Advocacy
Nowak Memorial Lecture | Founding Visions: A Journey of Collaboration
Join us for a special lecture honoring Nowak’s legacy and exploring the power of collaboration with Reinvestment Fund.
7th Annual Nowak Memorial Lecture
Founding Visions: A Journey of Collaboration & Impact
How can mission-driven finance drive social change? The Penn Institute for Urban Research and Reinvestment Fund invite you to the Seventh Annual Jeremy Nowak Memorial Lecture. On this, the 20th anniversary year of Penn IUR and the 40th anniversary of the origination of Reinvestment Fund, we will reflect on the mission and impact of community development financial institutions and the leadership role played by Reinvestment Fund in these efforts. Speakers will examine how visionary leadership and partnerships can reshape communities for the better.
This discussion brings together three community development leaders and founding members of Reinvestment Fund—Pat Smith, Joyce Wilkerson, and Eva Gladstein—who will share their experiences in launching what was originally the Delaware Valley Community Reinvestment Fund. They will explore the economic and social conditions that motivated their work, the challenges of building an institution dedicated to advancing equity through investment, and the decision to bring on Jeremy Nowak, a community organizer, as the organization’s first President and CEO. Jeremy would later become a member of the Penn IUR Advisory Board.
Moderated by Dr. Katherine O’Regan, Professor of Public Policy and Planning at the NYU Wagner School and Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, former HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy, Development and Research, Reinvestment Fund Board Member, and Penn IUR Fellow, this conversation will offer a rare, first-hand perspective of the origin of this Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) by its founding members and the values that continue to guide its work—collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and a steadfast commitment to expanding opportunity in disinvested communities.
Friends Ending Gun Violence Info Session
Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative: Info Session
March 25, 2025 | 7:00 P.M. EST | Zoom
FEGV Collaborative invites you to learn about our work, what’s happening in Bucks and Chester counties, south Jersey, and New York Yearly Meeting. All are welcome to attend.
The Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative (FEGV) is a newly formed group within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. As Quakers, we are called to live out the testimony of peace. Gun violence challenges the foundation of that testimony, claiming over 40,000 lives annually in the United States. The Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative seeks to engage all those in the Yearly Meeting who share this concern and create ways for meetings and individuals to act.
FEGV has a unique partnership with Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence, the grassroots and interfaith organization devoted to ending gun violence. Heeding God’s Call grew out of a 2009 peace conference held at Arch Street Meeting House in which the historic peace churches came together; an outgrowth of the conference is a commitment to end gun violence by halting the sale and distribution of illegal handguns.
We’d like to share our work with you and invite you and your meeting to join us in a Zoom call on Tuesday, March 25 at 7:00 PM. Learn about our efforts in Bucks County, South Jersey, and Chester County. Hear what’s happening in New York Yearly Meeting. Find out how you and your meeting can get involved. Please circulate the registration link below.
REGISTER to Receive the Zoom Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nU0efShrQ5WCrW4Q7wrS-g
Opportunities Following the PYM Lawsuit
PYM meetings can support the lawsuit in a variety of ways. This suit is a single step in a march toward seeking justice in the current state in our country.
While the need for the lawsuit—and for many other suits—may be daunting and depressing, the opportunity it brings for practicing our faith is energizing. There are five sections below, each offering a starting point for meetings to think about their next steps.
The primary motion to keep in the forefront, regardless of the focus or activity, is being obedient to the Spirit, faithful in strengthening our community, and effective in supporting our neighbors.
Why DOES Palestine Matter? An Invitation to a 6 Session Course with Members of the Middle East Collaborative
Authorship of this invitation is attributed to Deb Wood and other resources.
As I thought about writing an invitation to the Why Palestine Matters course, I came across the following quotation, which fits the Palestine/Israel situation so well:
“The purpose of propaganda is to make one set of people forget that other sets of people are human.”
— Aldous Huxley
The Palestine/Israeli relationship and conflict can often appear so complex and intractable that we don’t know how we can ever understand enough to move forward. News coverage often lacks the entire context, leaving us unable to honor the humanity of all involved. When we stop seeing a person or group as human, we much more easily discount and discredit their experiences and humanity, making it far easier to deny their needs and right to exist.
AFSC Presentation at Swarthmore Meeting
Join friends at Swarthmore Friends Meeting on Sunday, January 19th for a presentation from Ainsley Bruton, AFSC’s Quaker Engagement Coordinator, about AFSC’s work to promote peace and justice around the world. Ainsley will share information about AFSC’s food justice activism, efforts to de-militarize police forces, peacemaking in the Middle East, AFSC’s social change leadership program for young adults, and more. Ainsley will also be connecting with Friends to learn more about peace and justice work being done at Swarthmore.
Partnership with Church World Service
In October, PYM announced a new partnership with Church World Service (CWS) as a covenant member. During the recent Joint Council meeting, Clerk Nikki Mosgrove led a discussion on PYM’s new relationship with CWS, a national faith-based organization focused on just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement, and disaster. This partnership allows PYM to nominate board members and collaborate closely on CWS’s work, although it holds no voting rights. CWS extended this invitation to deepen the connection, reflecting their commitment to building impactful relationships. The council plans to review this partnership at a future session to assess its impact.
[Read more…] about Partnership with Church World Service
Memorial to the Lost® Installation at Arch Street Meeting House Commemorates Victims of Gun Violence
The Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative, in partnership with Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence, will host a Memorial to the Lost® installation at Arch Street Meeting House from November 8th to November 14th, 2024. Friends are invited to gather for a dedication event on Friday, November 8th, at 3:00 PM. As well as a silent vigil at 5:30 PM following the Memorial Meeting for Worship.
Nikki Mosgrove Begins as Presiding Clerk of PYM
On August 1, 2024, Nikki Mosgrove stepped into the role of Presiding Clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (a collection of 105 Quaker congregations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania). She is tasked with facilitating business among as . Among unprogrammed Friends, who eschews religious hierarchy, a clerk is the first among equals. Her discernment process in accepting this role involved 30 days of prayer and reflection with people of many different spiritual practices: Presbyterians, Baptists, Nontheists, Pentecostals, and Quakers.
[Read more…] about Nikki Mosgrove Begins as Presiding Clerk of PYM
October 2024 | Joint Council Update
On Saturday, October 12th, the three councils that support Philadelphia Yearly Meeting—Quaker Life Council, Administrative Council, and Nominating Council—held their first meeting in a new joint format. In this structure, all three councils meet together as one Joint Council to worship, discern, and conduct business collaboratively. A key feature in the joint format is the approval of minutes during the meeting. This allows the Joint Council to share the minutes in a news story with the PYM community in the week following the meeting.
