The Hawthorne community is a vibrant and diverse group of people so naturally their neighborhood civics council is equally vibrant. We had the chance to sit in on a monthly meeting of the Hawthorne Empowerment Council, HEC, to hear what's going on in the community and how they are working to improve the community. Around a dozen people of different ages and races were at the meeting-- there was even a one month old baby, learning the ropes of civic duty from his mother, an HEC board member.
The meeting is held in Hawthorne Cultural Center, which offers classes for all ages ranging from KungFu to pottery, and the speakers had to shout to be heard over the music from the dance class in the next room over.
Despite the blaring music, moods were cheerful and the meeting rolled along at a relatively quick pace. The council's treasurer, a middle-aged balding immigrant with a dimpled smile, briefed the group in a few minute and then dashed off back to work. His report was simple enough, "We're in good shape." The group operates solely on donations and runs their local activities based on those funds. Donations to HEC come in any amount from $10 to $2000 and the group is always happy to receive volunteer hours form people who can't donate money.
HEC recently had a change over of board members and the new board set forth a series of goals they have for the community including a push to reach the students of the neighborhood by increasing educational and volunteer opportunities, improving safety by reaching out to local businesses to allow the Philly Police access their security footage if needed, and a beautification movement in the green space of the neighborhood by adding more trees to the Hawthorne Park and people's yards.
The meeting was concise and well manner, and when it was over the group happily headed their separate ways with tasks to complete before the next meeting. HEC wants to make sure Hawthorne is a family-friendly, safe, and clean neighborhood and much of what HEC discussed in their meeting was congruent with the description of the neighborhood we received from other community member that we interviewed. The take away across the board has been that Hawthorne is an up-and-coming neighborhood and a place you would want to live and raise a family.
We really enjoyed getting to sit in on the council and we are hoping to bring the connections we made at the HEC meeting to Palumbo to start building the relationship between the two. Both groups have so much to offer and we are excited to see Palumbo and HEC invest together to make Hawthorne even better than it already is.
The meeting is held in Hawthorne Cultural Center, which offers classes for all ages ranging from KungFu to pottery, and the speakers had to shout to be heard over the music from the dance class in the next room over.
Despite the blaring music, moods were cheerful and the meeting rolled along at a relatively quick pace. The council's treasurer, a middle-aged balding immigrant with a dimpled smile, briefed the group in a few minute and then dashed off back to work. His report was simple enough, "We're in good shape." The group operates solely on donations and runs their local activities based on those funds. Donations to HEC come in any amount from $10 to $2000 and the group is always happy to receive volunteer hours form people who can't donate money.
HEC recently had a change over of board members and the new board set forth a series of goals they have for the community including a push to reach the students of the neighborhood by increasing educational and volunteer opportunities, improving safety by reaching out to local businesses to allow the Philly Police access their security footage if needed, and a beautification movement in the green space of the neighborhood by adding more trees to the Hawthorne Park and people's yards.
The meeting was concise and well manner, and when it was over the group happily headed their separate ways with tasks to complete before the next meeting. HEC wants to make sure Hawthorne is a family-friendly, safe, and clean neighborhood and much of what HEC discussed in their meeting was congruent with the description of the neighborhood we received from other community member that we interviewed. The take away across the board has been that Hawthorne is an up-and-coming neighborhood and a place you would want to live and raise a family.
We really enjoyed getting to sit in on the council and we are hoping to bring the connections we made at the HEC meeting to Palumbo to start building the relationship between the two. Both groups have so much to offer and we are excited to see Palumbo and HEC invest together to make Hawthorne even better than it already is.
Now that you have read about the community around Palumbo and some of it's members, click the link below to explore more about the Academy at Palumbo itself.