Giovannie Vilomar

Giovannie Vilomar quickly fell in love with the city of Philadelphia after moving here from Alanta Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Encouraged by a college mentor who advised him to move to a larger city with opportunities in finance, Gio took to a new adventure when pandemic restrictions began to ease. He packed his car with all his belongings and stayed in an Airbnb for 30 days until settling into the West Philly neighborhood near Clark Park.  

The adventure did not stop with a new work opportunity. Despite never visiting before and knowing nobody in Philly, Gio immediately got involved in the community. He jokes that growing up in suburbia did not prepare him for the amount of trash in Philadelphia, so, he began organizing community clean ups.  

“It was like a shock to me, and I felt like I had to do something about it. I didn’t want to just complain. So, I did something about it and that made me feel good. Picking up litter was one of the safest things to do with a mask. And so that was my way of feeling like…building a sense of belonging in that community,” Gio says. 

After several years in West Philly, Gio began looking for more privacy and a new community. As a Puerto Rican wanting to immerse himself more into that culture, he found a home in Norris Square, near the borders between Northern Liberties and South and Olde Kensington. Once again, he jumped into community events. First learning how to dance salsa at a bar just a block away from his home. Gio also took a new job with Finanta, an organization helping small business owners build, grow, and sustain their work.  

Around the same time, Gio signed up for the South Kensington Community Partners newsletter. Through the newsletter he learned about the Citizen Planning Institute. He describes originally sharing the program for his roommate to take up, but after looking more into it, said, “wait a minute. This looks kind of fun. I love my neighborhood,” and applied himself.  

Gio describes having built strong connections with people who shared similar interest in neighborhood change. Although his time in West Philly gave him a sense of community, he describes those as more causal and political based, rather than neighborhood based. “And what I found was that community was very much insular. That’s what attracted me to CPI. It was place-based community. And I had no idea how to get engaged in that prior,” says Gio. CPI helped Gio understand what drives neighborhood change and how he could be a piece in that change.  

He also valued the opportunity to connect with people who shared a similar drive and share resources and tools. Gio explains, “going in the course you learn, you hear other people, what they’ve done. I remember hearing people’s mistakes too, what’s worked and what hasn’t worked.” 

Post-CPI, with the encouragement from a fellow classmate, now life-long friend, Gio opened his own small business in the neighborhood. He is the owner and founder of Kensington Powerlifting, a gym in Olde South Kensington. But that’s not all! Through the CPI alumni network, Gio heard about a grant by Feet First Philly. Gio successfully applied and won $2,000 to go towards his neighborhood park, Norris Square. The funds were used to bring in temporary picnic tables and sets of chairs and tables covered in mural and street art.  

Gio also shares a challenge among the success: the on-going effort to bring about permanent tables and art to the park. Although the park has made progress being revitalized, Gio’s ready to see it thrive even more. “There are benches, but there’s no place for people to gather around. It needs infrastructure that helps bring culture to life, especially the Latino culture. An amphitheater and a place where the neighborhood’s culture can be reflected for the longer term,” he shares.

As with most dedicated neighbors, Gio mentioned the worry about changing communities that development brings. “My goals are to help keep those individuals there and attract more Latinos or Hispanics in the neighborhood instead of them being pushed out,” says Gio. Already, Hispanic or Latino institutions in his neighborhood serve as anchors that Gio believes make it possible for people and organizations to stay and solidify their culture. 

When asked about the ability to go out and engage, Gio revealed that he is quite introverted. While the pandemic brought some satisfaction to staying at home, he shared that he also learned that isolation exacerbated feelings of anxiety. Community is not just a given. It often has to be learned and nurtured. 

He shares two pieces of advice. First, “I want to see more alum of the CPI program. Sign up for CPI.” Second, if interested in starting a storefront, “don’t go zero to 100. Go like 0 to 10, 25 mph… If I had taken more baby steps, I probably would have less stress.” Although his background in economics helps him, Gio shared how much he is still learning and says that it’s more possible than people believe to start their own business.  

Most recently, Giovanie has started at the city’s Department of Commerce, as a senior program manager. He’s responsible for overseeing business technical assistance and training programs that the department offers to individuals and businesses in Philadelphia.  

Gio continues to build connections with his neighbors through online messaging. Among the improvements he wants to see next are more lights working on the streets to help with safety at night. His approach to change remains consistent: find something you care about, connect with others, and find a way to contribute.