Lessons on Restoring Community

Pew’s new ‘After the Fact’ podcast season features stories of successful community-building in Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia—with ideas that can work anywhere

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Lessons on Restoring Community
The mural is painted on a large roll of white paper and features a quote from writer Audre Lorde: “We are all in the process of becoming.” It features a black-and-white sketch of a block of row houses framed by two red roses, with clouds and the sun overhead.
A mural greets—and inspires—people experiencing homelessness when they visit Project’s HOME’s “Hub of Hope” in Philadelphia, one of the three cities the “After the Fact” team visited while producing the “Restoring Community” season of the podcast.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Although surveys show that Americans felt loneliness during the pandemic and harbor a mistrust of government and of their fellow citizens, the Pew Research Center reports that 86% of U.S. adults believe that it is possible to improve people’s confidence in one another and that local communities can be laboratories for trust-building.

With that in mind, the team from Pew’s “After the Fact” podcast traveled to three American cities to tell stories of local leaders and organizations that are creating places for people to show up for one another, break bread together, and find value in the dignity in each other. In short, places where community is being restored and strengthened.

Baltimore: Restoring Inner City Hope

RICH co-founder Michael Battle stands in front of the Cherry Hill Town Center. He has a full beard, glasses, and a big smile, and is wearing a cap and a navy blue sweatshirt, both emblazoned with the RICH logo.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Michael Battle stands outside a small strip mall that is a gathering place for Baltimore’s Cherry Hill neighborhood, where he and his wife, Danielle, are opening a juice bar that will employ local youth. The couple founded a nonprofit group called Restoring Inner City Hope— RICH— that offers community programs in Cherry Hill. Michael, who lost his mother to a drug overdose when he was 14, said, “I saw that there were a lot of little ‘Michaels’ walking around. Carrying that same pain, trauma, and hurt that I was. So, that’s when I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to this work.”

Four students sit at long tables playing games and eating snacks in RICH’s after-school program room, decorated with a large RICH banner that features an outline of the Baltimore skyline.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

RICH offers after an after-school meeting place where students gather at long tables to do homework, play games, and share snacks. The organization also provides backpacks—647 at the start of the last school year—and even offers haircuts so that the young people can feel their best at school.

RICH co-founder Danielle Battle, wearing her trademark stylish eyeglasses and a dark sweatshirt with a photo of people and the word “Squad” on it, poses for a photo with Frederick Riley, executive director, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, who is in an open-collared shirt and a navy blazer. They are standing in front of a blackboard filled with inspirational phrases at RICH’s headquarters in Baltimore.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Frederick Riley, executive director of Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute, visited Danielle Battle while the Pew team was in Baltimore. Weave has recognized RICH for its work and outreach in the Cherry Hill neighborhood. “This is human work. This is heart work. And so real humans, with a real heart for people, have to do this work,” Riley said. For her part, Danielle said simply, “We just wanted to shine a little light, give a little love.”

Mama Cleo Walker, a Cherry Hill resident, stands in a large meeting room at the Cherry Hill Town Center that is still decorated with bunting from a recent RICH fundraiser. She is wearing a silver cross around her neck and a black mask bedazzled in rhinestones that spell out the words, “living in grace.”
The Pew Charitable Trusts

“After the Fact” also spoke to Mama Cleo Walker, who’s lived in the neighborhood since the 1960s. She has been a friend and mentor to children and young adults in Cherry Hill and first met Michael Battle when he was a youngster. “I just saw something in him. He was someone that God had said, ‘this man right here has something special about him,’” she said. “And I’m gonna pray about him and I’m gonna talk to him.”

Milwaukee: Kinship Community Food Center

Vincent Noth, dressed in a dark sweater, hugs a woman in a heavy winter coat who is a community member at Kinship Community Food Center. The center is in the basement of St. Casmir Catholic Church, where dozens of people have gathered for dinner in a brightly lit room lined with tables and chairs.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Vincent Noth greets a member of the Kinship Community Food Center in Milwaukee, where the “After the Fact” team traveled for its second episode of the season. Noth, who is Kinship’s executive director, and his staff and volunteers have transformed what was once a food pantry into a neighborhood gathering place. “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with just distributing food. At Kinship Community Food Center, we just want to focus on building relationships through food,” he said. “If we make it about relationships, everything can change.”

In the center’s market, a man in a gray jacket, who is a Kinship community member, selects onions from wicker baskets on long wire shelves filled with produce, including green peppers, limes, and broccoli.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

A member of the Kinship Community helps himself to onions on market night. Most of the produce is grown at Kinship’s own urban farm. The people are also offered meats and pantry staples to help them make healthy meals at home. Kinship began a decade ago and now serves some 200 families each week.

Under a blackboard with a colorful sign reading “Kinship Café,” Kinship volunteers spoon out food for community members who have lined up at a long counter that is also filled at one end with plates of pre-sliced peanut butter chocolate cake for dessert.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Market night also includes a community dinner, cooked by Kinship staff and volunteers, that is more than meal—it also encourages connection and a sense of belonging. “Anyone can go and build Kinship. Anyone can go to their neighborhood meal site—not to perform a duty or to fix someone or fix something—but just to go build a relationship to encounter someone,” Vincent said. “And they can do it as an act of weaving, of rebuilding solidarity in the community.”

Isaac Williams and Natalie Ross stand side by side, each offering a smile and a peace sign to the camera. He is wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and she is wearing a Kinship T-shirt adorned with a radish and bearing the phrase “A community of generosity.” Like everyone at Kinship, they are each wearing name tags.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Kinship staff member Natalie Ross and 13-year-old Isaac Williams, who lives in the neighborhood, became friends at the center. She has helped him as he struggled being separated from friends during the pandemic and also prepared him for his audition to a performing arts high school—where was accepted and will be attending classes this fall. “Everyone was just like, cheering me on,” Isaac said. When Natalie began at Kinship she was recovering from alcohol use disorder and looking for somewhere she could belong. “Food is how I know how to love,” she said. “It’s the folks, including myself, who are the most isolated or think that they could never be loved, that really need that the most.”

Philadelphia: Project HOME

A yellow sign with multiple downward arrows indicates that the “Hub of Hope” is down steps to a former subway station below the downtown streets. A large glass skyscraper and other tall buildings are in the background against a clear but gray sky.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

The skyscrapers of Center City Philadelphia surround the entrance to Project HOME’s Hub of Hope in a former subway station below the city’s streets. The “After the Fact” team visited Pew’s hometown for its third episode to talk to members of the project, which is working to end the cycle of homelessness and poverty through services, including neighborhood-based affordable housing, employment opportunities, education, and health care. Project HOME is also a Pew Fund for Health and Human Services in Philadelphia grantee.

Several inspirational phrases are written on yellow, pink, and green sheets of paper, adding a colorful touch to a set of grayish-brown double doors. The sayings include, “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud,” “Forget all the reasons it won’t work—and believe the one reason it will,” and “Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind.”
The Pew Charitable Trusts

Handwritten inspirational notes fill the walls at the Hub of Hope, which is operated by Project HOME and offers a place where people experiencing homelessness can shower, clean their clothes, eat a meal in community with others, and receive medical care. “The idea is to provide a safe space, a dignified space where people are welcome,” said Candace Player, who leads outreach and special initiatives for Project HOME. “It really is that core mission of meeting people where they are.”

“After the Fact” host Dan LeDuc, in a blue sweater, interviewed Wes Mitchell, who is wearing a tan pullover, and Sister Mary Scullion, wearing a white sweater, in Project HOME’s offices, where the tan walls are decorated with black-and-white photos depicting the organization’s activities over the years.
The Pew Charitable Trusts

“After the Fact” host Dan LeDuc interviewed Wes Mitchell, who serves on Project HOME’s board, and project co-founder Sister Mary Scullion. Wes came to Project HOME after being released from prison and said it turned his life around. “I’ve gotten better because of organizations like Project HOME and the community,” Wes said. Sister Mary co-founded Project HOME in 1989 with Joan McConnon, now the organization’s associate executive director. “I’ve seen the marginalization of people who are unsheltered and feeling invisible and how devastating that experience is,” Sister Mary said. “This challenges me to see people, hear people, and engage with people.”

To listen to the “Restoring Community” season, visit “After the Fact” or find the show on streaming services where podcasts are available. 

The Pew Charitable Trusts’ “After the Fact” podcast provides data and expert analysis on the biggest challenges facing society today. Host Dan LeDuc and guests guide listeners through analysis, research, and personal stories that go behind the facts and bring the data to life.

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