Learn how the grassroots training program is keeping — and building — wealth in the neighborhood. Visit Jumpstart Germantown to learn who they are and what they do and how you can get involved. One of the founding tenets of The Philadelphia Citizen is to get people the resources they need to become better, more engaged citizens of their city. We hope to do that in our Good Citizenship Toolkit, which includes a host of ways to get involved in Philadelphia — whether you want to contact your City Councilmember about better investment in our neighborhoods, get those experiencing homelessness the goods they need , or simply go out to dinner somewhere where you know your money is going toward a greater good.
Vote and strengthen democracy. Stand up for marginalized communities. Create a cleaner, greener Philadelphia. Help our local youth and schools succeed. Support local businesses. Jordan Parisse-Ferrarini has long been entrepreneurial. He learned it from his mother, who was quick to pick up a side hustle — starting a fruit stand, selling makeup door-to-door, selling kitchen products at markets — to help support her family when he was growing up in Mt.
Airy and Germantown. So, it felt natural when, together with his mother and siblings, he founded a company focused on home repairs.
He was a successful contractor, but breaking into real estate development was a struggle. It was the early s, and he felt frustrated by going to trade shows and finding that the industry still seemed so white. Then, in , he saw a Facebook post about a training program that aimed to help people break into the business.
He signed up — and has since used what he learned to build his own company and develop more than housing units. Parisse-Ferrarini is one of more than 3, graduates of Jumpstart , a Germantown-based program that is fundamentally altering who benefits from neighborhood redevelopment in Philadelphia.
