampment clearing process. To the right was where most people simply picked up and went to as a result of the clearing.
When the City executed an unannounced sweep on July 10, I was perplexed to see yellow tape and police covering every cross street for blocks and blocks while walking to work. The buzz along the walk was whether a police officer had been killed. When I got under the tape and to my office, I discovered it was a quality-of-life effort and that “The Philadelphia Police Department is about to enter the third phase of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s five-phase plan for Kensington, also known as the ‘securing the neighborhood’ phase,” according to the Kensington Voice.
I spent the day, along with staff, trying to quell fears of residents due to lack of transparency and to make sure people who could now not catch the bus or a Lyft could still make it to doctors’ appointments, work or summer camps for their kids.
I believe many people care and would like to help make change, yet we are still using limited tools from the toolbox when we don’t have to. We recognize that this work is difficult and that the City and organizations aren’t opposed to these principles, but rather they aren’t built to commit to and do this work.
Several years ago, many partners began a very intentional process to find a new theory of change, and to develop key principles and strategies that do not repeat mistakes of the past. When the process began most people said: Wait! Don’t do anything till the new mayor is in place because that will be the path!
That is the manifestation of the “trauma triangle” where there needs to be a victim, a perpetrator and a savior. Waiting makes the mayor (or others such as Council, police, etc.) the savior, and that also transfers not only all expectation but all power to the could-be savior rather than breaking the triangle and transferring power to the community.
We are at a critical moment as historic efforts to address Kensington’s challenges are not reaching their potential and are often unraveling due to the complexity and intersectionality of our situation.
So, despite warnings and obstacles, the engagement process moved forward with support from community, philanthropy and parts of city government, and in the winter of 2023 the first report was issued which contained the historical context of Kensington, a set of data points that illustrate the social and economic conditions of the neighborhood today, and the results of a broad and inclusive community engagement process that included more than 500 residents also identifying a set of community-defined priorities.
Now we are at a moment of opportunity. The City is staffed up and has turned on its engines, and a community-based participatory machine is in place and ready to align with the City so we can move forward in a way that acknowledges the mistakes of the past. Since the completion of the first report we kept moving and one of the results is the second of three reports titled “Co-Creating Kensington: Alignment” which is focused on:
- Explaining a theory of change, that through trauma-informed, participatory and comprehensive strategies that are preventative in nature and with Kensington residents as co-creators in the solutions for their neighborhoods, a community healing can emerge, and resident-led vision for the community can take form and lead to sustainable solutions.
- Recommendations of how to align currently proposed or initiated City strategies for Kensington with the community’s self-defined priorities of Investing in Human Capital; Community Health; Management of Public Spaces; Economic Development; Housing Stability; and Public Safety.
As we learned on May 8 and July 10, alignment with these concepts would be less traumatizing for the community and lead to more success for everyone involved. Focused on a goal of better operationalization, this report aligns several of the community identified priorities with City led efforts that focus on the mayor and others’ key pillars of Public Safety, Clean and Green, Economic Opportunity, Housing and Education.
We need everyone who is working on supporting Kensington to be as successful as possible. Here are ways to do that:
- Community-led participatory planning and implementation process: All stakeholders should acknowledge, support and join in an ongoing community-led participatory planning process that recognizes the power in co-planning and co-design, with the overarching goal to co-create solutions and shift power to the community. When looking at a ladder of increased participation, we are often given token participation which gives community a short-term sense of being heard, engaging in processes and “being at the table” — while in reality these are often tactics utilized to quiet displeasure and disagreement and mask already existing plans while retraumatizing community. Co-creation ensures that power and ownership of processes and interventions remain with residents.
- Commit and adhere to trauma-informed practices: Recognizing the pervasive and unrelenting trauma and stress among residents resulting from intentional damage, systemic inequity, and the unintended consequences of failed strategies that were implemented to address that damage anyone engaging in the community needs to be equipped to be a part of a restorative and reparative healing process. Any party engaged in decision-making or activities in Kensington, such as city leadership and police or service providers, should receive extensive trauma training before engaging with the community.
- Acknowledge the need for a comprehensive approach to achieve success: Work with all stakeholders to connect single-strategy approaches such as policing to additional strategies such as workforce development, housing stability and educational opportunities, all of which combined can begin to address desired goals such as mitigating the drug trade. It is unfair to expect specialists such as police officers to address problems beyond their expertise or influence. Strategies for Kensington should also take a whole community approach that is coordinated for efficiency and the greatest impact. Current strategies for Kensington, such as violence intervention and addressing the unhoused population, are not coordinated between the City, Commonwealth, and community stakeholders and often target one area, leading to the displacement of issues to another area.
- Operationalize efforts in the correct order and engage all that contribute for greatest impact: While there are often good intentions, strategies are not always engaging all who could bring value to the situation. Operationalize efforts through the larger community-led planning process to maximize partner participation and to ensure what is being implemented is part of a preventative, reparative and restorative process. Prioritize healing opportunities before executing punitive practices.
- Utilize community-based participatory research models: Support residents in defining desired outcomes of intervention efforts and in sharing their assessment of the impact of strategies and programs to improve accountability connected to success and failure.
- Assets added controlled by the community: Often a process to “fix” a community leads to more extraction of resources. Explicitly build a system that increases knowledge of the value of resources and creates a plan with defined steps to transfer assets to the community. The primary beneficiaries and control of resources should be from the community.
- Implementation of co-created strategies led by community: Acknowledge the implementation capacity and skill of community and existing non-profits by not only supporting current community leadership to execute, but by hiring local and supporting capacity building.
- Work through larger planning process to inject greater funding opportunities that align with core values: All investments need to work through a larger neighborhood plan so resources being made in Kensington can align with the existing community needs and commit to supporting multi-partner community organization-led projects that can leverage funding from state and federal sources to ensure investments being made are led through participatory, trauma-informed, participatory, and comprehensive frameworks.
- Philadelphia‘s legislative and executive branches should work closely with the community when making policy decisions: Potential legislation such as zoning changes should be co-created with community and aligned with a comprehensive community plan in order to be fully transparent and to ensure there is proper alignment of goals.
We are at a critical moment as historic efforts to address Kensington’s challenges are not reaching their potential and are often unraveling due to the complexity and intersectionality of our situation.
It is through trauma-informed, participatory, and comprehensive strategies that are preventative in nature that a path for community healing can emerge and ensure that residents are active co-creators in the future of their neighborhoods, leading to effective and sustained solutions. While Kensington continues to face significant short- and long-term challenges, we also stand at a moment of opportunity to mobilize a robust, resource rich and engaged civic network to bring about sustained outcomes and solutions, if only those in the private and public sector would commit to aligning their strategies with the Kensington communities self-determined priorities and preliminary strategies.
Dr. Bill McKinney is a Kensington resident and the executive director of New Kensington Community Development Corporation.
The Citizen welcomes guest commentary from community members who represent that it is their own work and their own opinion based on true facts that they know firsthand.
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