The Reverend Leon H. Sullivan
At the corner of Broad and Venango Streets in the heart of North Philadelphia, a project is taking shape that will have a far-reaching impact on a neighborhood ready for reinvestment. It will honor a visionary leader who made this neighborhood the birthplace of a movement that reached across the nation and around the world. It will extend his remarkable legacy into the 21st century to empower and uplift members of this community today. This will be the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center.
Turning this vision into reality will require renovating a historic building, the Zion Baptist Church Annex –bringing it back to life as a hub for community programs and services. To meet an estimated budget of $11 million, project leaders have raised over $3.6 million to date and are seeking $4.75 million in tax credits and $6.25 million in philanthropic support. The impact of this investment will be astounding.
Building Health, Wealth, and Community
The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center will bring together a constellation of diverse programs dedicated to community wellbeing as determined by local residents. It will honor Rev. Sullivan’s legacy in a particularly appropriate manner by bringing back to Broad and Venango a thriving community center like the one Rev. Sullivan founded here in the 1960s.
The Center will occupy the same site as Zion’s Education Annex founded by Rev. Sullivan, directly across Broad Street from Zion Baptist Church. The heart of the building, originally constructed as a place of worship, will be the space that once served as the sanctuary, repurposed as a radically welcoming and flexible common area and venue for events from meetings to weddings. The Nicetown Tioga neighborhood is eager to have this kind of gathering place. Supported by a commercial kitchen, the sanctuary will be perfect for the purpose.
Other programs will fill every floor, creating a vibrant scene, day and night Committed are:
• the BriDDge Career Pathways Program "Bridging the Digital Divide” will tap the booming interest in e-sports to attract youth from the neighborhood and beyond to the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center and into a pathway leading to college scholarships and careers. Operated by non-profit Called to Serve, skills-building activities will include broadcast communication, software development, and videography.
• Community Arts Center with programs offered by Alice & Daisy’s Kin, LLC, an African American, women owned, and locally based business providing exposure to the arts through classes and clubs, work and display space for artists, art parties, and art therapy to address mental wellbeing and community healing
• Co op Café/Bookstore operated by a newly formed cooperative, providing ownership opportunities for local neighborhood residents. Offering coffee and light fare and featuring the work of Philadelphia authors, it will attract visitors and tenants.
• Programs from the Center for Urban Bioethics at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University:
o Cure Violence Philadelphia a violence intervention program which takes on the devastating public health issue of gun violence, that has a tragic impact in North Philadelphia and this neighborhood, specifically
o Farm to Families a partnership with St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children which brings fresh affordable food from local farms to the Center for weekly pickup
o Philadelphia Healthy and Safe Schools a collaboration with the Philadelphia School District which works to create safe, trauma-sensitive schools to better serve the needs of our North Philadelphia families
o Begin the Turn a public health model in which community members who have been impacted by substance misuse are trained to be trusted messengers engaging individuals who are suffering from the effects of addiction
• Temple University Community Care Management operated by Temple University Hospital, this program helps bridge the gap between patients and the healthcare system. Community Health Workers, drawn from the local neighborhood, will help patients access health and social services.
• Temple Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative a program that strengthens the earning potential of community members through training in high demand skills focusing on zip codes surrounding Temple’s campuses. Offerings include Community Health Workers Training, which could prepare staff for the Community Care Management Program.
• Temple University Admissions Outreach Office by locating this in the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center, Temple University hopes to expand paths of educational opportunity for potential students from the surrounding zip codes its next door neighbors.
A Sacred Place, A Civic Space
When the former Zion Education Annex was at its height, it was home to more than a dozen active programs, from a childcare center and after school program to a church member operated library and a college and career guidance counseling office with social events on the weekends.
Rev. Michael Major (a native of the community) participated in the day camp and recalls the college tours offered by the college program in the mid 1970s. Like many, he remembers the vital role the Annex played in the life of the community. Today, Major, the founder and board chair of Called to Serve Community Development Corporation, along with Victor Young, Esq., president of the Leon Sullivan CDC, leads the work behind the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center. They have secured funding from the William Penn Foundation for planning and pre construction activities.
The building at the center of their plans closed in 2014 and has sat vacant since. Though still beautiful, historic, and structurally sound, it will need a new roof and building systems, accessibility and sustainability upgrades, and interior spaces re envisioned for new purposes scheduled to reopen in 2024. Planning has been underway for several years, led by Zion’s community partners Called to Serve, Sullivan CDC, and other key stakeholders:
• The Nicetown-Tioga community of neighbors and families, including the members of Zion Baptist Church who have shared their plans and dreams for the site.
• The Community Design Collaborative and Partners for Sacred Places who chose the Zion property as one of three historic sacred places to be re envisioned as part of the initiative “Infill Philadelphia: Sacred Places/Civic Spaces” funded by the William Penn Foundation.
• Mosaic Development Partners a Black owned impact real estate development and reinvestment firm with a record of successful and innovative real estate projects.
Together, these partners have completed an architectural study, historic preservation study, and engineering studies. They have surveyed the community and other stakeholders and held open meetings to identify programming priorities. They have begun the process of securing historic designation for the building. And, they have secured tenants for the building’s 27,000 square feet of leasable space. The fact that these tenants are secured and include large institutions with stable funding is key. From the start, the project partners have been committed to a business plan delivering long term financial sustainability.
This Place and Time
The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center would be a valuable addition to any American neighborhood. However, in Philadelphia, in Nicetown-Tioga, at the corner of Broad and Venango, it is more. It is necessary.
In the city planning district the project falls within, household income has dropped to $22,000. Rates of unemployment and poverty are high; educational attainment is low.
This is a neighborhood of Black and Brown residents and it is impossible to separate that fact from the historic disinvestment it has seen. As Rev. Sullivan recognized clearly, racial equity and economic justice are fundamentally inseparable. His recognition came well before our society witnessed the radically disparate impacts of a global pandemic and crushing recession on people of color. Today, much of the American economy is booming and most of Nicetown Tioga is still living on the edge.
The good news, as Rev. Sullivan knew, is that progress is possible. The people of this community are passionate about its future, and a team of capable partners has joined forces. This project, affiliated with a historic Black church, will be managed by a Black led CDC and built by a Black owned development firm. Furthermore, it will advance a vision of redevelopment focused on growth from within progress benefiting current residents rather than progress leading to displacement and gentrification.
The site of the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center is one block from one of the busiest transit hubs in the SEPTA system, and from the Broad, Germantown, and Erie intersection and commercial corridor, which is a current focus of joint initiatives with the city and neighborhood organizations. It is also an area where other development has recently been completed an $8 million facility for Community Legal Services and currently underway is the conversion of the 1926 Beury Building into a hotel
The Spirit of the Lion
The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan was a giant of a man in physical stature and in vision. He used the pulpit of Zion Baptist Church, where he presided as pastor for 38 years, as a launch point for history making global campaigns on behalf of human rights, civil rights, and economic justice. It was here that Rev. Sullivan advocated for Selective Patronage a boycott in which Black Philadelphians refused to buy the products of companies that denied them employment. It was also from here that he founded Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America, a job training program active in 30 states which has served 2 million people to date.
Later, Rev. Sullivan would emerge as a leading voice against apartheid in South Africa. He would serve on the board of General Motors, the first African American to do so. And he would continue the fight for economic opportunity. When he cut the ribbon on Philadelphia’s Progress Plaza, the nation’s first Black owned shopping center, the future president of the United States and 10,000 well wishers attended.
Rev. Sullivan’s courage and power as a leader inspired his nickname, the Lion of Zion still invoked today. The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center will honor the spirit of the Lion.
Seeking Philanthropic Investment
Based on planning to date, the total budget for the reconstruction of the Community Impact Center is projected to be $11 million. The combination of expected sources of funding include:
• an estimated $3 million in New Markets Tax Credit equity
• an estimated $1.75 million in Historic Tax Credits
• an award of $1.5 million in RACP funding from the Commonwealth (committed)
• $4.75 million in support from public sources, individuals, and institutional donors ($2.15 million is committed)
The Called to Serve CDC and Sullivan CDC are now seeking to build a circle of donor partners committed to the vision of the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center and raising an additional $2.6 million. In order to re-open this vital space in 2024, the time for commitment is now.
This support will represent an investment in the truest sense. The return will come not in the form of dollar dividends, but possibilities created. This is a project about uplifting a community. It is about economic empowerment. And it is about the enduring vision of Rev. Leon Sullivan. In his name and inspired by his spirit, we ask you to join us.
ESports and Technology Center can be configured for an ESports event (picture above) or 60-station computer lab for youth and adults from the community
ESports and Technology Center can be configured for an ESports event or 60station computer lab (shown above) for youth and adults from the community
