Who we are
Helping Hands is a non-profit working to bring affordable housing to Point Breeze, and with it, funding for local community centers. The very first project we want to take on is backing safe and productive afterschool spaces. Too many kids are put at risk
every afternoon. By providing a place to play, we can fight this growing problem. We’ve honed in on local recreation centers as our first target for support.
*** Provide local recreation centers with new sports equipment
*** Create a constructive space for kids to spend time
*** Offer safe transportation to the many resources Philadelphia has to offer
*** Purchase bulk admission and work with museums to get students access.
Leadership
Bill Zandi is the current President of Helping Hands Philadelphia. Bill is a recent graduate from Wake Forest University with a degree in Philosophy and Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise. Bill is also President and Founder of Students Helping Students,
a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to reallocate gently-used furnishings and supplies from wealthy to imppovershed educational institutions. To date, Students Helping Students has reallocated furnishings valued at $5,000, approximately $350 of classroom
supplies, and $25,000 books have been sent to schools in Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Florida.
Why you should care
The greatest cities in the world share an impressive infrastructure and educational system. Prosperous cities educate their population and provide comfortable, affordable homes for their population to live.
Unfortunately, in the city of Philadelphia, more than a third of its public school students fail to graduate high school each year. The city is also home to approximately 65,000 vacant properties. The consequences of these glaring problems are evidenced
by the city’s stagnated economic growth, it’s 7.9% unemployment rate, a 28.4% poverty rate, and a median household income of only $34,207.
Philadelphia must improve both its educational system and infrastructure to fuel future growth and enable the economy to flourish. At Helping Hands Philadelphia, we believe that we have devised a solution for relieving these problems that have plagued too
many of our citizens for too long. Our approach is one that will impact not only the areas most greatly affected, but the entire Philadelphia community, in an attempt to alleviate these issues that have plagued too many for too long.
With the money we raise, we will do the following:
** Improve the quality of daily recreation through new equipment
*** Share world-class cultural and educational resources through easing access
*** As a stretch goal, we hope to find a caring artist to consistently work with youth, in the words of one of the rec center employees, “We just need caring human adults!”
*** The President of Helping Hands, Bill Zandi, has successfully raised funds for another nonprofit, Students Helping Students, which served to reallocate used schoolbooks to less privileged children.
Help can come in many sizes
*** $6 buys a baseball
*** $18 buys a basketball
*** $40 buys a soccer ball
*** $60 buys a baseball glove
*** $95 sends 10 students to the Franklin Institute (a fantastic science museum)
*** $150 sends 10 students to the Philadelphia Zoo
*** $375 pays for a 15 person bus for the day
*** $499 pays for a 24 person bus for the day
Check us out!
https://www.facebook.com/HelpingHandsPhilly
