Supporting charities that are working to enrich Philadelphia is a great way to give back to your community. This city is home to hundreds of nonprofit organizations that are helping thousands of people. These organizations aim to help those who are in need. Most charities have the goal to reduce poverty by helping people in any way they can or by donating clothes, food products, water for families, and more. Here's a list of local charities in Philadelphia that you should consider volunteering with or donating to!
Philadelphia remains one of the nation's poorest large city, with a poverty rate that has hardly moved in recent years. Founded in 1984, Philabundance works to end hunger throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. Philabundance is an efficient way to help donate to those in need of food, by being able to deliver two meals for each donated dollar. It supports deserving families and their children. They distribute food to more than 450 hunger relief agencies and are able to collect through collaboration with manufacturers, grocers, farmers, and locals and deliver upwards of 30,000,000 pounds of food annually to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, after-school programs.
Founded in 1996, Playworks expanded to Pennsylvania in 2010. Playworks Pennsylvania serves low-income schools across Philadelphia through our year-round, on-site support services. They have helped reach thousands of more students across Pennsylvania through professional development workshops for schools and youth organizations. Now, they are looking beyond the schools that they serve to help 3.5 million students in 7,000 schools experience safe and healthy play every day.
In 1976, Women Against Abuse was founded as a part-time domestic violence hotline in a neighborhood women’s center. Victims of domestic violence and abuse in Philadelphia find the needed assistance they have been searching for. They advocate in Pennsylvania, serving 15,000 individuals each year through emergency residential services. They offer safe havens, legal centers that offer free legal advocacy, sojourner houses, a domestic violence hotline, safe at home programs, and more. Their main mission is to always provide quality, compassionate, and nonjudgemental services that foster self-respect and independence in individuals experiencing intimate partner violence.
The overdose epidemic that Philly has is increasingly getting worse. Philadelphia surpassed 1,150 overdose deaths in 2018, and the epidemic has hit a number of US cities. Kensington is in the heart of the epidemic, but Prevention Point has been in the fight to help reduce overdoses. By introducing the Sterile Syringe Exchange, they are able to reduce the amount of HIV being spread in Philadelphia and getting used syringes off the streets. Another service that they provide is the overdose prevention program that will teach you how to safely handle Narcan, which helps reverse the effects of an overdose.
Philly Paws is one of the largest rescue organization in the city, providing the city with low cost basic veterinary care for pet owners and rescue organizations that cannot otherwise access or afford it. Through its three no-kill shelters, foster care network, and special events, PAWS finds loving homes for thousands of animals each year. PAWS is working to make Philadelphia a no-kill city where every healthy and treatable pet is guaranteed a home. In order to help donate to a cause, you can become a volunteer.
This organization keeps the legacy of Alex Scott alive, who was from Wynnewood, PA, who pledged to raise $1 million dollars for childhood cancer research. This foundation is changing the lives of children with cancer by funding impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer. They also provide emotional, financial, and logistical support to childhood cancer families that make their challenges more manageable.
