Eli Plenk is The Village’s inaugural Community Safety Project Director, coming on board in 2023. In this role, he works in partnership with Fairhill-Hartranft residents to proactively address violence and harm in a manner that centers community care.

Eli is a teacher and organizer whose career has focused on developing viable alternatives to policing and incarceration. Before coming to The Village, he served as Director of Policy and Operations at the Philadelphia Bail Fund. Eli began his career teaching in New York’s prison system and spent several years running a restorative justice program for court-involved youth in Massachusetts.

The child of community activists, Eli is a proud graduate of Hampshire College, where he studied History and Education. When not at work, Eli can be found writing poems, making soup, riding trains, and trying to calm his grumpy dog, Reuben.

Contact: eli@villagearts.org