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Finding Block Captains in Your Neighborhood
"How can I get the block captains list for my neighborhood?"
This is one of the most familiar questions that community organizations ask as they attempt strengthen citizen participation in
the neighborhood. The "Block Captains list" is the list of block captains maintained by the Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee (PMBC) under the Streets Department that coordinates block clean-ups between
April and October every year.
The short answer is--you can't get the list. That's been a policy for years to protect block captains from political and
commercial solicitations. Whatever sense that makes, it also makes it hard for community groups to involve block captains in the meetings and discussions affecting the neighborhood as a whole.
PhillyBlocks aims to overcome this obstacle. We want every activist on every block to connect with each other online, to use the
Phillyblocks.org web site to gain information needed to solve block and neighborhood problems, and to be able to contact their elected officials on matters of community concern.
So here is our best advice on reaching block activists in your neighborhood.
1. Use Philadelphia More Beautiful to send a mailing to all
block captains in individual zip codes. PMBC won't give you their list, but if you give them a flier/letter, etc. in a stamped envelope, they'll send it to every block captain in the zip codes you designate. The link above is to the Philadelphia More Beautiful coordinators by Police District. That's who you need to contact. Leave plenty of time for this. It takes time for PMBC to stuff envelopes. But it does happen and then you can build your own block captain list of people who respond.
2. Contact Your Ward Leaders and Committeepeople-The best committeepeople are also block activists--even block captains. You can get their names through your ward leaders. The Committee of 70 also provides the complete list of
committeepeople online by ward and division. You can scroll down the Democratic and Republican lists until you find your ward and division.
Don't know your ward and division? You can find that here.
You'll need to look up their phone numbers, but that should be easy enough. They're supposed to be accessible to their constituents.
3. Contact Your Nearest Town Watch Town Watch members aren't block captains but they are certainly involved on and around blocks. Unlike Philadelphia More Beautiful, Town Watch is more than willing to get
you in touch with their organizations. At a time when neighborhoods are especially concerned about crime, connecting with Town Watch may be the best way to broaden participation on our blocks.
PhillyBlocks believes that all of these networks--as well as members of community groups whereever they live--are needed to
strengthen the civic values of our neighborhoods. That's what PhillyBlocks is all about.
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