Friends Center’s newest office tenant is Joyful Readers, a nonprofit that trains reading tutors for Philadelphia public school students. The addition of this tenant brings the building’s vacancy rate to less than 5 percent.
Among recent events onsite were Jewish Voice for Peace membership meetings to respond to Israel’s war in Gaza; and a talk by Emily Provance, from Fifteenth Street Meeting in New York City, on preventing election violence presented to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends.
Friends Center recently completed a “discovery study” with Partners for Sacred Places, a national nonprofit that brings people together to find creative ways to maintain and make the most of America’s older and historic houses of worship. The Friends Center complex includes the Race Street Meetinghouse, built in 1856.
The study assessed goals and strategies of Friends Center’s three equity partners—American Friends Service Committee, Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting—and how they relate to one another and to Friends Center.
The study will provide guidance to Friends Center following the significant changes made to both the campus and the nature of office work in the last four years. As the partners and Friends Center’s 25 nonprofit office tenants continue to adapt their office space for remote and hybrid work, the study will help inform Friends Center’s policies, programs, and physical plant in the next few years.
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