It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Citizen Spotlight: Bob Shipman
Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am - by Stephanie Marudas. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Bob Shipman
Bob Shipman is a longtime community activist in Philadelphia. He’s involved with various organizations around the city including the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, Phillyneighborhoods, Philadelphia Independent Media Center, and Philadelphia Parent Partner. To find out more information about Bob Shipman, you can visit his website.
It’s Our City: You refer to your occupation as a servant. What does that mean?
Bob Shipman: I feel a strong imperative. I feel the peril of this moment: that if we don’t learn how to come together differently, in our organization, in our communities, in our families, then we are doomed. Communication, interaction, caring, providing and becoming less competitive in our selfish actions is a MUST. I believe that is our work. One of the strange things going on at the beginning of this millennium in western cultural is that we have become, I believe, victims of many different beliefs. The first is the belief that we can ignore time. The belief that we can negotiate with time, that we have in fact forgotten about things like natural rhythms, about cycles, about change, as part of the natural process. And, instead, we believe that it’s a straight trajectory into the future and we can go as fast as we please. Of course this moves us away from nature, from rhythm, from a sense of place, and we are really struggling with this. I believe that our current effort to try and ignore time, growth, stages and cycles is truly driving us crazy.
It’s Our City: Tell us about the early roots of your civic activism.
Bob Shipman: It all started in my community (17th & Susquehanna) as a servant for the elderly, running errands, sweeping pavements and shoveling snow in front of their homes. It continued in the 1960’s, with the city wide public school student protest for the student bill of rights. We marched on the school board, and our police commissioner ordered students beaten and arrested. The era weighed heavy on my young mind. I attended Thomas A. Edison High School (formerly NE H.S.), which lost numerous lives in the Vietnam conflict. At the same time, gang wars were raging on the streets of Philadelphia killing as many as 72 young men in one year. Wow, that was a huge number back then; we are losing people to the tune of 350 – 400 in 2006-07. After high school, I attended a southern HBCU (Historically Black College and University), Virginia Union University from 1971 – 74, and experienced the tail end of desegregation. That was a learning experience as well. During summer breaks from college, I worked as a social group worker II in the PHA (Philadelphia Housing Authority) Raymond Rosen complex. There, I interacted with pre-teens and young adults, many of them caught up in the welfare cycle.
It’s Our City: How has blogging and the Internet played a role in what you can do to help people?
Bob Shipman: Those folks, who’ve known me for four years or more, will tell you I had a vibrant voice and a passionate personality. My voice has left me. I have a voice impairment called Spasmodic Dystonia. This illness has changed my methods of communicating to more writing than public speaking. Those that have need and are patient with me can understand me with some degree of difficulty. The struggle continues.
It’s Our City: What do you see as the biggest struggles facing Philadelphia today?
Bob Shipman: The lack of affordable housing, re-gentrification of the community in the zip codes across this city. Lack of livable wages, discrimination, not by one ethnic group, this happens in a class discrimination manner. The have not’s and those that are barely eking out a living. With the lack of federal and state dollars, the young and old will suffer in the near future.
It’s Our City: Explain if you feel Philadelphians are already active enough in their communities, or could do more.
Bob Shipman: Of course not, the people are feeling the pinch these days. They are responding in anger and not being able to understand the processes of becoming advocates for self and others. The have-nots are victimizing other have-nots. The few agencies and community groups that have mission statements geared to helping the less fortunate are losing funding, and the last few months the employees of these groups are forced to find new positions to keep a roof over their heads and food on their table. I’m seeing people that have college degrees and former small business owners being referred to the Philadelphia EARN centers that are training and helping them find gainful employment. The jobs out there have lower wages than the ones the one many have lost or were trained for.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
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September 29th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Mr. Shipman, my kudos to you for your work and vision. My little one also has a speech ‘disorder’ called developmental apraxia, and it is very frustrating for her, but she keeps trying. She is very young, but as I have been learning, there are more ways to speak than “just” by voice. I find your story to be inspiring and encouraging, and I hope that people can learn from your example. We can find ways to work around our situations in life and to improve things, no matter how bad things may seem. Doing something to help things, no matter how small, is better. It can be tough to keep one’s eyes lifted when everything seems hopeless - but we have to in order to fend for our families. At the other end of the spectrum, I see some of these same issues in families of children with special needs. Learning to advocate for self and others is a challenge, and often it’s “learning while doing” that provides the crash course in advocacy. It’s a rough road to hoe at both ends, yes.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
WOW, maverickmama you are correct, I had to find a community that communicates and I don’t have to feel alone.
I am legally deaf, but I have always talked my way thru with folks, now I feel stranded in conversations and there folks that don’t look at me strange are few and far in between…
I have so much to say and want to do but I have to slow myself down and channel that energy and thoughts thru another pipeline….I am enclosing a few websites for you, the dystonia site has a bulletin board with great people on it…and locations of groups that would welcome your family..The other is a website that has a ton of resources..Please stay intouch…rmship@gmail.com or google bob shipman…you can follow my struggles there..love ya, peace, thanks to the staff of WHYY and Stephanie
http://www.dysphonia.org/
http://www.mycitymyplace.com/
September 29th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
it is great to see Bob being recognized! keep up the great work.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Thank You so much for giving others the opportunity to see what Brotherly Love is all about. Mr. Shipman always looks for ways of serving others and never lets anyone go unserved. He is a “people person “and one who looks at the glass and will see it half full. He has a heart the size of Texas and is a person that makes things happen. Philadelphia is bless to have such a servant leader. Because you can never lead successfully, if you are not willing to serve.
Mr. Bob Shipman, continue to shine so we all can be touched by your light and your life.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Mr. Shipman, be assured that you will be hearing from me via the e-mail that you provided, and I will indeed check out the sites you provided as well — it will be an honor and a privilege to communicate with you. I also volunteer with a sports program for children with special needs, I’ll tell you more about it through e-mail - maybe you can come see our program sometime and the work we do, we work with a lot of great kids. As long as we open our hearts and use what God gave us to use to help others in some way, we can help make the world a better place - and that’s exactly what you’re doing! Thanks so much for your response!
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:56 am
Kudos! Job well done!
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Mr. Shipman: It’s really nice to see a person so deserving of the love and kindness that you have shown to others be recognized in an article such as this. I could not think of anyone who deserves it more. Thank you very much for being there for us clients, if we did not have your support and respect a lot of us might have given up or procrastinated our advancements towards self sufficieny. You are a wonderful leader, a great mentor, and a fantastic person all in one. It’s truly a blessing to know you, and I’m happy that through the Parent Partners group we will continue to benefit from your wisdom and knowledge. Although you may have impairments with your own speech, you have truly managed to give a voice to those of us who have felt that we could not be heard for so long. Keep up the good work and God bless you.
December 25th, 2008 at 8:21 am
did a quick search on me and look what i found, thanks all.
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