Community Educator & Consultant:
Adjacent Construction Safety & Residents Rights
I’m a Philadelphia homeowner and a local community advocate focused on safe, equitable, and ethical development protections for residents.
I consult with residents and organizations experiencing harm by adjacent construction projects, helping them document their cases, communicate with developers, connect with aid services and organizations, and navigate our city government systems.
I also provide valuable consulting assistance and perspective to agencies, non-profits, and organizations who want to build capacity in this area of advocacy and aid services.
SERVICES
Community Educator
Construction, development, and the impact it can have on neighborhoods is a complex and nuanced subject. I create templates and how-to guides whenever I learn something new so that residents won’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Advocacy
”Matchmaker”
With so many agencies, non-profits, local services, advocacy groups, and subject matter experts focused on their own areas of expertise, sometimes they can miss golden opportunities for collaboration. I bring people together who should be comparing notes.
Capacity Building
The issue of adjacent construction safety and the harm and damage it can cause is not a new problem, but it is reaching a volume that has finally brought to light the lack of available services and strategies for aiding victims. I help aid organizations, community organizations, and other agencies to find the gaps in their services, create resources to help them manage the influx of cries for help, and build capacity on their teams to handle the volume of requests. I’m just one person, and I can only do so much on my own. Ask me how I can help your team to get up to speed and provide timely aid and resources to your constituents, clients, communities, and more.
Document Organization
I help residents to collect and organize photo and video evidence of damages, trespassing, and more, in order to improve the ability of aid organizations and professionals to assess any damages or concerns for the safety of a resident’s home. Well-documented incidents can also help with building a case in the event that a dispute with a developer requires legal intervention.
City Agency Navigation
I seek out the right offices, agencies, and individuals to contact about specific types of incidents surrounding unsafe development. If I’m continuously learning how to navigate the systems in place, you shouldn’t have to start from zero!
“These are not just buildings, they’re peoples’ homes, their lives, their cherished memories.”
— Michele Gaffney, Millennial Neighbor
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