North 5th Street Revitalization Project Podcast

Barbara Bishop started the North 5th Street Revitalization Project in 2008. Barbara is from the neighborhood and realized that it was declining. She, herself, was a small business owner in Olney, so she wanted to step in and help where she could. So, she decided to apply for a grant through Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce to get assistance for small businesses in the area. Barbara was granted the funding and have been helping the community ever since.

North 5th Street has 340+ unique businesses and restaurants. The area that North 5th Street Revitalization Project covers spans 15 blocks across North Philadelphia, around 1.5 miles. N5SRP’s tagline is “Global is local.” They use this tagline because they are proud of Olney’s diversity. In fact, Olney is the most linguistically diverse section in the city of Philadelphia.

N5SRP’s mission is to manage, promote, and revitalize North 5th Street. The North 5th team takes price in being extremely community-based. The work the project does is driven by the ideas and the concerns of the community.

Stephanie, director of N5SPR, is originally from New York. She moved to Olney when she was 13 years old and fell in love with the area. Stephanie always knew deep down that she wanted to go into the nonprofit world. She worked as a kindergarten teacher before she decided to apply for a Americorps Vista position with the North 5th Street Revitalization Project. She got the position and has been with the company for seven years now.

Another way N5SRP serves their community is through events.

Every year, they host the Olney Arts festival for the 25,000 Olney residents and other Philadelphia locals. N5SRP also manages the Olney Business Association and the Olney Creative Collaborative.

You can follow The North 5th Street mission on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their website has information about the project and more.