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Bruce Baldwin is a problem-solver. He has been finding solutions for his neighbors for 21 years.
“I advocate for them,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been doing for them for years. They come to me for everything.”
He has spent many hours on the phone seeking information and in meetings with community members and various stakeholders. Whether it’s pushing youths toward a bright future, finding food for families having difficulty affording it or preparing someone for an upcoming job interview, the resident of the 400 block of Hoffman Street accepts the task.
It started with the formation of the Seventh Street Youth Committee when violence plagued the area and affected its children.
“We wanted to make a significant difference and start saving the youth,” the 57-year-old organization’s president, who used to work as a city contractor, said.
Involvement in that group quickly stretched into four others. He serves as a board member for the Seventh Street Community Roundtable and Men United Against Violence Network, co-chair of the Seventh Street Community Reunion Committee and a long-time volunteer at Ford P.A.L. Center, 609 Snyder Ave., where he has helped to organize annual book bag giveaways and haircuts for homeless women and children.
“Although the police [officers] run the center, they allow me to run the center with them,” the lifetime resident of the same neighborhood said.
Most recently, he helped to create the Seventh Street Community Civic Association, which has covered Mifflin to Wolf and Fourth to Ninth streets since July. Baldwin hopes the group, also a registered community organization, has a say in its area’s zoning process and gives him the opportunity to advocate for everyone in his very racially diverse neighborhood.
“We are in a position now to be able to help this community and really build it up, and that’s what we’re doing,” the civic’s president said.
And it doesn’t hurt to receive a pat on the back for the countless hours he’s given back to his neighbors.
“It’s another way to say ‘Thank you, Bruce,’ and that’s what keeps me going,” Baldwin said. “… It’s the small things that matter to me, and this is one of them.”
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
2013 Difference Makers
/ Bruce Baldwin / Anthony Benedetto Sr. / Lou Berman / Beth Coleman /
/ Diane DellaVella / Phyllis DiLemmo /
/ Roe and Jim Gallo / Tyrique Glasgow / Ali Hackett / Deborah Holmes /
/ Kat Kendon / Harry McKay / Jaime Pannone / Juanita Perkins-Qui /
/ Gaetano Piccirilli / Megan Rosenbach / Ted Scairato Sr /
/ Rich Sisman / Dan Stevenson / Paula Terreri / Lynn Oakes West / Lawrence Whitaker / Robert Wilbowe / Ilene Wilder /
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