When Kensington resident Verlonda Bagnall heard that the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) extended the LIHEAP utility cost assistance program for people affected by the coronavirus pandemic, she was very pleased. …
The Love Lot: Where Step Up to the Plate offers free meals, live music, and medical attention to Kensington residents during COVID-19
When coronavirus cut off access to in-person services in Kensington, Step Up to the Plate, a collaboration between Broad Street Ministry, Prevention Point Philadelphia, Project HOME and SEAMAAC, began to provide free…
Raised in Kensington, this National Guard sergeant was stationed down the street from his childhood home
When Sergeant Kyle Melnick-Hoffman joined the Pennsylvania National Guard in 2009, he never thought he’d be stationed in Kensington — down the street from his childhood home, where his mother still lives. …
Free classes at Lillian Marrero Library pair cooking with English learning
“Don’t speak English” were the first words Ana María learned to say in English when she moved to Boston from Puerto Rico in 1978 at 14 years old. María still remembers one of…
How I pushed through Philly’s education system and learned to embrace my roots
*Editor’s note: The author works as a multimedia reporter for Kensington Voice. I was born and raised in Kensington, but my first language isn’t English. As someone who is half Puerto Rican…
Restoring Victor’s garden
Next to Hope Park on the 3000 block of A Street, a broken fence borders the remains of Victor Ortiz’s neighborhood garden. “The garden used to bring so much light into the…