Meet Fast Forward Presenter >> Michael Carwile

What is your Big Idea for Philadelphia?

Getting Involved in the Participatory City

Behind so many closed doors and within so many upstairs halls can be found the small, private organizations that together make up our city.  Private in mission but civic in scope, these organizations give shape to communities, give color to the material fabric of our city, and provide a platform upon which a private citizen can step into a role of public significance.  Philadelphia is blessed (or burdened) with a long legacy of clubs, associations, and organizations, in various states of vigor or decay, but the associational life of our city has been challenged by the disruptions of the past year.  In the best case, disruptions may spur the rethinking of missions and the forging of new relationship.  I will share some hopeful stories involving Golden Sunrise New Years Association and the Aquinas Center of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish that hint in this direction.  But in the worse case, disruption causes communities to falter, the material fabric of our city to grow dull, and individuals to retreat from public life. Whatever is next for Philadelphia will come from the places where we work in common with our neighbors, and so we must invest in the associational life of our city.

 

 

 

Michael Carwile is an architectural designer at JacobsWyper Architects, an alum of the Fast Forward >> Philly organizing committee, a member of the Board of Directors of Golden Sunrise New Year's Association and the Board of Trustees of Northern Children's Services, and a sometime volunteer at the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild and the Aquinas Center at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. He speaks for none of these organizations but they are all dear to him, and through each of them he does his part to build a Philadelphia more worth living in. He expects the same is true of you, and he'd love to hear about it. I can be reached by email at carwilemichael(at)gmail.com, or just stop me in the street if you see me.