Syed Alam opens his Germantown store Rahman Body Oils, Beads and Variety every morning just as he has for the past 13 years he has owned it.  In some ways, nothing much has changed over the years at the store.  In other ways, everything changed last year.  Alam used to run the store with his son, Fakhur Uddin.   Then one day last August, Uddin was gone.

It’s raining outside but new customers still come in every few minutes.  It’s a …

They come in broken and addicted. Twelve months later, they leave as happy, productive members of society.  Teen Challenge, a faith-based rehabilitation program in Germantown, is providing a place where lives are completely turned around.  But there are no twelve steps to overcoming your addiction here.  In fact, little focus is placed on the addiction at all.  The source of the transformation is God and his Word.  And the men and women making their way through the program give testament that it really does work.

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Feltonville was never a neighborhood in Philadelphia that was well known to many people outside of those who call it home until tragedy struck about two weeks ago.  Now the 4500 block of North Third Street has never received more attention.

A memorial for the victims of this tragedy filled with stuffed animals, candles, cards, posters and much more now spans the front more than four row homes on that block.  Many people, whether they knew the victims well or not, have visited the memorial site to offer signs of peace, respect, and community.  It should not …

Derrick Ford points to the corner of 32nd and Fountain.

“This corner is vicious. I shot a guy over there,” he said.

“Most of the people I did drugs with are still at it. Often people ask me did I even go to high school,” said Ford with a grin. “I say, ‘I went to school high.’”

Derrick Ford is the self-proclaimed “mayor” of North Philadelphia and he is known as “Rick” in Strawberry Mansion. Not only does he work for the Philadelphia Department of …

In Hunting Park, a neighborhood known for drugs, police officers Matt Dydak and John Teetz claim the majority of the people involved in these criminal activities actually come from outside of the neighborhood.

“It’s a shame for the people that live here. A lot of the people that come down here are drug addicts from nice neighborhoods. They’ll buy their drugs here, shoot up here, throw their needle on the ground and leave. They do not care about this neighborhood, they do not live here,” said Dydak, 26, who has partnered with Teetz for most of their three …

Making quality of life for people in prison easier isn’t exactly at the top of many people’s to-do lists. In fact, it probably wouldn’t even be a consideration to many people.

However, a recent …

THE VIEW FROM THE POLICE

The officers of the South Street police detail, located at Ninth and South streets, attended a Friday evening roll call in preparation to head out to serve and protect the area. With their helmets on and their bikes ready, the police officers are prepared for another night of interaction with the South Street area on what is one …

On a spring afternoon in 1992, Sultan Jihad Ahmad got into a fight with two youth close to his age. With a shotgun in their possession, the opposing youth shot 15 year old Ahmad six times–once in each leg, once in his side, once in his back and a final shot in the back of his head. Why did these two teenagers murder Ahmad? Because he had …

Philadelphia’s 35th Police District is as busy as a police district can get. Covering from Cheltenham Avenue to Wingohocking Street and from Wister Street to Roosevelt Boulevard, it entails the areas of East Oak Lane, parts of West Oak Lane, Logan, Olney and the tip of Feltonville.

With these different neighborhoods come a variety of crime and depending on the time of year-some more serious than others. “This is a very busy district,” said Officer Robert …

Herman Wrice lived in the small section of West Philadelphia that was then known as “The Bottom.” Herman started out in gangs, but it wasn’t until his wife almost was killed that he started to change his life,  his daughter Tammi and his wife Jean said.

“I went to the corner store one night and got caught up in the middle of a gang shooting. When I finally got out of there and told Herman what happened, he was not happy at all,” said Jean Wrice.

After that day, Herman devoted the majority of his life to changing his community. Herman invented …