For 43 years, she’s held politicians to their promises to help her North Philly neighbors

Meet Valerie Banks, a North Philly committee person who connects her neighbors to the resources they need and holds politicians accountable for the promises they make to her community.

• All politics is local: “We get these people elected and now they need to do some things for us. That’s why I keep going to their offices and letting them know we’re here and we need help.”

• On Philly: “There’s a lot of good brotherly and sisterly love going on in this city, it’s just that we’ve had so much thrown at us that we’re too busy ducking. But it’s still there, in our hearts and our minds.”

As Valerie Banks walked through her Norris Square neighborhood in North Philly last week, everyone had a story about “Ms. Val.”

Diamond Blair’s kids had a “phenomenal” Christmas last year (and the three before that) because of Banks’ annual toy drive. Mary Alvarez was able to put a holiday meal on her table with Banks’ help. And Damon Sparrow said Banks was “instrumental” in helping him after his dad was killed last year.

“People could write books about Ms. Val,” Sparrow, 49, said. “You don’t have many people willing to put their lives on the line for the community like her.”

For 43 years, Banks, 61, has served as a Democratic committee person in North Philly. As the lowest-elected office in Philadelphia politics, being a committee person is a job that comes with little glory and no pay.

“But I get my payment,” Banks said. “The way God pays you is not the way man pays.”

Committee people serve as a point of contact between voters and elected officials. One of their main duties is to get people out to vote for their party but the job can be so much more, if you make it that. And Banks does, every day and in so many ways.

From holding annual toy, turkey, and school supply drives to helping her neighbors navigate government agencies to address everything from rat infestations to land ownership, Banks is a conduit between the people in her community and politicians.

Venise Castaneda-Whitaker, a friend and fellow committee person, said Banks never hesitates to seek help for others and won’t take no for an answer.

“Asking for help is a sign of a leader,” Castaneda-Whitaker said. “Maybe more should do it in Philly.”

Councilmember Quetcy Lozada said Banks is a “straight shooter” who tells her what’s happening on the ground and lets her neighbors know how Lozada’s office can help.

“People like Valerie make sure we remain grounded and are held accountable,” Lozada said. “She’s an amazing partner and she’s one of those committee people who will ask you for others. She’s never asked me for something for Valerie.”

Banks grew up in a family of seven in North Philly, and things were tight. The kids shared a single bedroom and meat was a rarity at the dinner table. But once Banks’ dad got a job with a moving company and her family got into a Philadelphia Housing Authority home, their lives changed dramatically.

Banks never forgot what public housing meant to her family and decades later, she formed PHA’s first Black and Latino resident council, to advocate for tenants’ rights.

First elected as a 19th Ward committee person at 18, Banks retained that position for decades, before moving to the 18th Ward five years ago and becoming a committee person there.

Even at the hyper-local level, navigating Philly politics isn’t easy. When Banks approaches her neighbors, she often hears the same refrain.

“I always get hit with ‘Why should I vote? They don’t do nothing for me,’” she said. “I come back with ‘Did you ask them to do anything for you?’”

Through it all, Banks’ faith in voting remains unwavering.

“In my heart I got to believe that it’s a process we fought for and we lost a lot of lives to get it, so we’ve got to believe it will work out and we have got to vote,” she said.

As much as she believes in voting, Banks believes in her community even more. She believes the diversity of her neighborhood is its greatest strength; she believes in the teens, whom she recruited to go door-to-door to register voters; and she believes in power of a shared space, which in Banks’ neighborhood is the beloved Iglesias Community Garden.

“That’s a place where we go to hang out with our brothers and sisters from another mother and father,” she said.

But Banks worries about how the ongoing gentrification in her neighborhood may push out lower-income residents. As she walked the streets, she pointed out new houses on many blocks.

“We created this community, we are this community, how are you going to push us out?” she said. “That’s going to be the next fight, and it may get worse before it gets better.”

Outside of her community work, Banks is renowned for her home cooking, particularly her fried chicken, potato salad, and lemon-drop corn bread. Sometimes she sells platters to her neighbors, sometimes she gives them away.

“Even if you don’t have it, she’ll give you a plate,” neighbor Diamond Blair said. “It’s so cool that she just looks out for you anyway.”

As much as Banks looks out for her community, they see her, too. Recently, local artist Sophie C. White, who’s painting a series of neighborhood portraits, painted one of Banks in the Iglesias Community Garden.

“Her attitude and personality, to me, reflected some of the things I like the most about Philadelphia,” White said. “She’s got a really warm spirit, she puts people first, she’s very resourceful, and she doesn’t need a lot of money to get a whole lot of work done.”

Despite holding elected office for decades without a paycheck, Banks said she’s never wanted to run for a higher position.

“I like being down in the trenches with the people,” she said. “This is where I serve best.”

• Chris Rotz missed giving his wife Christmas gifts, so now he gives them to others battling cancer.

• Kristen Kreider, a Bethlehem native who grew up Catholic, is Philly’s expert in Judaica.

• Check out more We the People here.