The Game Changer of Life

Our Impact

Across every ZIP code we serve, Rising Hope For Change is changing what is possible — for young people, for families, for elders, and for the institutions that hold our communities together.

Our impact is not measured in slogans. It is measured in young people who graduated from our summer academies and stayed safe through August. In families who found support after the loss of a loved one to violence. In community members who attended a workshop, walked away with a connection to mental health care, and came back to bring a friend. In streets that are cleaner because our youth picked up the trash. In community-wide events that brought thousands of residents together in joy rather than mourning.

This page is a record of what we have built so far — and a commitment to what we will build next.

Impact by the Numbers

5,000+

Community members reached annually through awareness, outreach, and engagement activities.

400+

Youth, families, and elders served through direct programming in the most recent program cycle.

3

Core Philadelphia ZIP codes (19142, 19143, 19151) plus adjoining Eastern Delaware County communities consistently served.

7+

Years of continuous nonprofit operation as a 501(c)(3) organization registered and in good standing with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the IRS.

$600+

In cumulative federal, state, and local grant funding raised and deployed to direct community programming, with a record of clean reporting and timely compliance.

20+

Active partner organizations across faith, education, healthcare, government, and grassroots sectors.

What Our Work Has Delivered

Federal-Quality Programming Delivered Locally

Rising Hope For Change has been entrusted as a community sub-recipient and partner on the SAMHSA ReCAST Project — Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma — in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) and Temple University. The ReCAST initiative is a federal flagship for community-level resilience-building following civil unrest and community trauma, and our role as a trusted community delivery partner reflects the credibility we have earned with federal, state, and academic institutions.

Youth Workshops and Creative Therapy Sessions

Through our ReCAST programming and complementary youth initiatives, RHFC has delivered structured workshops at our Freedom Worship Center site combining trauma-informed group activities, expressive arts therapy, peer dialogue, and life-skills development. Young people who walked into these sessions guarded and disconnected have walked out engaged, expressive, and connected to ongoing support.

Community Clean-Up Mobilizations

Our Team-Up community clean-up events have brought dozens of youth, families, and adult volunteers into the streets of Southwest and West Philadelphia — on Beaumont Street, along the 58th Street corridor, and across our service area — to claim public space, build neighborhood pride, and demonstrate the principle of collective efficacy in visible, tangible form. These events serve a dual purpose: a cleaner, safer neighborhood today, and a generation of young people learning that they have power over the conditions of their own community.

Mental Health Awareness and Anti-Stigma Outreach

Through walks, workshops, and direct outreach, RHFC has met thousands of residents where they are — on church steps, in libraries, at recreation centers, in front of their own homes — to break the silence around mental health, substance use, gun violence trauma, and elder isolation. Our culturally rooted approach has reached African, African American, Caribbean, and West African families that mainstream behavioral health systems have historically failed to engage.

COVID-19 Community Response

During the height of the pandemic, RHFC pivoted rapidly to deliver community education, food distributions, vaccine confidence outreach, and connection to resources — protecting residents in some of the hardest-hit ZIP codes in Philadelphia.

Economic Empowerment and Family Support

From Earned Income Tax Credit education to workforce-readiness workshops to direct food and material assistance, we have helped families access benefits and resources they were entitled to but disconnected from — putting real dollars and real stability back into family budgets.

Anti-Violence Walks and Community Mobilizations

Our annual Gun Violence and Addiction Awareness Walks have brought together survivors, faith leaders, public officials, youth, and elders in public witness — building the visibility and solidarity that the research identifies as central to long-term reductions in community violence.

Elders' Safety and Wellbeing Programming

With support from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, RHFC has built a dedicated track of programming for older residents facing isolation, scam targeting, and disconnection from family and community life.

Looking Forward — The Impact We Are Building Next

Over the next 24 to 36 months, Rising Hope For Change is committed to:

Doubling our direct-service capacity in Southwest and West Philadelphia through the Community United: Violence Prevention and Youth Empowerment Initiative funded under the PCCD Violence Intervention and Prevention Program.

Launching the Rising Hope 250 — One Philly Heritage & Unity Festival as a signature annual community celebration, with permanent legacy components including a community mural and an oral history archive of Southwest Philadelphia's African, African American, Caribbean, Asian, and Latino communities.

Expanding evidence-based substance abuse prevention through the LifeSkills Training program in partnership with three local school districts.

Deepening our Eastern Delaware County footprint through our Darby Borough office.

Building a sustainable, multi-year funding base that includes diversified federal, state, city, foundation, corporate, and individual support — so that the work does not depend on any one source of investment.

Be Part of the Impact

The most important number on this page is the next one — and you can help us put it there.

Donate. Every dollar you contribute funds direct services to youth, families, and elders in some of the most under-invested ZIP codes in the Philadelphia region. Tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. EIN: 82-2603957.

Partner. If your foundation, agency, faith community, business, or institution is investing in Philadelphia or Eastern Delaware County, we are a credible, community-trusted partner with the track record, the staffing, and the systems to deliver.

Volunteer. Our impact is multiplied by every neighbor who shows up for a community clean-up, a youth workshop, a walk, or an event.

Visit. We welcome funders, donors, and partners to see our programming in person. Schedule a site visit at our Philadelphia office (1628 South 58th Street) or our Darby office (3 Chester Pike).