“…Robert Woodson, one of my mentors regarding how to help the poor without hurting, died on May 19 at age 89. He grew up poor and fatherless in south Philly, watched his best friend stabbed to death, and dropped out of high school at age 17. He eventually joined the civil rights movement and worked for the NAACP, but observed programs that did not move people out of poverty.

We met in 1981 when Bob founded the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise — it’s now called the Woodson Center — and began leading projects that improved poor neighborhoods by tapping into the talents of entrepreneurial individuals within them. One of his books, The Triumphs of Joseph: How Community Healers Are Reviving our Streets and Neighborhoods, tells that story.”