Neighborhood Bike Works Announces Move to Lancaster Avenue

Earlier this week, Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW) announced its new plans to create a community shop and bike education hub at 3939 and 3943 Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia.

The nonprofit, which has been empowering youth through bicycle education for nearly 20 years, will complete its move to Lancaster Avenue later this year.

“By this fall, youth will be building bikes, setting out on rides, and acquiring job skills at our new bike education hub near the intersection of the Mantua, Belmont, and Powelton neighborhoods,” said NBW Executive Director Erin DeCou in a press release. “Neighborhood Bike Works has always been a neighborhood institution, but with this move we’ll be closer to more of the communities we serve.”

NBW offers an array of classes and events that instill confidence, inspire health and adventure, and build skills for future success. The organization also hosts adult repair classes

and “Bike Church,” which offers open shop hours for anyone in the community interested in getting help fixing their bike or purchasing affordable donated bikes or bike parts. Bike Church will continue once NBW moves to its new location.

The new site, which is two side-by-side storefront properties, is just one mile from NBW’s current headquarters in the basement of St. Mary’s Church on Locust Walk, at the edge of the University of Pennsylvania campus. According to NBW’s website, the move will help with the organization’s long-term sustainability, and the new site will be bigger and allow NBW to reach more people.

“By moving out of a basement space to a highly visible, street-level site, we hope more families will find us and get involved in our programs,” DeCou said.

NBW’s North Philly facility will also close at in November, because of space constraints. In addition, NBW said it realized it was channeling too many resources into managing two complicated facilities rather than directly supporting its programs, according to its website.

While the new location won’t have a retail hub like the North Philly location, a team of staff and board members has been meeting regularly to determine an alternative model for making the most of the stock of 1,000+ bikes donated to NBW annually. According to NBW’s website, some initial ideas include involving more youth in efforts to refurbish bikes for sale at Bike Church or selling the refurbished inventory directly to area bike shops.

To cover the costs related to the move and the creation of the new bike education hub, NBW is launching a campaign to raise $150,000.

Find out more about the move at http://neighborhoodbikeworks.org/news/background-on-nbws-move/

Image via Neighborhood Bike Works