2025 Celebratory Breakfast

This April, AHCOPA was thrilled to host our second annual Celebratory Breakfast. Building upon the success of our first year, we were excited to add additional awardees!

We highlighted six awardees 

• Bruce Dorpalen received the Lifetime Achievement Award for starting the ACORN Housing Corporation in 1985, which later became AHCOPA.
• WSFS Bank received the Top Lender Award for closing the most loans among our lending partners in 2024.
• Habitat for Humanity received the Community Partner Award for their collaboration to help clients achieve homeownership.
• Michaelle Bond received the Community Advocate Award for her extensive reporting on housing justice issues in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• Jackie Ball received the Top Realtor Award for completing the most home closing for AHCOPA clients in 2024.
• M&T Bank received the Corporate Partner Award for their robust participation in the DCED Neighborhood Assistance Program and selecting AHCOPA for the 30 & 30 Initiative.

I, Naara Silva (the author of this blog), was also surprised with an appreciation award for exceeding expectations. I was honored to be celebrated and shocked that Ken Bigos, Sarah Kellogg, and Thompson Smith were able to keep this secret during our event planning process! 

We were honored to have Angela Brooks, Chief Housing and Urban Development Officer for Philadelphia’s HOME Initiative, speak about her passion and drive to improve housing opportunities for our city. We are thankful to the Action News 6 team for featuring our event (starting around the 31 minute mark)! 

The work we do would not be possible without the strong support of our partners who consistently show up to achieve our collective goal of strengthening homeownership opportunities in Philadelphia. It was inspiring and energizing to have many of them join us in person to celebrate the work we do. Jamie Gauthier, an awardee from our 2024 breakfast shared, “One of my favorite events of the year, Affordable Housing Centers of PA’s Celebratory Breakfast, where we celebrate leaders working on affordable housing across our region! Thank you for having me and for all that you do, AHCOPA!”.

To learn more about what we’ve accomplished, check our 2024 Annual Report. Thank you to our sponsors and our collaborators!

Naara Silva

Naara serves at AHCOPA as a second year AmeriCorps VISTA in the Housing Action Corps ​