Philadelphia organization, Strawberry Mansion United, is “branching together” to bring back love and hope to their community. This is how they are doing it: Renovating Napa Street Basketball Court, hosting Community Workouts, hosting Basketball games, addressing issues in the community, and more. The team of the Strawberry Mansion United Organization consists of Kenneth Thompson, founder and chairman of SMU; Jovon Jones, President of SMU; Marlina Ellis, Vice President of SMU; Julius Phillips, Event Coordinator of SMU; Rashida Lovelace, Secretary of SMU; Yasmin Caldwell, Branding of SMU; Basil York, lead trainer for Community Workout; John Scarborough lead trainer for Community Workout; and Eli Johnson, lead trainer for Community workout. They all have had conversations about the fallen and missing pieces that they believe are needed for Strawberry Mansion and Philadelphia.
“Right now, we are rebranding our neighborhood. People are saying, I’m going to Strawberry Mansion to go workout instead of saying, I don’t want to ride through Strawberry Mansion because it’s violent,” said Kenneth Thompson.
Renovated Basketball Court/The Cage
The basketball court on 2565 Napa Street in North Philadelphia, also known by its lifelong name “The Cage,” was renovated in March 2023. This was not an overnight success. Julius Phillips, founder of Best in the Business Events and Productions, and Jovon Jones worked on this project for three years.
“Well in my mind, body, and soul, I felt it was needed in the community. I always knew if we get this up and running, we will get the community up and running. This was more so like the energy source,” said Phillips.
With the help of community support, they were able to begin the process of painting and designing the court grounds, installing glass backboards, and cleaning the court.
“The steps were getting donations and funds from friends and the community, which lasted three years. The biggest obstacle was funding; anybody that wanted to help just pitched in when they could.”
The Cage is a lifelong name that comes from the nat- ural habitat of basketball games inside the court surrounded by cage-like gates in North Philadelphia. The City of Philadelphia presented the Community Service Award to Julius Philips and Jovon Jones for their work helping with the basketball tournaments and community workouts. “When you get recognized for good positive work, it makes you move differently,” said Phillips.
Julius Phillips is the founder of Best in the Business of Events and Productions, where he masters either his client’s vision of an event or his own vision for his events like the Basketball Tournaments. Phillips is an expert in stage work, lighting, sound, drapery, and decorating parties, weddings, and more! However, he doesn’t plan to do this by himself. “I always worked in my family businesses for the last 20-25 years, so I wanted to create my own business and provide jobs for people in the community,” said Phillips.
Community Workout
One of the biggest highlights since the Cage has felt some brotherly love is the Community Workout.
The Community Workout is a chapter under the Strawberry Mansion United Organization and initiative in North Philadelphia. The leaders of the organization took the initiative to create something that they believe will help rebrand, uplift, and reframe the community of Strawberry Mansion. Since July 2023, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, people are traveling to the CAGE to break a sweat, take a closer step to a healthy lifestyle, and meet or reunite with people across different parts of Philadelphia and outside of Philadelphia.
“We all grew up in this neighborhood. I felt like it was an opportunity to connect with certain individuals from this neighborhood who went out and did professional things with their lives. It’s an opportunity for us to do all our work and skills that we learned and pour it back into our community,” said Thompson.
The leaders of the organization make it clear that to participate in the workout you don’t have to have a certain status, be from the neighborhood, …
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