2025 Summer Project

What is the Summer Project?

South Allison Hill is one of Harrisburg’s most neglected and deteriorating neighborhoods with over half the population living in poverty.  It has been neglected for years and is in dire need of reinvestment of funds, resources, and time to create a suitable living environment for the people of Allison Hill.  Our Summer Project was birthed out of our desire to serve our residents by preventing & eliminating slums and helping provide safer and sanitary living conditions as well as reduce crime opportunity areas. Every summer an army of hope-filled volunteers flood the streets of our beloved neighborhood, Allison Hill.  We do this through removing litter & dump sites, basic landscaping including planter boxes & weed prevention, and minor exterior home repairs.  

The Vision for our 2025 Summer Project (June 15th - July 19th):

Our goal for 2025 is to remove a projected 250,000 pounds of trash in a 40 block area of Allison Hill (From 13th St. to 17th St. between Market St. & State St.) board up abandoned buildings and put up fencing to prevent further illegal dumping of materials and drug/criminal activity, clean up the sidewalks & mulch them, repair 5 porches, and serve a total of approximately 215 homes (645 people) through all of these activities.  This will be year 9 of a 10-year plan to clean up all of Allison Hill by August of 2026 (see map). 

Our efforts over the last 8 years include:

• Mobilizing 5,772 unique volunteers (13,254 overall)
• Servicing 2,692 properties
• Repairing 21 porches 
• Removing 2,807,844.66 pounds of trash
• Installing 370 planter boxes
• Boarding up 131 abandoned structures
• Establishing 3 community gardens as part of our lot reclamation efforts
• Recovering an abandoned street full of trash and debris