PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Urban Creators headquarters near 11th and Dauphin streets was once a dumping area, littered with trash and unwanted belongings. Today, it’s an escape from the North-Central Philadelphia concrete jungle, according to neighborhood organizer Moore Ali El.
It has a garden, a greenhouse — El calls gardening "a spiritually refreshing, healing activity" — and open green space for kids to run around and play. And every Wednesday Urban Creators hosts a neighborhood market, where they give away free health food, books and more.
"We know that there's a lot of dangerous type of activity around us — but we fashion this as a safe space, as a healing space, as a space where you can network, build with like-minded people to make the world a better place," El said.
Though, as the organization battles food insecurity, another issue has grown over the past year: Their ZIP code has some of the highest incidences of drug overdose deaths in the city.
He says the stigmatization of drug overdoses has painted this issue as a "white" issue, which they have seen as untrue.
"That’s something that the African-American community isn’t really aware of. We see it as a 'foreign problem' — like, 'That’s what they deal with in Kensington,'" El said. "However, if you look at the statistics, those of us that are paying attention, we know that it’s happening here, and we're not talking about it."
El says the Urban Creators group has a plan to tackle the stigmatization of both addiction and drug overdose. The group is expanding their work to directly include more harm-reduction services.
"What we find is, we don't directly deal with people who are experiencing drug addiction themselves, in terms of services for their addiction or support for that, but they come to us for the other stuff ... and that is harm reduction."
He says they plan to leverage their position as a community resource hub with a new initiative called Peacemakers. In partnership with local hospitals and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, they are recruiting candidates for at least six paid part-time positions for the Peacemakers program.
El says he hopes young people from the neighborhood will see those jobs as opportunities to help their community while earning money.
"In essence, you know, we don’t tell people they shouldn’t be engaging in drug-addictive behaviors, but there’s something that’s causing that. And that's causing other problems. So if we can help make sure that you got food or a place to take a break from the concrete jungle, or meet some good people, hear some good music, get your hands [dirty] .... So all of those things are harm reduction," he said.
El says he has a personal connection to the issue. Some people close to him have dealt with addiction illnesses. He hopes the work he does will decrease the stigma, and educate and empower young people to help solve the today's problems and create a better tomorrow.
Anyone interested in the Peacemakers initiative, or Urban Creators generally, can fill out a survey on the website.