WE ARE ACTION TANK

We tackle tough problems by harnessing the experiences, skills, and relationships of service-minded citizens to improve the social conditions of our community.

Action Tank members Linda Torres and Chris Diaz participate in a park clean up, where they collected and disposed off used needles.

Action Tank members, Cat Clason, Emily Balog, Larry Abrams, volunteer at the SHARE Food Program warehouse.

EMPATHY

Focus on others with honesty and humility. Listen with intention to maintain an open and balanced perspective. 

COLLABORATION

Build and leverage relationships as an evolving team of diverse stakeholders to address pressing social needs. 

SERVICE

Deploy our unique skill sets to advance the collective well-being of our communities. 

Action Tank members have deployed all over the world, but we are more than just veterans—we are attorneys, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and students. Above all, we are members of our community, and we are ready to put our skills and experiences to work. Each year we do a deep dive into a problem area, learning where we can have the most impact. Our service team gains a "boots on the ground" perspective by doing community projects and by listening to those with lived experience. They then communicate the lessons learned to our policy team who works with key stakeholders to turn policy into action. This process allows us to be force multipliers. With each new project, we expand our network and knowledge, which allows us to connect people and organizations to resources

Our Missions

2024 Irrigating Book Deserts

This year Philadelphia could become a city where period products are free for everyone who needs them.

This year Action Tank is leveraging community connections to:


Action Tank, an organization based in the Greater Philadelphia area, has made a significant impact by providing children with books to promote literacy and learning. Through their efforts, they have distributed books to underserved communities in Philadelphia and surrounding counties. The initiative aims to ensure that children, especially those in low-income neighborhoods, have access to reading materials that can inspire and support their educational development. This effort is part of a broader mission to improve educational outcomes and foster a love of reading among young learners.





2022,2023 Period Poverty

This year Philadelphia could become a city where period products are free for everyone who needs them.

Period poverty is defined as inadequate access to menstrual hygiene tools and education.


Menstruation is a bodily function and should not dictate one’s ability to attend school, work, or put food on the table. Action Tank is equipped to support on-going local and state efforts to reduce period poverty.  This includes legislation that would require schools, colleges, shelters, agencies providing food and housing assistance, correctional facilities, and local, state, and federal government programs supporting people of low socioeconomic status to provide free disposable menstrual products in all restrooms.




2020,2021 Tree Canopy

This year’s mission was multi-missioned looking at gun violence, restoring the tree canopy, and operating within the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the team at Action Tank strived to develop a greater understanding and build framework to communicate what we do at Action Tank. Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people live, learn, work, play, and worship and how these impact the overall health of people and communities. When people live in poverty, around violence, and experience unemployment, these negative social determinants result in a myriad of diseases such as asthma, diabetes, and mental health conditions. In November of 2021, for our capstone project: the Veteran Tree Memorial, Action Tank planted 39 trees to memorialize veterans in partnerships with Drexel University, Penn Medicine Hospice, Jefferson University, Villanova University, and Temple University Ambler Arboretum. Our tree planting in Ambler Arboretum was especially meaningful after an unexpected tornado ravaged Upper Dublin County, destroying hundreds of trees and homes. We are honored to be a part of their restoration. Thank you to the people who made the Veteran Tree Memorial possible and the wonderful people who keep the trees alive 

2019 Gun Violence

Gun violence is one of the leading causes of injury and death in the United States.

While many of us carried firearms during our time on active-duty in order to protect our fellow service members and innocent civilians in the areas where we were deployed, we recognize that reducing the number of injuries and deaths caused by firearms is critical to protecting the health and well-being not only of Pennsylvanians, but of people across our great nation. In an effort to reduce firearm related violence. 

2018 Food Insecurity

While working with our community partners to combat the opioid epidemic, we also saw first-hand the impact of food insecurity on our fellow citizens. 

This experience drove us to focus on food insecurity for 2018. The prevalence of food insecurity has been decreasing across the United States, but has continued to increase in Philadelphia, where one in five Philadelphians are food insecure. This startling statistic prompted us to take ACTION. Throughout the year, Action Tank members helped to build a new community garden at Bartram’s Garden, maintained a vegetable garden in support of Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, packaged pallets of food for delivery to local food pantries with the SHARE Food Program, and served meals for Muslims Serve.  Action Tank members ended the year by inviting 100 influential Philadelphians to attend 100 for Hunger. The aim of 100 for Hunger was to foster new relationships and ideas through collaborative work. Through collaboration with Dietz & Watson, Action Tank members were funded to produce a short documentary with Giddy Up Bronco Productions called Feeding Philly. Which follows Action Tank on their year-long mission in the fight against hunger as they work with community partners to improve the food insecurity landscape in Greater Philadelphia.

2017 Opioid Epidemic

In 2017, our inaugural year, Action Tank embarked on a mission to become a positive force in the fight against the opioid epidemic sweeping through our region and the nation. 

We have partnered with individuals and groups including Prevention Point Philadelphia, to help provide services at multiple levels of this epidemic. As part of our collaboration with Prevention Point, we have provided financial training for the organization’s staff and clients, helped to establish an emergency shelter for their homeless clients, organize a community clean-up, and cook meals for at-risk individuals in Kensington.


Action Tank was represented on the Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic in Philadelphia by Action Tank member Matt Miclette (Data + Sharing Subcommittee). 


Our stance on the Opioid Epidemic remains much the same as our 2017 policy recommendations. We believe in a public health approach, to support individuals with opioid use disorder with social and other services that are backed by science. Action Tank supports increasing access and reducing barriers to medications for opioid use disorder and other evidence-based treatments for opioid use disorder. We also support access to life-saving overdose medications, such as naloxone. 


Need help finding treatment? Visit www.samhsa.gov/find-treatment