Title
Recognizing and Honoring Rebuilding Together Philadelphia.
Body
WHEREAS, In 1988, University of Pennsylvania graduate students and physical plant employees founded Rebuilding Together Philadelphia ("RTP")(formerly know as Christmas in April of Philadelphia) as the independent local affiliate of Rebuilding Together, Inc., one of the nation's leading nonprofit organizations working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize communities by providing free home rehabilitation and critical repairs to those in need; and
WHEREAS, The work of Rebuilding Together is executed through an affiliate network of more than 200 entities using thousands of volunteer hours each year that help improve 10,000 houses each year and the majority of RTP volunteers' rebuilding efforts are concentrated into neighborhood block builds where work is done, en mass, to over 15 homes at a time, often anchored by a community organization also receiving RTP repair work; and
WHEREAS, The mission of RTP is to partner with the community to preserve affordable housing and prevent homelessness by rehabilitating, for free, the homes of elderly, disabled, and low-income homeowners so that they may continue to live in warmth, safety, and independence and, as of June 2009, over 25,000 RTP volunteers donated over 349,000 hours to make essential repairs to 876 homes and 40 community agencies, providing repairs worth over $19 million dollars; and
WHEREAS, In March 2009, RTP teamed up with the local tri-state Pepsi Bottling Group and the Logan CDC to renovate an empty row house into the Carlton Simmons Community Technology Center which serves as a satellite office of the Logan NAC and where Logan residents can host meetings, receive services, and have access, free of charge, to computers and the Internet; and
WHEREAS, On November 11th at 8:00 p.m., RTP will be profiled on House and Garden Television ("HGTV") on its Change th...
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