With the World Cup headed to Philly, Safe-Hub has plans to bring the excitement to Kensington

The FIFA World Cup is set to bring a celebration of soccer to Philadelphia this summer, with six matches at Lincoln Financial Field and an official FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill Park for the 39-day duration of the tournament.

Safe-Hub Philadelphia, a soccer-centric nonprofit based in Kensington, wants to make sure that this summer’s festivities reach its corner of the city.

“Everything we’re celebrating with the World Cup and with [America] 250 is founded on the neighborhoods of Philadelphia and the broader community of Philadelphia,” Liam Connolly, Safe-Hub’s executive director, said. “And so we shouldn’t just center our celebrations in Center City, in Lemon Hill, down in South Philly at the stadiums. We should be connecting all of these neighborhoods of Philadelphia together.”

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That’s why Safe-Hub has spent the spring planning its own unofficial fan zone and a slew of other programming at its space inside MaKen Studios North in the Harrowgate section of Kensington.

Among the organizations’ plans for this summer is an amateur tournament featuring teams from Casa Soccer League, a two-day youth tournament on June 13 and 14, drop-in watch parties for World Cup matches in a newly renovated community space, and open play on Safe-Hub’s indoor turf field and outdoors at the adjacent Joseph A. Scanlon Playground.

“Most of the attention will be in the stadium or at the FIFA fan fest that’s happening in Lemon Hill,” said Samantha Swerdloff, Safe-Hub’s program development director. “I think a lot of our families won’t be making that trek, and certainly won’t get tickets. So we really want to provide a high-quality and exciting soccer environment around the World Cup in their neighborhood.”

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Originally founded in South Africa in 2009, Safe-Hub says it aims to provide a safe place for young people to play soccer and facilitate social-emotional learning.

The building and continued maintenance of the first Safe-Hub, in the Khayelitsha township of Cape Town, was funded by the CTC Ten Foundation. Kensington native Chris Campbell established the foundation in 2007 to honor his late son, Chris T. Campbell.

We shouldn’t just center our celebrations in Center City, in Lemon Hill, down in South Philly at the stadiums. We should be connecting all of these neighborhoods of Philadelphia together.”

The younger Campbell was a soccer player at Friends Central School and Franklin & Marshall, and died unexpectedly while out for a jog in Narberth in the summer before his senior year at Franklin & Marshall College.

Safe-Hub’s original model for community development, which was developed by AMANDLA Social Enterprises, worked well in South Africa and expanded globally in 2019 with the help of other charitable organizations, including Knorr-Bremse Global Care and the Oliver Kahn Foundation.

After working as an intern for CTC Ten in South Africa, Connolly was picked to help launch the organization’s first location in the U.S. The group selected Kensington as the place for it to put down roots, as the community has become fractured by disinvestment and the opioid epidemic.

“As we started talking about areas, like, ”where are we going to put this?’" Campbell said. “Well, we’re putting it somewhere near Philly because I don’t want to fly to Chicago and try to do this. There’s a need here, and we know where the needs are.”

Safe-Hub had a personal connection to the area, too. Chris Campbell, who has served as the executive director of the CTC Ten Foundation since its founding, grew up in Harrowgate. Looking across Scanlon Playground from the Safe-Hub building, Chris can see his childhood home.

After starting on the fields of the Lighthouse Sport Complex, the organization opened its physical space at MaKen Studios North in 2022. The 120,000-square-foot building is an old Richardson Mints factory that B Corporation developers SHIFT Capital acquired and remodeled as spaces for small businesses, artists, and nonprofits.

Safe-Hub has since expanded, converting an old receiving warehouse into a 30-yard by 25-yard indoor turf field which it opened in March.

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Using its own indoor spaces and the fields at Scanlon Park, Safe-Hub holds soccer and other community programming year-round. About 300 kids are registered for its soccer program, which consists of three divisions for kids aged 4 to 18.

There’s a need here, and we know where the needs are.”

The organization has more renovation plans ahead of this summer. It has two neighboring learning and community spaces that it plans to combine into one larger space to host a community cafe and studio.

Construction on the space began in April, and Safe-Hub is on track to open it before the World Cup begins on June 11.

Connolly says the investment into the organization’s physical space is reflective of its beliefs that individuals, especially young people, derive their self-worth in part from their physical surroundings.

“Oftentimes, rec centers and spaces that are built for young people look like they’re built more to keep young people out than to keep them in and attract them,” Connolly said. “And so we wanted to build our spaces to reflect that top level of value, of what our young people are worth, so they could have a sense of pride when they walk in those doors.”

While the World Cup provides a convenient tentpole to build their programming around, it also enables Safe-Hub to operate as a safe space during the summer.

“The stats are very, very definitive on this, that [during] summertime, crime rates increase, the likelihood of violence increases, and both the perpetrators but also the victims tend to be our young folks,” Connolly said. “Anywhere from middle school through high school. So they need a space, because they’re not in school. They’re not necessarily at home all the time. Let’s create a third space for them.”

The organization’s programming also enables it to challenge the perception of Kensington in a summer where eyes will be on Philadelphia, both for the World Cup and other America 250 celebrations.

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“The world is going to be watching Philadelphia,” Connolly said. “And what the world knows of Philadelphia is, in part, what the world knows of Kensington. And it’s not a great picture, right? The headlines of Kensington tend to be crime, violence, drugs, you know, this Walmart of the opioid epidemic.

“We wanted to challenge them, because we’re here on a daily basis, and we see so many great organizations and so many great people doing so much great work in the neighborhood and in the community … Kensington is a community of families, and not an afterthought, not a post-apocalyptic world.”

The World Cup in Philly

Nine nations will compete in five group stage matches this summer, plus two more in a knockout game on July 4. Here’s what you need to know about those countries — and what those fans need to know about Philly. Click here for more.