Vonee Hill spent more than 15 years working in child care and came out of it with a list of gaps.
“It’s like I was doing research throughout my years of working and being able to work in the system at different levels,” Hill said, “identifying gaps in the system.” The gap she decided to fill was not the child. It was the person raising the child.
Hill, 37, is the founder and executive director of Linked Family Services, which she established in 2018, and the founder and chief executive of Hilcrest Development and Consulting, established in 2024. The family services organization works out of 4244 Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia, a location that opened in January, and a mobile resource van is being added to it.
“We’re really focused on making sure that caregivers’ and parents’ stress levels are as low as possible,” she said. “If a parent is supported, emotionally, physically and financially, they can think straight. They can move from day to day and do what they need to do for their child.”
The word she keeps using is prevention. “It got to a point where I realized the gaps that I wanted to fill,” she said. “I wanted to create my own organization that focused on prevention.” Most family services arrive after something has already gone wrong. Hill built hers to arrive before.
“Whoever it is that is taking care of these children, we want to make sure they are supported,” she said.
She has three children of her own, ages 16, 12 and 5, and she grew up in Queens. “Philadelphia is similar to how I grew up in Queens. It was familiar to me when I got here,” she said. “I wanted to implant myself somewhere and make a difference while I was here. I’m connected to the city, so I wanted to make sure that I leave my footprint here, too.”
The organization has already outgrown the building. “We’ve expanded very quickly in a short amount of time,” she said. “It’s a good problem to have, because it shows that our services are needed and they’re wanted in the community.” She expects to need a larger space.
The part she says she loves is not the ribbon cutting. “It’s been wonderful to be able to hire staff because hiring and training teams is what I really love to do,” she said.
