North Central Philadelphia’s Richard Allen New Generation (RANG) Has Been Designated a Registered Community Organization (RCO)

Philadelphia, July 06, 2017 -- Richard Allen New Generation (RANG), a 501©3 non-profit corporation, whose footprint includes, at its center, the historic Richard Allen public housing development, was recently designated a Registered Community Organization by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC). 

Members of Richard Allen New Generation (RANG), a community nonprofit organization which was recently designated as a Registered Community Organization (RCO) by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, have partnered with Polo Supermarket, located at 10th and Brown Streets, to have the store hire Shareem Thorpe (sixth from left), a rising freshman at Benjamin Franklin High School, as part of a community agreement put in place in late April. Pictured here are Anthony Jimenez (far left), owner, Polo Supermarket; Anita Boyd (third form left), vice president, RANG; Bernard Gorham (fifth from left), president, RANG; and other officers and members of RANG’s board. Anthony Jimenez (front), owner, Polo Supermarket, and Bernard Gorham (rear), president, Richard Allen New Generation (RANG) recently placed a window “cling” in the store’s window that reads “WE SUPPORT RANG AND THE RANG COMMUNITY SUPPORTS OUR BUSINESS.” The supermarket recently signed a community agreement wherein the store would, among other things, be obligated to hire a young student from the neighborhood. The student was Shareem Thorpe (not pictured), a rising freshman at Benjamin Franklin High School.

RANG is focused on addressing the needs of families and individuals within an area that specifically extends from Eighth to Broad Street and from Spring Garden Street to Girard Avenue, in North Central Philadelphia.

“It was a very demanding, one-year process for us, but it’s worth it, now, to be able to represent the interests of the people in the community where we were all born and raised,” said Bernard Gorham, RANG’s president.

Commenting further on RANG’s new RCO status, Anita Boyd, the community organization’s vice president, added, “In a community with so many female, single-parent households, we’re especially pleased that RANG’s leadership also includes so many strong, neighborhood women, who are anxious to have their voices heard on these issues.”

RCO’s have been established by the city of Philadelphia to ensure that neighbors of proposed real estate developments are notified, and have opportunities to make impact, with regard to zoning decisions that may impact them. They are notified by the Planning Commission whenever a zoning variance or special exception is requested, or when a civic design review (CDR) is proposed within their geographic boundaries. 

A Registered Community Organization, according to the PCPC, “convenes the public meeting that development project applicants are required to attend prior to being heard by the Zoning Board of Adjustment.”

In keeping with other parts of its mission, in its community, RANG’s officers and board members also recently facilitated the hiring of the first neighborhood-based student at the Polo Supermarket, at 10^th and Brown Streets, in the RANG footprint. The student, Shareem Thorpe, a rising freshman student at Benjamin Franklin High School, will work throughout the summer at the supermarket.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a969624e-c986-46ca-9567-caa865adf385

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eab12387-0ca8-4f98-8584-6620634dfba9

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/904f9a1f-23b7-43a0-adbf-63efa25cc223

Meaghan F. Washington
Richard Allen New Generation (RANG)
215-751-0140
[email protected]