NEW DOLLARS/NEW PARTNERS -- PHILADELPHIA

In times of crisis people often go to a neighborhood standby - the old church or synagogue nearby - to seek help and guidance. From their homes in historic sacred places everywhere, religious congregations routinely support and engage their neighbors. But when congregations need help, especially with maintaining and preserving their buildings, where do they turn?

Now some are able to turn to a new training program that is being piloted in Philadelphia by Partners for Sacred Places. New Dollars / New Partners - Philadelphia, a two-year local program funded by the William Penn Foundation, is providing training and resources to help older sacred places in Philadelphia remain strong and vital. This initiative is a variation of the national New Dollars / New Partners Program that Partners is offering throughout the country. The Philadelphia program 1) trains congregations in how to see their buildings as assets, and find new funding and new partners to help preserve them as centers of community services; and 2) provides seed grants to help congregations position themselves to put these new skills to good use.

Initially the Philadelphia program is focusing on two neighborhoods where strong institutions are already working to build community. One is in West Philadelphia, where The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Community Partnerships works with congregations in the neighborhood. The other neighborhoods are in Northwest Philadelphia, where considerable community development activity has taken place, and where institutions such as the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) and Northwest Interfaith Movement are available to collaborate with Partners.

The training consists of four full-day modules that cover topics such as: assessing capital repair needs and working with outside contractors; matching a building¹s spaces with the needs of the community; and undertaking a capital fundraising campaign. Several of Partners' unique publication resources ­ such as the Guide to Capital Campaigns and Your Sacred Place is a Community Asset: A Tool Kit to Attract New Resources and Partners - serve as texts for the training modules.

A total of 22 congregations from two neighborhoods are participating in the training, and each has formed a team of clergy and lay leaders to undertake the year-long training process. By the end of the program, Partners expects that ten of these congregations will as, Partners' Co-Director A. Robert Jaeger says, "have begun to broaden their base of support for both buildings and outreach programs."

In order for a congregation to fully benefit from the program, certain things must be in place. Participating congregations should have a clear, up-to-date mission statement; clergy and lay leadership should be united and energized in their vision for the use of their building(s); and an assessment of the building¹s repair and renovation needs should exist. To help "fill in the gaps,² Partners is providing "seed money" to participating congregations. "If a congregation needs a building condition assessment, the money can be used for that. If they need a consultant to help them create a vision statement or a strategic plan, we can help them do that as well," Co-Director Diane Cohen says. "That makes the Philadelphia program very powerful."

Since receiving the William Penn Foundation grant in May, 2002, Partners has networked with other organizations in the two communities; identified congregations to participate; worked with experts in fundraising and congregational consulting to develop the training curriculum; presented the first two training modules; begun to administer the seed grant program and match congregations with architects and other professionals; and provided contacts and supplementary training though other organizations such as the Germantown Historical Society.

In a recent exciting development, the Community Design Collaborative -- a program of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA -- was awarded a grant from the William Penn Foundation, in part to help plan and administer the volunteer services of architects and other design professionals in its network on behalf of congregations in the New Dollars program. These services will include building design and space planning.

The goals and methods of New Dollars/New Partners -- Philadelphia may seem obvious. But Jaeger says this is "very new thinking." Resources such as those being provided by Partners¹ program have, until now, been essentially unavailable. "This is ground breaking work."