During a decade spent engaging at-risk youth in public art projects, Laure Biron realized she was more interested in the service aspects of her work than the actual painting. So Biron earned a social work degree at Bryn Mawr College and found her niche at Broad Street Ministry, the human services nonprofit where she is now CEO. Joining Broad Street in 2019 and becoming CEO in 2020, Laure launched a meal program called Step Up to the Plate to meet heightened need during the pandemic. Under her leadership, Broad Street went from serving 70,000 on-site meals annually to a four-site pickup operation that provided 1 million meals to hungry Philadelphians during the pandemic’s first two years. For guests, the meals often provide a gateway to transformative programs.

“今天, Broad Street Ministry has become the region’s most creative social service organization for people experiencing deep poverty,拜伦说。. “We provide life-stabilizing services to more than 7,000 guests a year,” she adds.

Biron now oversees a $3.5 million operating budget, the organization’s first strategic plan in nearly two decades, and pilot programs like a mobile hygiene truck. She’s also expanded training for employees of other nonprofits on topics like de-escalation, anti-bias and what she calls “radical hospitality,” her favorite descriptor of Broad Street’s mission.

“We sustain a … [hope] that one day this practice of hospitality will be pervasive,拜伦说, “and no longer considered a radical act.”