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City Council, United Way Announce $10M in Funding for Partnerships with Key Neighborhood Service Providers

Philadelphia, PA (February 22, 2021) – Today the City of Philadelphia took a major step toward its poverty “moonshot” as it committed $10 million in city funding to the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey (UWGPSNJ) to spearhead Philadelphia’s Poverty Action Fund. This historic public-private partnership aims to lift 100,000 Philadelphians out of poverty in the next five years, and is the next step of a year-long effort led by City Council, the Kenney administration, community, business and philanthropic leaders.

The first investment announced -- $5.5 Million -- will be used immediately to begin funding neighborhood organizations providing financial services during this tax season. The first of several Community Challenges, the Family Stability Community Challenge, funds partnerships that offer free tax preparation, access to benefits and wage supports, and financial and legal counseling, and other reinforcing programs in a single location as the city strives for an equitable financial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; including $1M to LISC supporting the Latino Equitable Development Collective (LEDC). 

“Philadelphia deserves an entirely new approach to intractable poverty. This is different than anything we have done before because it leverages public-private partnership and impact measurement to invest directly in people."
— Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez

In keeping with our role as a trusted convener, LISC will support the Latino Equitable Development Collective (LEDC) to forge an enhanced partnership aimed at reducing poverty and promoting equitable recovery from the pandemic in the Latino community of Philadelphia. 

Together, the LEDC forms a powerful network of multi-service agencies with decades of experience in critical areas needed to advance the goals of the Poverty Action Fund. Comprised of 13 Latino serving and led organizations, the LEDC is developing a place-based, collective service delivery model maximizing the coordination of approachand services to combat poverty through six of its partners: Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM), Ceiba, Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Inc. (Congreso), HACE,Norris Square Community Alliance (NSCA) and Nueva Esperanza (Esperanza).

Other grantees include:

About the Poverty Action Fund: 

The first of several Community Challenges, the Family Stability Community Challenge, funds partnerships that offer free tax preparation, access to benefits and wage supports, and financial and legal counseling, and other reinforcing programs in a single location as the city strives for an equitable financial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the city announced its overall funding commitment in November 2020, the organizations worked collaboratively and with a Family Stability Advisory Board to support an impactful, expeditious process that would deliver services to Philadelphia residents this tax season.

Additional information about the Poverty Action Fund can be found here.