By Jenine Pilla, Ciara Sheerin, & Betsey Carroll
New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC) is a community-driven non-profit serving the Kensington, Port Richmond, and Fishtown neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Its focus areas include affordable real estate development, housing counseling, small business assistance, community health, workforce development, violence intervention, food systems programming, and more. NKCDC strives to promote social equity and economic empowerment. To do so, NKCDC takes a people-centered and collaborative approach to their work. They uplift the community’s assets to build upon its strengths. NKCDC works to connect people to critical resources and fight displacement, all while ensuring that community’s voice is at the forefront of their work and decision-making.
NKCDC Logo which is three rowhomes and a tree in a green color.
Data, Education, and Co-Creation as Tools for Empowerment
In January 2025, NKCDC opened the Kensington Engagement Center in the heart of Kensington at 3000 Kensington Avenue by McPherson Square. The center is a community anchor that serves as a space for neighbors to come together to discuss their priorities and desired outcomes, which more than 1,000 residents have been naming as part of the Co-Creating Kensington initiative. In addition to operating as a hub for their services such as housing, legal supports, and more, the engagement center is a central location to gather for community meetings and events. The engagement center also hosts rotating exhibits and engagement series coordinated by partners across the city, which aim to use data as a tool for learning and action. The exhibitions often include data-driven storytelling, highlighting priorities named by the community through the Co-Creating Kensington process, but through numbers and visuals that tell the story of the neighborhood’s history, struggles, and strengths. Additionally, NKCDC works to integrate data and data skills into their workshops.
DA Krasner and other elected officials attend the ribbon cutting ceremony of NKCDC’s Engagement Center in January 2025.
In their new engagement center, NKCDC hosts engagement series and exhibits. From late September to mid-December 2025, NKCDC and more than 20 partners, including the CoLab, hosted a workshop about “People-First Housing,” which included a data-walk exhibit as well as a series of workshops on housing topics ranging from information on housing policies, housing advocacy, and how housing relates to the climate and disability justice. Kensington CoLab coordinator Jenine Pilla and data analyst TJ Hare hosted a “Data in Action” workshop, where they discussed public data sources related to housing data, including how to access and download the data, interpret it, and use the data in actionable work. Workshop participants were able to engage with the datasets in real time.
NKCDC continues to host workshop series and exhibits focused on learning, envisioning, and taking action on co-created solutions. This includes their active series at the time of writing, Co-Creating a Greenprint for Kensington, which aims to gain resident feedback to create an actionable green plan for Kensington.
Left: Kensington CoLab coordinator Jenine Pilla presents the “Data in Action” workshop. Right: Following the “Data in Action” workshop, participants worked on laptops to explore publicly available data and learn how to work with it.
Further Collaboration with the DATA CoLab
While NKCDC already has excellent capacity and a team to facilitate data sharing with their neighborhood, they have collaborated with the DATA CoLab to expand this data access and transparency. In addition to being able to support workshops and exhibits at the Kensington Engagement Center, the DATA CoLab has worked closely with NKCDC to support the creation of a civic information hub and their Cure Violence team’s internal data collection.
The DATA CoLab has been honored to work with NKCDC’s Cure Violence team. Cure Violence Kensington takes a public health approach to addressing gun violence. The team is made up of outreach workers who have lived experience and understanding of the neighborhood in which they are working. Outreach workers carry caseloads of individuals who are most at-risk of engaging in and being victimized by violence, and work to not only mediate and disrupt conflicts but also connect residents to resources. Additionally, they work to canvas the community, mobilize residents, and respond to shooting incidents. Much like the workshop she provided for NKCDC’s housing institute, Kensington coordinator Jenine Pilla did a Data in Action training for Cure Violence. This training focused on teaching Cure Violence team members how to collect and use their own data, as opposed to using public data sources. Collecting and using data related to their work can be a great tool for measuring and reporting organizational impact and results, as well as for making programming and policy decisions. The DATA CoLab is excited to see and support Kensington Cure Violence as they work to build their data capacity.
Conclusion
The DATA CoLab is honored to partner with NKCDC, which is doing phenomenal work in Kensington and the surrounding neighborhoods. Ensuring that data is accessible and usable for not only community-based organizations, but also the residents they serve, is essential for collaborative and transparent work. NKCDC has been a leading thought partner in envisioning a better future for all of our neighborhoods and the DATA CoLab is excited to see where this work goes from here.
Acknowledgements
The DATA CoLab is honored to work with organizations like NKCDC.
We welcome feedback, comments, and inquiries to collaborate with the CoLab or support for the associated community partners at [email protected].
The DATA CoLab is made possible through funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD).