Sojourner Consulting is a Philadelphia-based consultancy which provides equitable development planning and policy services.
While our projects range widely, our work often involves building unlikely coalitions, stakeholder-driven planning and land use strategy, and policy analysis.
Equitable Development Planning
We design and implement strategies in communities which are facing major developments and/or in gentrifying markets. We facilitate conversations to identify local needs and priorities, and develop roadmaps that ensure current residents can benefit from future changes. We specialize in mixed-method approaches which center the voices of the most impacted stakeholders, who are often hard to reach.We interface with everyone, from the small business owner to the national developer, from the block captain to the mayor, with a goal of increasing dialogue and local capacity for change.Projects: Cultural District Planning, Fair Housing Coalition, 76ers Community Impact Assessment
Inclusion for Immigrants, Refugees and English Language Learners
We support our clients in creating more inclusive programs and services for a diverse population. We provide culturally competent services in engaging with immigrant, refugee and English Language Learner communities. We help articulate the unique challenges and strengths of these populations and develop actionable recommendations on policy and planning.Projects: Montgomery County AAPI Needs Assessment, Latinx and LEP Access to Office of Homeless Services
Place-Based. We are planners who love places and the intricate ecosystems which support them. We focus on urban places which are experiencing development and rapid change.Human-Centered. We use qualitative tools to ground our work in community experience and develop a rich context of how people navigate their lives. We combine these methods with more traditional, technical approaches.Culturally Competent. We thrive in multicultural, multilingual environments. We often work with immigrants, refugees and English Language Learners (ELLs).
Current and Previous Clients
Ceiba - Latino Equitable Development Collective
City of Philadelphia
Friends of the Rail Park
HealthSpark Foundation
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Mortgage Bankers Association
New Mainstream Media
Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation
PolicyLink
Spiral Q Puppet Theater
Urban Manufacturing Alliance
Village of Arts and Humanities
Founder & Principal Sarah Yeung
Founder and Principal Sarah Yeung has 13 years of experience as a community developer, planner and policy advocate.Sarah has provided expertise and thought leadership in planning and development impacts for Philadelphia Chinatown and other neighborhoods. As the previous director of planning in Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, she played a key role in the organization's growth from a grassroots non-profit to a regional powerhouse.Other experiences include national policy advocacy at The Food Trust, a national food access organization where Sarah supported the development of local, state and national policy campaigns and coalitions. As a Michael Rubinger Fellow for LISC, she studied immigrant food distribution networks across the country, tracing the history and the role of wholesalers, distributors and suppliers.
Team
James Crowder
Associate
Vanessa Xie
Project Manager
Jessie Rios Benitez
Intern
Qi Guo
Intern
Sojourner also partners with collaborators who bring in a range of skill sets and expertise. They include real estate developers, economists, researchers, planners and ethnographers.
Contact
Landscape Review for The Rail Park
The Rail Park is a vision for a 3-mile park which stretches across the City of Philadelphia, starting with Phase I, a quarter-mile park built on top of a former railroad viaduct. The non-profit organization sought to conduct equitable development planning in the local communities throughout the span of the 3-mile vision in Philadelphia. Through stakeholder interviews and research, we developed a landscape review of the diverse neighborhoods, histories and development trends surrounding the future park.
The final report issued recommendations for how the organization can engage communities and reposition its programs and services to better address equitable development goals.
Latinx and LEP service access
For community development funders or organizations seeking to develop the capacity and practical imagination of staff and field leaders, placing a strategist in an arts and culture organization can be an important training tool.
Increased knowledge of relevant regulatory and political systems, which may help the organization to better identify leverage points for affecting change;
Increased understanding of how to work with, support and challenge actors in community development (i.e. elected officials, legal aid organizations, housing authorities, etc.);
Increased understanding of how to explore, conceptualize and evaluate community development opportunities for the organization;
