Q&A with Kitty Heite from Neighborhood Bike Works
What is Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW)?
We are a non-profit that works primarily with youth. Our mission is to increase opportunities for urban youth in underserved neighborhoods in greater Philadelphia by offering educational, recreational, and career-building opportunities through bicycling. We also promote cycling as a healthy, affordable, environmentally friendly form of transportation.
What's the relationship between Neighborhood Bike Works and the Bike Church?
Bike Church is part of NBW. It’s a program at 40th Street that is best described as an adult repair co-op. It's a great way for NBW to reach out to adults who don't have a ton of money to spend for someone to fix their bike, or who want to learn a skill themselves, as well as a way to work through our inventory of donated adult bikes. Bike Church is an empowering DIY space, and has the side benefit of earning some income to support the youth program. Besides Bike Church at 40th Street, there is also the Bikery at 508 S. 5th Street and the Bike Salon on Wednesday nights at 1426 Susquehanna Ave.
How and when was NBW started, and with what purpose?
It was founded in 1996 as part of an educational outreach effort by the Bicycle Coalition. The goal was to teach Earn a Bike—something that we continue to focus most of our energy on. Our vision is to empower youth by teaching them valuable and important skills, both mechanical skills and life skills, in a nurturing environment. We hope to instill in them a lifelong love of cycling.
Are workers paid or volunteers?
The employees are paid. We run 3 permanent locations, 2 satellite locations and a regular sales/service/repair bike shop at our North Philadelphia site.
What are several reasons customers choose you over other competitors?
Well, since we're not really a "normal" bike shop, we appeal to a different group of people. The patrons at Bike Church, Bikery, and Bike Salon are people who have a rudimentary knowledge of bike repair but want to learn more. Or they may know a ton about bike repair, but don't have the tools at home to do what they need to do. Since our youth programming is over by 6pm, we let people use the space and tools when we’re done. We also see people who can't afford to buy a new bike, and by not charging for labor, allow them to leave with their own repaired bicycle.
What are the biggest obstacles your business faces?
We're a non-profit, which is always tough in times like these. However, we have never been let down by our supporter base, so I would say our biggest problem right now is that there is more demand than we can possibly fulfill given our current size and budget. With the budget cuts at State and Federal levels, our youth are looking ahead at a long, hot summer of not much to do. To try and accommodate that, we're offering Summer Camps at our North and South Philadelphia locations, and trying to raise money to hire some of the kids shut out by the changes in the Work Ready program. We are also looking for an organization to partner with next school year to provide tutoring for our kids. We have a safe space here and kids are comfortable coming to do their homework, so we’d love to have tutors here to help them!