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REPRINTED FROM THENEXTMAYOR.COMApril 24, 2007 press release, (submitted via e-mail) |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Monica L. Davis
Director of Communications
(215) 567-3234, ext.20
mdavis@sacredplaces.org
Partners for Sacred Places
PHILADELPHIA – The next mayor of Philadelphia is concerned about how community-serving congregations help sustain the city’s neighborhoods. The six candidates for office are facing off Monday, April 30 at 7:30pm at Historic Christ Church on Second and Market Streets to discuss the issue before the community.
The one-hour mayoral forum provides U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah, U.S. Representative Bob Brady, State Representative Dwight Evans, former City Councilman Michael Nutter, former Deputy Mayor for Management and Productivity Tom Knox, and Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce President Al Taubenberger the opportunity to discuss how their administrations intend to work with faith-based organizations, religious schools, and city congregations to improve the city’s neighborhoods.
University of Pennsylvania Political Science Professor John DiIulio, Ph.D., is moderating the forum. University of Pennsylvania’s Robert A. Fox Leadership and Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society programs are joining forces with Partners for Sacred Places and the Gesu Institute to sponsor the event. Partners for Sacred Places Executive Director A. Robert Jaeger notes, “This is the first time these four organizations have collaborated to bring attention to the essential — but vulnerable — role of congregations and their older buildings in strengthening communities.”
Partners for Sacred Places is the nation’s leading non-profit organization that promotes the stewardship and active community use of America’s older and historic religious properties through information, resources and advocacy to strengthen communities. Founded in 1989, Partners is headquartered in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit www.sacredplaces.org.
As a vital resource center for educators, administrators, policy-makers and researchers interested in achieving justice in urban education, the Gesu Institute was founded in 2005 by leaders of Gesu School (www.gesuschool.org), a North Philadelphia independent Catholic pre K-8 school that has been heralded as a national model. The Gesu Institute’s mission is to support and strengthen schools that serve low-income communities, particularly in elementary education, as a means of bridging the gaps of inequality in our society. It provides the necessary resources to evaluate, refine and develop best-practices in teaching, governance, administration, and fundraising by using faith-based, value-based and entrepreneurial models.
The Gesu Institute recently developed a partnership arrangement with the Fox Leadership Program, which enriches learning at Penn through leadership courses, events and experiences including civic entrepreneurship, and the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society, which supports empirical “faith-factor” research on religion with an emphasis on urban communities and contemporary social problems. For more information on these two University of Pennsylvania programs, visit www.sas.upenn.edu/foxleadership and www.prrucs.org.
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PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES RELEASE
Contact: Monica L. Davis
Director of Communications
(215) 567-3234, ext.20
mdavis@sacredplaces.org
SACRED TRUSTS RELEASE
Media Contact: Sue Spolan
Phone: 215-567-3234
Emailsuespolan@hotmail.com
Partners for Sacred Places
1700 Sansom Street, Tenth Floor
Philadelphia * Pennsylvania * 19103
Phone: (567) 567-3234 * Fax: (567) 567-3235 *
www.sacredplaces.org