Tag: Charlene Lewis-Walker

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Frankford Has the NAC

Kimberly Washington, Esq.

Frankford has a knack for many things.  The Knack for weaving, brewing, football are all in the past.  What we are talking about today is a NAC aka Neighborhood Advisory Committee.  Our NAC came into being several months ago.

OHCD’s Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) Program offers community-based non-profit organizations the opportunity to lead and engage neighborhood residents in activities that support the City’s core objectives, including:

  • Promoting sustainability through recycling, cleaning, planting and alternative energy efforts.
  • Creating employment opportunities through job placement and training, retail revitalization, and educational assistance efforts.
  • Enhancing neighborhood safety through town watches, youth mentoring and community outreach programs.
  • Providing decent and affordable housing through new housing, preservation of existing housing and mortgage foreclosure prevention programs.

Several Frankford community groups applied to become the NAC provider agency; however Impact Services (1952 E. Allegheny Avenue) was the applicant chosen by the OHCD.

Charlene Lewis-Walker

The coordinator of our NAC is Kimberly Washington, esq. and she is assisted by Charlene (Char) Lewis-Walker.  Since Kim also coordinates the Northeast EPIC Stakeholders meetings, you can expect close cooperation between NAC and EPIC in the future.

The NAC office is located in the Carson Valley Frankford Neighborhood Center at 4451 Frankford Avenue.  The phone number is 215-535-1093.

What has the NAC done so far in Frankford?

  • Charlene has been offering residents assistance with the Homestead applications
  • Monthly door to door (since March) to connect homeowners in foreclosure with the City’s Foreclosure prevention program
  • Housing and Utility Resource Fair which will be hosted in September
  • Char has also been a good resource working with homeowners who are interested in purchasing vacant side lots in the community
  • The students at First Philadelphia Charter have taken on the initiative of creating and publishing our newsletter.  The students are supervised by a teacher at the school his name is Rick Crain and also by Jim Stanton.
  • Charlene has already taken charge of the teen gardening group and has been hard at work this Summer at the community garden at Wilmot and Tackawanna

What will the NAC do for Frankford on a continuing basis?

  •  Provide information on various OHDC-funded programs to residents including but not limited to BSRP, Weatherization Program, Adaptive Modifications Program, Philadelphia Home Improvement Loan Program, PHIL-Plus, Mini-PHIL and other anti-predatory loan programs
  • Home-ownership Rehabilitation Program, Home start Program, Donor-Taker Program, Rental Rehabilitation Programs, housing counseling services, Settlement Assistance Program and American Dream Down payment Initiative (ADDI).
  • Homeowner Foreclosure Outreach – If you are in a foreclosure situation, contact the NAC to get information on what alternatives are available to you.  Foreclosure may be avoiding in some cases
  • Act as a referral center for community residents for all City Departments and programs relating to special services for groups such as senior citizens, the disabled and income-eligible youth
  • Oversee and assists in promoting programs designed to address various issues including literacy, truancy, youth violence, job training, and teen pregnancy. This will be accomplished through the NAC’s partnership with EPIC
  • Oversee and assists in the disposition of vacant land which may be developed as side yards, community gardens, parking lots or other open space through a program of open space management
  • Develop a current list of all block clubs and block captains in the area.

The introduction of the NAC in Frankford adds one more opportunity to move Frankford forward.   Stop into any time to see Char at the Carson Valley Frankford Neighborhood Center at 4451 Frankford Avenue and find out what the NAC can do for you.

 

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Frankford Native Selected as Neighborhood Advisory Committee Staff Person

The Frankford Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) is a non-profit organization provided by Impact Services and funded by the Office of Housing and Community Development.  We are committed to working on behalf of the Frankford community and act as mediators for all community matters; such as new housing needs, home preservation, mortgage foreclosure prevention, reduction of neighborhood blight, youth mentoring and community outreach programs.

The NAC is housed out of Carson Valley’s Frankford Neighborhood Center at 4451 Frankford Avenue.  Our office hours are 8:30 – 5:00PM, Monday through Friday.

From the Frankford NAC Update:

Charlene Lewis-Walker, also known as Char, is a life-long Frankford native, and was chosen to work alongside director Kimberly Washington as the leaders of the Frankford Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC).

The Frankford NAC is unique from most NAC’s in the city in that it is comprised of a partnership of organizations that have come together to ensure effectiveness in it’s outreach. IMPACT Services, a community development organization with over 40 years experience is the provider agency for the Frankford NAC. IMPACT has partnered with CORA

Services and Carson Valley Children’s AID , Another very important partner in the Frankford NAC is American Paradigm Schools. Together, these organizations bring a variety of services from housing to park clean ups. Their common goal is to provide and ensure the well being of the people in the community.

Charlene is a graduate of Frankford High School and a long time member of Second Baptist Church. After high school, she ventured to Pittsburgh to earn her bachelor’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh. After interviewing several highly qualified applicants for the position, the panel decided to hire Charlene because of her enthusiasm and experience volunteering with the elderly and youth ministry at Second Baptist.

As the NAC Staff person, Charlene is “committed to working on behalf of the Frankford community, in making sure they have access to affordable housing resources.” Her job entails “doing door to door outreach to residents who are facing foreclosure, working to reduce neighborhood blight, vacant properties issues and organizing block captains.” In addition she also plans community events, and refers homeowners to city services.

You can read the rest of the update at this link.