At Called to Serve, we have the distinct privilege of assisting remarkable individuals as they transition from a life of incarceration back into the community. Today, we want to highlight the story of one such individual, Robert White, affectionately known as 'Bear,' whose inspiring journey from prison to becoming a valued community member has left an indelible mark on us.

Robert came to us following a 20-year sentence and two years of navigating life on the streets. Like many returning citizens, he faced the challenge of reintegrating into society with little more than a bus token and the clothes on his back.

In the face of these daunting odds, we at Called to Serve, aligned with Philadelphia’s community violence intervention program, strived to provide Robert with a holistic and individualized support network. Our goal was to surround him with a familial environment, offering essential services such as therapy, employment, and most critically, housing assistance.

On April 25, 2023, at 4:00 PM, an exciting event will take place at the corner of Broad and Venango Streets in North Philadelphia. This event, called the Celebration Campaign for the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center, marks an important milestone in the neighborhood's history.

The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center honors a visionary leader who made North Philadelphia the birthplace of a movement that reached across the nation and around the world. The Center's mission is to extend Rev. Sullivan's remarkable legacy into the 21st century by empowering and uplifting members of the community today.

The Center brings together a constellation of diverse programs dedicated to community well-being as determined by local residents. It honors Rev. Sullivan's legacy in a particularly appropriate manner by bringing back to Broad and Venango a thriving community center like the one he founded here in the 1960s.

The Center will occupy the same building as Zion's Educational Annex, which was founded by Rev. Sullivan, directly across Broad Street from Zion Baptist Church. This location is a fitting tribute to the man who dedicated his life to improving the lives of others.

The community has rallied around this project, and the organizers are grateful to all those who have committed. This project is personal for many of the organizers, and they invite everyone to continue to share the story of this exceptional revitalization project that they believe continues Rev. Sullivan's vision.

Rev. Sullivan was a trailblazer who dedicated his life to improving the lives of others. His legacy lives on through the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center, which will continue to uplift and empower members of the North Philadelphia community for years to come.
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If you are interested in attending the Celebration Campaign, be sure to register soon, as VIP space is limited. This is a historic moment in North Philadelphia's history, and you won't want to miss it.

Called to Serve (CTS) is an emerging socioeconomic community development corporation (CDC) dedicated to the complete renewal, restoration and revitalization of underserved neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

With a primary focus on the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood of North Philadelphia, we envision a wholesome Philadelphia urban ecosystem with intact neighborhoods, thriving businesses with access to capital, and reformed schools that produce academically competent students.

Called To Serve CDC is a faith-based organization that believes that every human being is made in the image of God. Therefore, people have been given, by God, the right to earn a living, obtain an education, grow a family, and flourish economically, socially, spiritually, and psychologically. Thus we serve the “Whole Person” and we pray and create innovative and outside the box methods to achieve these goals within a system that inherently marginalizes and oppresses the people and communities that we serve. This is a “spiritual warfare” that we fight, and we stand on the shoulders of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, who was a beacon of light in civil rights, economic development, education, and the liberation of the former ancestors of slaves in America, and their African ancestors who still face oppression through imperialism, apartheid, and marginalization. CTS stands on the shoulders of Pastor Sullivan, and we look to continue in his legacy, and prepare young people in our community to take the “baton” and continue this work into the next generations.

Therefore, CTS, in a partnership with the Black Contractors Coalition Association, held our second “Black & Brown Economic Construction Production event” on March 15, 2023. We purpose to build, maintain, and sustain an ecosystem of contractors, developers, entrepreneurs, government agencies, private foundations and industries, community organizations, and anchor institutions that will serve as an ”Economic Incubator” to take two groups: Firstly, local handyman and handywomen that are skilled at their trade but are not officially licensed, insured and bonded, financed, and have the back office support to build a successful contracting business. Secondly, we seek to serve established contractors who are unable to scale up their businesses. We include these groups in an ecosystem that provides support in every aspect for the growth and health of a successful construction business, which includes property management and building maintenance. We believe to increase black and brown hiring in construction projects that the intentional support of black and brown contractors will enable them to hire more people from our communities, and therefore lift up the economic, social, and political lives of the communities we serve.

We had 117 people registered for the event. Our mission and vision and goals were made clear when Rodney Davis, The Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Officer for Turner Construction, shared the following numbers:

In 2021 there was $26B of construction work completed in the City of Philadelphia. Of that $26B, Black & Brown Construction Contractors and Workers received 3.7%, which is about $962M. Not even $1B from $26B, in a city that has over 50% representation from Black & Brown communities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Acts describes this as a “Manifest Imbalance”, and it is this number (3.7%) that the Black & Brown Economic Construction Ecosystem seeks to address by correcting this manifest imbalance.

Our goal is to create a sustainable construction economic community that can see Black & Brown Contractors and workers see their share of the total financial resources in the City of Philadelphia increase to 10% by March 2025, and then to see the manifest imbalance corrected by 2030.

Below are some pictures from our March 15, 2023 event, which was held at Zion Baptist Church.  

This past week, Called to Serve’s Executive Director, Jeffrey Harley, spoke to students at Bethune Elementary School.

Reading Across America is an annual event celebrated on March 2nd, which is also Dr. Seuss's birthday. This event is organized by the National Education Association (NEA) and is aimed at encouraging children and adults to read more. The event started in 1998 and has since become a nationwide event that celebrates the joy of reading.

The goal of Reading Across America is to promote literacy and reading as a fun and enjoyable activity. The event also highlights the importance of reading in education and in everyday life.

For the past 8 years, the Called to Serve Cleaning Ambassador Program has continued to make a positive impact on the community. Now, they will find new leadership in Rev. Harvey Bass. Rev. Bass will act as both a direct supervisor and mentor to the Cleaning Ambassadors, continuing on his life-long legacy.

With over 30 years of experience working with re-entry persons, homeless and recovering addicts, Rev. Bass brings a unique and highly valued skillset to lead this team.

“I am extremely grateful to be used to help others,” Rev. Bass said. “This is what is most rewarding to me. There is no place in life that could be more fulfilling than the life I am now living.”

​A key aspect of the coming Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center is the Esports Event and Technology Center. This dual-purpose space can host Esports events and be converted into a 60-station state-of-the-art computer lab.
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One of the programs planning to take advantage of this space is beginning to take shape, and it starts with the Bethune Elementary and Kenderton Elementary schools. Entitled the “BriDDge Career Pathways Program: Bridging the Digital Divide,” this program will provide meaningful career pathways for North Philadelphia youth.

​But what does Esports have to do with career building? By providing an engaging introduction to careers like event planning, information technology, broadcasting and beyond. With hundreds of careers available in business, STEM, media, communications, education and more, students in the BriDDge program will be introduced to them all while continuing to enjoy one of their favorite hobbies, finding a deeper appreciate and love for Esports they didn’t know existed. They may come for the games, but they’ll leave with a career.

This program is guided by social cognitive theory, which has been applied to the education field to understand knowledge acquisition and behavior. It’s through this that students will learn through the dynamic interaction of cognitive, social and environmental factors which collectively motivate, reinforce, and sustain behavior.
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BriDDge will focus intently on developing cognitive traits related to goal setting and intentional self-regulation through Esports and other STEM activities. Also, the team-oriented environment will foster strong relationships with peers/coaches which will be leveraged to help youth align personal and environmental assets both inside and outside the program. Collectively, these experiences will promote a sense of self-efficacy, self-worth, and social competence which will enhance college and/or college readiness, and health.

While the Community Impact Center is not scheduled to open until 2024, Called to Serve will launch up to seven community-based sites to host Esports teams as the initial step in the BriDDge program, starting with the Bethune Elementary and Kenderton Elementary schools with plans for near-future expansion for schools in the Tioga-Nicetown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
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Stay tuned and keep an eye out for more developments that will be happening soon!

Our Workforce Development partnership with the Temple Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative (LNPWI) and the Center for Urban Bioethics (Lewis Katz Medical School at Temple) is in its second year. Combined with our participation in the Philadelphia Taking Care of Business (PHL TCB) program, CTS is presently employing six men five of whom are returning citizens as Cleaning Ambassadors.

The Covid19 pandemic has shone a bright light on the digital inequity that existed for years in underserved communities. Even before the outbreak, Called To Serve has sought to address this issue in the Nicetown-Tioga community. Events such as the Hour of Code at Bethune and Kenderton elementary schools represent examples.