Philly DA hopes resource hub can improve community investment, reduce crime

Starting tomorrow, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office will bring a new One Stop job and resource hub to a different neighborhood on the first Thursday of the month. The office hopes that making these resources available where people live can help reduce crime and violence.

The hub will provide city residents access to employers, victim services, trauma-informed care and housing opportunities.

“As DA [Larry] Krasner often says, there is a direct correlation between crime and poverty and a lack of community investment like access to education and to jobs,” said First Assistant District Attorney Robert Listenbee. “Simply put, when these resources are not in a person’s community, crime moves in.”

The first hub will set up Sept. 5 at the Columbia North YMCA near Broad and Master streets from 5 to 8 p.m. Next locations will soon be available on the District Attorney’s website, Twitter and Facebook.

Some employers that will be in attendance Thursday include PFCU Credit Union, SEPTA and ShopRite.

Bilal Qayyum, president of the Father’s Day Rally Committee, said one way to reduce violence, particularly for black and Latino men, is to connect them with a job.

“The more opportunities we can create to give them the opportunities to find unemployment, the most likely I believe – from my experience – that they will not return back into doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

Qayyum praised the effort, saying it’s important to bring the resources right into the neighborhood. 

 “[That] gives the opportunity for folks right in their neighborhood to come and hopefully get the services [the hub] is providing,” he added.

Listenbee pledges to connect those who show up with help, even if it’s not available on site.

“If someone has a problem that the office can’t help with, the one stop hub will send them to the right partner to get them the help they need so that they can go forward,” he said.