PNN’s mission is to engage, educate and empower our neighbors to make our City a better place to live. Here’s what’s coming up in each of these areas:
Engage: Sign Up to Buddy Canvass & Phone Bank
Educate: Time for Healthcare for All, Seniors on the Move, Philly Talks Trash
Empower: Postcard Workshop, Germantown Bike Parade
Sign Up Now to Buddy Canvass & Phone Bank!
Various Shifts
Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O'Rourke are counting on our help to get them elected to City Council at-Large. Our job is to let our neighbors know that voting for Kendra and Nic keeps Republicans out of our City Hall. And we'll buddy you up with a fellow volunteer so you can knock doors together and share the conversation.
We'll walk through that conversation with you that so that you can effectively explain to voters that a vote for Kendra and Nic does not threaten any of the Democrats running for at-Large positions.
And we'll provide you with a flier that you can use to guide your conversation with voters, including information on Judge Daniel McCaffrey's campaign, and how important it is for us to keep control over the PA Supreme Court, especially on the eve of the presidential election.
Be sure to sign up for our Big Canvass on Saturday, November 4th at 11AM in Vernon Park! All our candidates will be there. Please sign up and bring one friend with you!
You can also help by making phone calls to neighbors to tell them about the upcoming election. We'll get you prepared to have those conversations and provide you with a script you can follow. The process is easy and fun to learn! Join the team and help us phone bank every Wednesday evening starting at 7:30PM.
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Postcard Workshop Makes You the Celebrity!
Thursday, October 12th, 7:30PM , Virtual
Join us to learn about a new postcard tool that not only supports Kendra and Nic and Judge Dan McCaffrey, it makes you the star (to your friends, at least)! This new relational postcard process will put your face on every postcard you direct to your network of family, friends, and acquaintances.
Imagine the calls you'll get from folks you know telling you that they got a postcard with your face on the front! This gives you the opportunity to engage them in a conversation about the importance of electing these great candidates. Want to learn more? Then click on the link below to sign up.
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Know Anyone Who Will Canvass for Money?
PNN will be hiring a limited number of paid canvassers for this election cycle. This work will last until Election Day, and the schedule is flexible. Must know or be willing to learn the Voter Activation Network (VAN) application. Participants will be required to knock doors in a provided turf, have conversations with neighbors and record their choice of candidates on their phones. If you know someone who might be interested, send an email to Tim@phillynn.org
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Germantown Bike Parade
Saturday, September 30th, Noon-6PM, Maplewood Mall
The Germantown Bike Parade is returning to Maplewood Mall on September 30th as part of Germantown Community Radio’s annual celebration. Participating youngsters will be given certificates for a free swimming lesson at GLEC, which is located at 5722 Greene Street in the historic YMCA.
As part of the radio station’s celebration, music lovers are invited to bring their favorite CD to the station located on Maplewood Mall and can sign up to “DJ” their favorite songs.
The celebration starts at noon and lasts till 6 PM. A free outdoor concert, and tents with food and beverages, local crafts and information about local services are featured on the newly renovated picturesque mall located one block southeast of Chelten and Germantown.
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"Seniors on the Move" Event for Elderly Incarcerated
Saturday, September 30th, 1PM-4PM, 5549 Germantown Avenue
Join our friends at the Gray Panthers at Treasures Banquet Hall for an event in support of the more than 10,000 senior citizens who remain incarcerated. Legislators will be on hand to talk about geriatric parole, public safety, legal rights and accountability for public officials.
This conversation is particularly relevant following PNN's participation in the rally and lobby day this past Thursday that called on Councilmembers to establish a Prison Oversight Board to rectify the horrid conditions in our city's prisons. For more information contact PNN Exec Committee member John Thompson.
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Sign Up for Our "Philly Talks Trash" Quarterly
What’s happening now with the BYO Bag Amendment Bill in City Council? Read all about it in the latest issue of the Philly Talks Trash Quarterly, a project of the Plastic Reduction Task Force and Philly Neighborhood Networks. Subscribe below for news about the politics of waste from the local to the international level, related meetings and events, and zero-waste resources and ideas to cut our individual waste footprints.
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Op-Ed: It's Time for Healthcare for All
Walter Tsou, former City Health Commissioner
In a recent op-ed, Jeremy Jones notes that many of his patients are unaware they have lost their health insurance because of the end of continuous enrollment practices put in place during the pandemic. Now all Medicaid patients must reenroll to determine if they are destitute enough to stay on the program or find a new plan through Pennie, the health insurance marketplace. It’s needlessly complicated.
If we had a single-payer system, no one would ever have to reenroll or feel the impact of losing their health-care coverage. The hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on eligibility determinations could be used to provide better care for patients. Two Medicare for All bills in Congress — HR 3421 and S 1655 — would guarantee coverage for all Americans.
Unfortunately, some of our Democratic Pennsylvania representatives — Dwight Evans, Madeleine Dean, Mary Gay Scanlon, and Chrissy Houlahan — and Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey are not cosponsors. Given that 185,000 Pennsylvanians have already lost their Medicaid coverage, our leaders need to do better.
Walter Tsou, Philadelphia (Original OpEd)
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This Week in History
Sep 30, 1962 – National Farm Workers Association. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta helped found the NFWA in response to deplorable working conditions and low pay.
Oct 2, 1967 – Marshall Sworn In. On this day, Thurgood Marshall became the first black Supreme Court Justice. As Chief Counsel for the NAACP, Marshall was the architect and executor of the legal strategy that ended the era of official racial segregation.
Oct 3, 1946 – Strike at the Coal Mines. At the end of WWII, 400,000 United Mine Workers went on strike. President Truman seized the mines from the owners and met the workers demands.
Oct 6, 1845 – First Co-Op in U.S. The Workingman's Protective Union opened the first co-op in Boston to take control of the means of production and offer good wages to workers and fair prices to consumers.
Thanks for your activism!
Tim Brown, Organizing Director