Neighborhood Interfaith Movement

The NIM Mission

The Neighborhood Interfaith Movement (NIM) is a nonprofit, non-sectarian organization that since 1969 has assisted children, families, and vulnerable and older adults. Acting in alliance with NIM's 53 Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, and Muslim congregations and faith institutions, volunteers and professionals work to fulfill NIM's mission "to build a more just and sensitive community through advocacy and service."

NIM began as the Northwest Interfaith Movement in 1969. Over the years it has established many programs, some of which continue under independent auspices: Northwest Meals on Wheels (1974), which provides hot meals for home-bound persons in Northwest Philadelphia; Dean House (1977), the first home in Philadelphia for runaway children; Central Germantown Council (1980), a CDC which continues to support business development and job creation in the city's racially diverse Central Germantown section; Northwest Victims Services (1982), which assists victims of crime through the judicial system and provides them with other support services; Germantown Interfaith Housing, Inc. (1989), 96 units of affordable housing for elderly/disabled persons on Chelten Avenue; and the Pastorius Child Health Watch (1995), which assisted low-income families with school-age children in accessing no-cost/low-cost health insurance and primary care. For ten years (1990-2000), the Philadelphia Religious Leadership Development Fund provided small grants for congregation-initiated community outreach projects in low-income areas throughout the city. NIM was a founder of the Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative (1994), a partnership of three neighborhood-based child care resource programs working to improve the access and availability of quality child care in all neighborhoods of the City. For 10 years NIM's School Age Ministry (1995) provided start-up and technical assistance to congregation-based after school and summer camp programs at a time when such programs were largely unsupported.

NIM has also provided leadership and support to a number of city- and state-wide advocacy efforts, including: Philadelphia Clergy Coalition for Education (1982), Philadelphia Coalition on the Utility Crises (1983), Child Care Advocacy Coalition (1995), to improve the working environment for family and center-based child care providers; and Good Schools Pennsylvania (2001), whose lobbying efforts continue to bring improvement to public schools across the Commonwealth.