Philly Thrive is a people-powered organization founded in 2015 that has proven the effectiveness of community resilience. Shawmar Pitts, the managing co-director and policy coordinator, and Allie Naganuma, interim campaign coordinator for Philly Thrive, spoke to ecoWURD host P.O.C. about what achievements the grassroots organization has had in its nine years of operation and what’s next for the South Philadelphia community.
Pitts calls himself a “responsible contributor” to his long-time residence in South Philly, and points to the work that Philly Thrive took on that led to the closing of an oil refinery headquartered in Philadelphia, which was formerly the biggest on the East Coast.
“ It took a lot of people power from the ground, from the community coming together and using their voices and recognizing that there was real power in regular people’s voices,” said Naganuma. “I think it can be very easy to look at these huge billionaire corporations and think we’re never going to be able to make a difference here, but I think the shutting the oil refinery down really showed that it’s possible.”
The refinery, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, processed 335,000 barrels of crude oil each day; at the time, it was the largest oil refining complex on the East Coast. The pollutants excreted from the refinery were considered the single largest contributor to cancerous, toxic and hazardous pollution in Philadelphia. It produced gasoline, jet and diesel fuel, heating oil and petrochemicals used to make plastic or rubber. The 1,300-acre site sat on the banks of the Schuylkill River on the southern part of the city, where heavy industry has been prominent since the 1860s.
Residents surrounding PES are predominantly Black and low-income, and they suffer from disproportionately high rates of asthma and cancer, according to data from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. Furthermore, residents must endure living near major highways, the Philadelphia International Airport and other large industrial facilities that release air pollution into residential homes.
“ It really was one of the biggest environmental justice disasters of our lifetime,” said Naganuma.
“The folks were getting sick over and over for generations. When the refinery exploded in 2019, Philly Thrive helped shut it down and then the city sold the land to a new owner and a developer called HRP group.”
Pitts is leveraging their rights as a Registered Community Organization (RCO) on behalf of people who want a parcel of land to be cleaned and conserved to alleviate the pollution in the area, an unusual ask in RCO agreements, Pitts said.
“ When it comes to Philly Thrive, the first thing I’m asking about all that contaminated land [is] ‘Can we have that cleaned up? That way, when we have these horrible weather patterns from climate change and all of these floods and things like that, we have a plan. A plan that everybody understands.”
Read more about the history of Philly Thrive and their work in the full ecoWURD interview on SoundCloud here.
This article is a part of Every Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. The William Penn Foundation provides lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, and Philadelphia Health Partnership. To learn more about the project and view a full list of supporters, visit www.everyvoice-everyvote.org. Editorial content is created independently of the project’s donors.
