In West Philadelphia, the Vineyard Community Church (VCC), founded in 2004, is looking to join the civic party seemingly led by the University City District (UCD), and as of late the People’s Emergency Center (PEC).

Current church location

The church is currently seeking nonprofits with a strong community-centric focus to apply for a Building It Together Capitol Grant worth up to $10,000 The application process closes Monday, July 15. We just learned about the group this week, and also learned that they’re in the process of rehabbing an old fire department building they purchased last year at 51st & Sansom into a worship space and community center.

Future location

Right now, VCC rents space at the Spruce Hill Christian School at on Baltimore Avenue. According to Brad Zinn, VCC’s head pastor and one of its founders, over the past three years some 200 members of its congregation as well as alums have made commitments to raise $425K in order to fund renovations of the building, which we tell you more about next week. Of that money raised by the congregation, members decided they would offer 10% of it towards local community grants, which makes for around $42,500 of grant money available for West Philly organizations.

“One way to encourage generosity is to be generous,” said Zinn.

The purpose of the grant campaign is to give back to the community that Zinn and his wife Rebecca found so welcoming when the church first started nine years ago. By offering this money for organizations with a similar mission of community improvement, VCC serves both its mission of outreach as well as its mission of community impact. We are looking forward to learning what organizations receive the grants and what they’ll do with the funds.

–Lou Mancinelli