ABOUT / MISSION & VISION
We invest in the people closest to the problem.
BOLT — Build Our Lives Together — invests in the residents already doing the work, and the young people who will carry it next.
To equip youth and adult residents in Philadelphia's neighborhoods with the leadership resources and tools to drive intergenerational, community-led change.
Expertise is everywhere. Investment isn’t.
THE PROBLEM
Residents of low-to-moderate income neighborhoods are treated as recipients of services, not leaders. Many have worked their blocks for decades and understand the problems better than anyone — but they get read as small, informal, and risky.
So resources flow elsewhere: to outside organizations that don't know the neighborhood intimately and have no reason to stay. Capacity never gets built where the expertise already lives. The problems persist, and the persistence gets read as proof that residents can't lead.
The case for grassroots leaders.
WHAT GETS OVERLOOKED
Trust and context. They have lived experience and local knowledge, they're immersed in the day-to-day of the neighborhood, and their neighbors already trust them.
Dedication that doesn't end at five. Their home is where they work. They aren't serving clients — they're serving their neighbors, friends, and family.
Proof of concept, self-funded. Many work multiple jobs and pay out of pocket to test models that deliver critical community services. They are already doing the work, with none of the resources.
This is the untapped opportunity. Grassroots leaders are the most under-resourced asset in the neighborhoods that need them most.
HOW WE WORK
Capacity, not charity.
“We don’t bring solutions into neighborhoods. We resource the people already building them.”
FOUNDED
2021, in Philadelphia — starting with eight young people in our first summer cohort.
Adults 18+ doing community work in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods, and students in Philadelphia public high schools.
WHO WE SERVE
Philadelphia public high schools, with a focus on neighborhood catchment schools, and the blocks that feed them, across the city.
WHERE
REACHING OUR VISION IS THE POINT
When every neighborhood thrives, we cease to exist.
Many organizations want to last forever. We want to work ourselves out of a job. Our vision is a Philadelphia where every neighborhood is led by the people who live there — and on the day that's true, BOLT ceases to exist, because there's nothing left for us to do.
That's not something we're afraid of. It's the whole point. It's why we measure success by whether leaders can keep going without us, why we put resources straight into residents' hands, and why we'd rather build strength that stays than an organization that sticks around. The day this city no longer needs BOLT is the day we've done what we set out to do.