Philadelphia Community Corps Combines Job Training with Blight Removal

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Quetta Robinson, 24, of West Philadelphia has always wanted to work with animals. But since returning from a three-month stint in prison, finding work in her field of choice has been difficult.

“I guess they look at my background and probably don’t want to hire me,” she said about potential employers, including shelters and veterinary offices. “They just don’t call back.”

The Philadelphia Community Corps is a nonprofit aimed at helping ex-convicts, like Robinson, gain work experience and job training while also improving blighted neighborhoods. Earlier this month, the fledgling nonprofit started work on its first project: the soft-stripping, or non-structural deconstruction, of nine abandoned homes in North Philadelphia.

Robinson and a group of around six other workers, mostly young men in their late teens or early twenties, stripped out wooden trim, pulled up floor boards, and removed cabinets and garbage.

“It’s sort of a two-fold mission, because we’re revitalizing blighted neighborhoods by taking out the abandoned housing, but its also a teaching opportunity,” said Gregory Trainor, founder and director of the Philadelphia Community Corps.

He explained that soft-stripping is ideal for untrained workers because it teaches them how a building is put together by having them take it apart in the reverse order it was constructed.

“Most of these guys have never held a hammer before this project,” he added.

Finding partners, funding

Philadelphia Community Corps’ first project is a collaborative effort, made possible by a university, a popular city program, and a private company.

The owner of the properties, LaSalle Univesity, contracted Philadelphia Salvage Company to remove nine houses on Chew Avenue near its main campus. The Mt. Airy-based salvage and restoration company then subcontracted the soft-stripping to the Philadelphia Community Corps. The two organizations remain separate entities but plan to partner on future deconstruction projects. Trainor is also an employee of Philadelphia Salvage Company.

As for the City’s involvement, the workers are technically employed by the Mural Arts Program, which has also incorporated job training into its art projects.

“Mural Arts had funding from a grant to pay them,” Trainor said.

He added that the goal is to eventually have 20-30 employees and steady grant-funding to pay their wages. He also recently launched a crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo to raise money for the purchase of a van, additional equipment, and the initial cost of paying for 10 trainees.