For Good

Ending racism, police misconduct and racial profiling and promoting voting rights and equality in the workplace are the lofty goals of the Black and White Reunion's annual Summit Against Racism, which will hold its 15th gathering Jan. 26 at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.
 
Bob Maddock, one of the organizers, is philosophical about the need still to work toward such goals, a decade and a half after the group began in response to the deadly encounter of black motorist Jonny Gammage with local police.
 
"What can I say about relationships" with police, he offers. "They're certainly not as good as they could be. We are some of the people putting pressure on the police to be more open." Group members have been trying to view Pittsburgh's police contract to determine what barriers to openness remain in the agreement, for instance, and have filed a pending Freedom of Information Act to try to retrieve it.
 
Other groups will speak about election protection and national attempts to disenfranchise African Americans and other voters. "That's really going to be a continuing issue," Maddock believes. Representatives from Decarcerate PA will press for an end to prison-building in the state, while WWHAT'S UP Pittsburgh (Whites Working and Hoping to Abolish Total Supremacy, Undermining Privilege) will discuss racism in the workplace.
 
Gentrification of neighborhoods will be the subject of Carl Redwood, Hill District organizer, and others. The event also features remarks by founder Tim Stevens and a brief documentary on long-time civil rights activist Sarah B. Campbell. The Summit awards a Jonny Gammage Memorial Scholarship each year.
 
Do Good:
Want to find other ways to get active on these issues locally? Connect with the Black Political Empowerment Project.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Bob Maddock, Black and White Reunion

The United States is the only industrialized nation not to offer some form of healthcare to its citizens, points out Julie Sokolow, local documentary filmmaker and founder of the arts and social-justice organization Healthy Artists. "Why aren't more people engaged with this?" she asks. Why aren't more people demanding that this country catch up with the rest of the world?
 
Perhaps people need a little extra inspiration -- and maybe young people can lead the way, Sokolow posits. That's where Healthy Artists comes in.
 
On Jan. 4, 2013, at Modern Formations Gallery, Healthy Artists will open “The Healthy Artists Movie Poster Exhibition,” a month-long show of art urging young people to become as involved in the health-care issue as they were in presidential politics when Barack Obama originally ran. In conceiving the exhibition, Sokolow's thoughts turned to the power of the now-iconic blue-and-red "Hope" poster of Obama created by Shepard Fairey for 2008. For the Jan. 4 event, Healthy Artists has gotten 15 local professional artists and five student artists each to create a movie-style poster around the group's original effort, a documentary film series on artists discussing their work and their difficulties with health care.
 
As Sokolow points out, these young creatives are in an age bracket -- 19 to 29 -- who make up 30 percent of this country's 49 million uninsured. "Artists are just a metaphor for anyone who has a dream they want to accomplish," she says. "Anyone with a dream can relate to that." But instead of gathering terrible stories of medical bankruptcy and untreated illness, Healthy Artists "is highlighting how having health care would liberate so many people. It's about making life easier for people and people not feeling shackled to jobs because they need the healthcare the job provides. If we're the greatest country on earth, we should be investing in our citizens as the other countries are.
 
"We want people to recognize that it's to their benefit to get involved, that they can use their talents to get involved," she adds. "We want to create new ways to be an activist."
 
Healthy Artists is teaming with Be Well! Pittsburgh -- which earlier got a Sprout Fund grant to compile health-care options for the uninsured -- and Original Magazine to help publicize the issue. Healthy Artists -- itself the recipient of a Sprout Fund grant -- will also team with Healthcare 4All-PA to present the latter's study on Jan. 4 concerning how a single-payer healthcare plan would benefit Pennsylvania. An effort to create a single-payer healthcare is currently underway in Vermont. After the exhibition and the other work of Healthy Artists and its collaborators, Sokolow hopes another city will be inspired by Pittsburgh.
 
More information on the exhibition's opening night (which includes free food, drink and music from the Harlan Twins), as well as on the exhibition's artists and judges, is available at the Healthy Artists website.
 
Do Good:
Looking for additional ways to help with the healthcare issue? Volunteer with Healthcare 4All-PA by clicking here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Julie Sokolow, Healthy Artists

The Girls Coalition of Southwestern Pennsylvania is hoping to inspire girls with a new contest based on the principles that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. espoused -- and to inspire girls' ideas beyond the only thing they probably know about King: his "I have a dream" speech.
 
The newly announced Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest for girls in grades 6-12 is intended "to bring girls' voices into the work we are doing," says Coalition Program Director Heather Mediate, "helping them bring their ideas to the table so they can change the world themselves."
 
Girls can write, or make a brief video, that answers the question, "How can I change the world?" or "How am I a leader for justice, equality, and fairness for all people in my community and beyond?" or "What does it mean to be part of the 'beloved community?'" which references a less-famous quote of King's:  "Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives."
 
"We wanted to bring to the table some of the other tenets of his philosophy," says Mediate of King. "'Beloved community' was about creating an all-inclusive society where we could eliminate evils together. When we work together, we can come up with solutions."
 
While the essays and videos alone may not change the world, the effort is intended to show girls that "we can accomplish great things in nonviolent ways," she adds. "Martin Luther King was someone who strongly believed things could change, and that they should change, and he strongly committed his life to seeing that they did change."
 
Essays of 300-500 words, or two- to three-minute videos, are due Jan. 4, 2013 at 5 p.m. Email here or see the Coalition website for details. Winners from three categories (grades 6-8, grades 9 and 10, and grades 11 and 12) will be judged by representatives of the YWCA, UPMC Center for Inclusion, Women for a Healthy Environment, Girl Scouts and other organizations that share the Coalition's emphasis on aiding the lives of girls. Finalists and winners will be announced Jan. 15, 2013 and selected essays and videos will be presented at the Union Project's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration on Jan. 21. 
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Heather Mediate, Girls Coalition Southwestern Pennsylvania

Operation Safety Net helped make certain there wasn't a single death among Pittsburgh's homeless this year caused by illness or cold weather. But that won't make the annual vigil for the homeless -- the seven lost in 2012 through accident or other causes -- any less solemn when it is held on Dec. 21.
 
That's National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day -- the longest night of the year -- and Pittsburgh will be among more than 150 U.S. cities to hold a similar observance. Members of Operation Safety Net, which is part of the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System and sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, invites attendees to donate new hats, gloves and socks for the Severe Weather Emergency Shelter, which opens when the temperature drops below 25 degrees or there is extreme snow or sleet.
 
The main cause of death among the homeless, says Stephanie Chiappini, program manager for Operation Safety Net, is accidents involving the train tracks, rivers and roads near which they live. Chiappini is just glad her organization has been able to connect homeless people to healthcare, housing and other services throughout the year. "If we could get everyone off the street, that would be ideal," she says. "That's what we're working towards."
 
However, some of those with the most severe mental illness say they cannot handle living anywhere else. Nor are there many shelters for those with active substance abuse problems. Operation Safety Net has succeeded in getting 33 among the latter group off the streets and into their Trail Lane Apartments on the South Side, near the 10th Street Bridge. The apartments have what Chiappini calls "a low-demand philosophy," accepting those still addicted to drugs if they do not use the substances on apartment property or threaten the safety of others there.
 
"We were able to engage people directly from the camps and get them into primary health care," she reports -- in particular, behavioral and other integrated mental and physical health services via Pittsburgh Mercy Family Health Center, where they are served by Dr. Jim Withers, founder of Operation Safety Net. "People on the street are comfortable with him," she explains; Dr. J. Todd Wahrenberger, medical director of the practice, and Physician Assistant Linda Von Bloch are also serving homeless patients there. Such integrated services have become a best practice being adopted across the nation.
 
The vigil will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. at Grant Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard, where, underneath the highway overpass, bronze plaques on a memorial wall commemorate the 125 other homeless people whose lives have been memorialized by the organization since 1991.
 
Do Good:
Looking for additional ways to help the homeless? Aid Three Rivers Youth, which runs a homeless outreach center, by clicking here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Stephanie Chiappini, Operation Safety Net

Another worldwide movement is coming to Pittsburgh, making us one of only 40 cities from here to Auckland, Singapore, Cape Town and beyond to hold CreativeMornings: A new, free, monthly breakfast lecture series aimed at the creative person in all of us. Started by a designer in Brooklyn in 2008 and flourishing originally in Web design firms, today CreativeMornings is billed as a "global breakfast lecture series for creative types," It's meant to be a casual morning gathering and a day-beginning booster, fostering even more of a creative community here in the process.
 
CreativeMornings/Pittsburgh is opening on Dec. 14 from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the Andy Warhol Museum with a talk by Nina Marie Barbuto from Garfield's hands-on art venue Assemble. Barbuto will teach the first attendees about "Making Learning a Party," modeled on the learning parties Assemble holds. Auckland's last lecture featured an origami artist; in Berlin, it was the inventor of the world's smallest wearable camera. Sao Paolo's most recent presentation was by Casey Caplowe, the founder of Good magazine. The idea is to encourage life-long learning for creative types.

CreativeMornings/Pittsburgh is run by Kate Stoltzfus (digital strategist for Plumb Media, one of the leaders at Propelle for women entrepreneurs and editor/cofounder of Yinzpiration.com) and a volunteer team that includes Dustin Stiver and Carley Kapcin of the Sprout Fund. Stoltzfus worked with Sprout to bring CreativeMornings here.
 
"We just thought it was a great thing for the city to have," Stoltzfus says. "There really isn't something consistent that brings creative people together in the same way in Pittsburgh."

While all 120 spaces for the first CreativeMornings/Pittsburgh event are booked, there is a waiting list available for Dec. 14 and an email list for you to subscribe to future notices so you can reserve a spot for January's lecture, coffee and breakfast. The theme, chosen by CreativeMornings headquarters, will be "Happiness."
 
"I was happy to bring another opportunity to Pittsburgh," concludes Stoltzfus. "It's really for anybody who is looking to be inspired by different creative concepts."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kate Stoltzfus, CreativeMornings/Pittsburgh

Today is the deadline for one local toy drive -- hurry to contribute so that kids everywhere can have a wonderful holiday. There are also many donation drives you can still help up until two days before Christmas Eve. Here is a handy guide:
 

• The Port Authority of Allegheny County, Q92.9 FM and the U.S. Marine Corps are holding their annual Toys for Tots drive on Dec. 14 from 5:30 to 9 a.m. on the mezzanine level of the Steel Plaza T Station (near Sixth Avenue and Grant Street downtown). They're collecting new, unwrapped toys and cash.

• The Marines' Toys For Tots effort is also the beneficiary of the Master Builders’ Association annual drive Attend their gathering Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Hard Rock Café in Station Square, run by the Association's Young Constructors Committee for the construction industry -- a toy is your ticket.

 

• The Northside Institutional Church is gathering toy donations for their annual Christmas Store for needy families. They'll accept your toys on site at 302 West North Avenue on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Tuesdays from 1 to 9 p.m. Contact Stacy Webb here.

 

• Who's Your Brother's annual Holiday Toy Drive Wrapping Party will be held Dec. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Stephen Foster Community Center, 286 Main Street in Lawrenceville. They're looking for volunteers to wrap gifts for children in need; your payment will be free cookies from Paddy Cake Bakery. Sign up to help or give items at www.whosyourbrother.com.

 

• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC is always looking for toys for its Child Life and Volunteer Services Departments. Call 412-692-5022 or donate at the Welcome Center in the main lobby from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily, and see their website for giving guidelines and most-needed items.

 

• If you're attending the Toonseum's Island of Misfit Toons Christmas Party Dec. 14 from 7:30-10:30 p.m. in its Lou Scheimer Gallery downtown, a new or only slightly used toy will get you half off the $10 admission and benefit the Play It Forward Pittsburgh toy drive.

 
Writer: Marty Levine

Pittsburgh's first crisis nursery, Jeremiah's Place, is on track to open in 2013 as a way for families with the youngest children to find relief when their lives give them with nowhere else to turn.
 
Jeremiah's Place, which is still looking for a home, will offer respite care for kids up to 6 years old. Parents may drop off children without notice to relieve the severe stresses life gives to too many families: homelessness, job loss, or merely a single night when the mother is too ill, or delivering another child, and has nowhere safe and trustworthy to leave her other children.
 
"We have made some great strides," reports spokesperson Eileen Sharbaugh, part of the 22-person team organizing this effort, founded by Dr. Lynne Williams of East Liberty Family Health Care Center and Dr. Tammy Murdock of the Family Life Fund of the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Team members have met with other local nonprofits that work with children and parents, gathering more support, as well as county officials in the County's Office of Children, Youth and Families and area foundations.
 
All have been encouraging to their effort, Sharbaugh says, which is designed to take away one of the major risk factors for child abuse: "Parents really are trying to do their very best but sometimes the odds are so far against them. We're offering them something that is truly preventative. When the parent thinks they are about to lose it, there is somebody who will be there, in a very nonjudgmental way, to relieve their stress."
 
At the suggestion of the Forbes Foundation, the group has shifted their focus from buying a potential location to teaming with other local nonprofits with a similar clientele, where Jeremiah's Place could rent space for a pilot program of 18 to 24 months. In the meantime, they are conducting a public awareness campaign and holding initial fundraisers. The first has been dubbed "The Art of Love!"?
 
Set for 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the Pittsburgh Public Market (on Smallman between 16th and 17th streets in the Strip), it will offer art for sale that counters the negative images children are exposed to every day. Twenty-seven pieces by 24 artists -- weavings, photos, oils, acrylics, jewelry and others -- valued at $20-300 will be on sale, along with raffle items. As a bonus, some of the regular Public Market booths will stay open for the event.
 
For National Child Abuse Awareness Month next April, Jeremiah's Place has already scheduled a 5K run through North Park on April 27, 2013.
 
Do Good:
Looking for even more ways to help parents and kids? Aid them through the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh or UPMC’s Re:solve Crisis Network.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Eileen Sharbaugh, Jeremiah's Place

A new place-based initiative has the Heinz Endowments focusing millions of dollars and years of effort on single neighborhoods -- and Hazelwood is their first choice.
 
"Every time you walk down a new block in Hazelwood you find a new group doing something for somebody else," says Heinz Endowments President Robert Vagt. "It's just a remarkable neighborhood. When we decided to do place-based grant making, we knew we wanted to work in a neighborhood that had clear needs and active and helpful resources. Hazelwood believes that positive change is going to take place -- that it's possible."
 
Although the Endowments have given recent gifts to fund the Almono Bike Trail along the neighborhood's former LTV steel mill site, as well as smaller gifts in the past to Hazelwood's Center of Life, this $1.35 million, three-year grant to the Center is part of $2.3 million aimed at revitalizing the neighborhood as a more concerted effort.
 
"This is intended as a grant to help them continue the good work they are already doing, but to have the financial capacity to do it on a much larger scale," says Vagt.
 
That's exactly what the Center's leader, Pastor Tim Smith, hopes.
 
"For the Center of Life, it will allow us to do more of what we're doing," Smith says. "We had a demand to do more but we weren't able to bring on the kind of staff we need. The programs were bigger than the organization and we needed to catch up."
 
Center of Life currently runs the music and arts KRUNK Movement (Kreating Realistic Urban New-school Knowledge) program that uses jazz and hip hop to teach music writing, performing and business skills; the Center of Life Jazz Band, which earned first place in the 2012 Monterey Jazz Festival emerging artist competition; Fusion, with Duquesne University, providing tutoring and homework assistance to students and parents; and a basketball program.
 
Smith hopes to add back several programs the Center once ran, such as a financial literacy class with Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh and NeighborWorks, and Hazelwood Handyman classes. The Center is now looking to expand its space as well. "We'll open the doors to a lot more," Smith says.
 
Indeed, the grant's purpose is also to help the Center team with new partners and gain other funding. "We expect there will be new programs as the result of this increased capacity," says Vagt.
 
The Endowments are still looking at which neighborhood to focus on next. "The most important thing is that there are times when the foundation has an idea that we carry to a place," Vagt concludes. "The biggest difference about this is, we are working with the community to determine what the community wants as its future. That is something that is very different for us."
 
Do Good:
Want to get involved in Hazelwood in other ways? Help feed hazelwood residents through Fishes and Loaves at St. Stephen Catholic Church.

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Tim Smith, Center of Life; Robert Vagt, Heinz Endowments

The needs are greater than ever for local residents with disabilities, says Achieva President and CEO Marsha Blanco. "There are really some pressing needs," she says. "While we of course have had a great deal of government funding coming in, government tends to fund very traditional things. Achieva believes in innovation and we do not believe that models that were current 25 years ago are the way to do things today."
 
That's why the 62-year-old organization, southwestern Pennsylvania’s largest comprehensive service provider for people with disabilities and their families, has announced a new $8 million capital campaign called Innovation in Support of People with Disabilities -- their largest campaign ever.
 
"Pennsylvania has lengthy waiting lists for services," Blanco adds. "In fact, it is a national problem." Those with Medicaid waivers can get support from state and federal programs, she explains, but those on the long waiting list for such waivers receive very little support. Many families of those with disabilities, however, are able to provide some level of assistance themselves. Combined with government funding, this may let their adult son or daughter become more independent -- perhaps leaving home for the first time.
 
Among the service additions Achieva hopes to institute are 118 new living spaces for those with disabilities. Blanco says money raised by the capital campaign, combined with continued family assistance, will create new living arrangements in rented apartments or family homes, while Achieva will also help provide staffing and other aids to make this possible.
 
Achieva also hopes to expand the number of employees with disabilities at its pallet-manufacturing plant in Bridgeville, where currently those with and without disabilities work side by side to serve about 90 customers. The organization wishes also to expand the reach of the Achieva Trust, which manages $62 million for more than 2,000 individuals with disabilities. Funds placed in the Trust do not count as official assets of contributors -- assets that otherwise might disqualify potential Medicaid funding recipients.
 
A final goal of the capital campaign is to give Achieva better energy efficiency in its 100-plus homes and other facilities in Allegheny County, reducing its costs and making Achieva an even better neighbor.
 
It is a three-year campaign, Blanco says, "but we believe we will actually be able to wrap up the campaign earlier than that." Among contributions already secured for the campaign are $1 million from the PNC Foundation, $750,000 from the Edith L. Trees Charitable Foundation and $475,000 from the Heinz Endowments.
 
"The community is just showing strong, strong support for the campaign," she reports. "We feel blessed."
 
Do Good:
Looking for more ways to help those with disabilities locally? Contact Allegheny County's Disability Connection.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Marsha Blanco, Achieva

Handmade Arcade continues to be a premier, free, once-a-year venue for a unique shopping experience -- and a uniquely powerful place to learn how creative Pittsburgh can be.
 
This year has more vendors, live music for the first time and an expanded maker area, called Hands-on Handmade.  "The goal is to partner with local organizations to bring in their expertise to show that Pittsburgh is a very vibrant city with a love of making, all year round," says Handmade co-organizer Jessica Manack, who is also a vendor of handmade buttons at the show (as Miss Chief Productions). The Hands-on section lets people learn new art and craft skills and "appreciate the joy of making things and the people who make things," Manack says.
 
Among the new organizations at Hands-on this year are Healthy Artists and Carnegie Library's Zine Collection, which will be teaming to host a zine-making workshop. Knit the Bridge, by The Fiberarts Guild Of Pittsburgh and Fiber Art International 2013, will help you be a part of their yarn bomb project -- knitting squares to form a larger, bridge-adorning creation.
 
Pittsburgh-based online fashion company ModCloth will also be there. "It's one of the great examples of Pittsburgh entrepreneurs," says Manack, since ModCloth is a long-time local independent business that has made good, with a San Francisco office and hundreds of employees. "It's the kind of thing we've tried to foster with all the Handmade Arcades, the kind of thing we want to show off. Events like Handmade Arcade are one day, but they really have a ripple effect."
 
Indeed, Manack points to some vendors who have moved to Pittsburgh after discovering that Handmade Arcade was part of a vibrant maker scene. And the Arcade, although it's not a trade show, is also a place for companies to scout for new lines of merchandise. Redraven Studios, which does ceramic jewelry, has now had a limited-edition line of necklaces in Anthropologie. Overdue Industries, from Philadelphia, has gotten wholesale orders for its journals from Kards Unlimited.
 
The Arcade this year will also feature new tote bags from local strawberryluna, "one of our superstar vendors -- someone who has really grown her product and prints and is nationally well known," Manack says. "People like her support Handmade Arcade as much as Handmade Arcade supports her."
 
The Dec. 8 Arcade at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center's Hall C has more than 150 vendors offering jewelry, posters, prints, clothing, artwork, t-shirts, stationery, paper craft, accessories, housewares, children’s clothing, bath and body items, toys, music, zines, multimedia and what it terms "geekery." "Early Birdie" passes for $15 let shoppers in an hour before the opening bell. Live music will be provided by Instead of Sleeping, and DJ sets will be performed by David Pohl, J. Malls & Michael Seamans, Bad Seed and The Garment District.
 
Manack has been with the Arcade from the beginning, when it was founded by Gloria Forouzan. "One of the critical goals was to show off Pittsburgh," she says. "I'd like to think we're making it possible for creatives to live and thrive here."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Jessica Manack, Handmade Arcade

"We want to build a community that works for everybody, that has a high quality of life for everybody -- that's the vision of Coro," says Greg Crowley, president and CEO of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership on the South Side.
 
That's why Coro, which fosters civic engagement in young people, is seeking nominations for its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Awards. Names can be submitted through Dec. 7 for the Distinguished Leadership Award and the Organizational Leadership Award, given to those who practice what Coro labels "values-based leadership in the service of a more inclusive democracy."
 
"Our whole mission is wrapped up with values leadership," says Crowley. "It's important for people to be aware of what matters to them and what drives them. It's about challenging people to a higher calling to put their talent to work to strengthen the community." MLK, of course, is an exemplar of values leadership, he adds.
 
Another mission of Coro is to engage people who historically haven't had a strong voice in affecting the future of their own communities. Coro's Teen Bloc, for instance, brings together high-school students to discuss -- and, ideally, affect -- the quality and future of their own education.
 
Speaking at the Jan. 18, 2013 awards event at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture will be Kare Anderson, an Emmy-winning former journalist and author of Walk Your Talk, Getting What You Want, Resolving Conflict Sooner and Moving From Me to We. "She's a person who has really done a lot of work to help people to become more effective in accomplishing their goals in life and in meeting their higher purpose," says Crowley. She is also an alumna of the Coro Center in San Francisco -- the first time a Coro alum will be speaking at the MLK event.
 
Past winners of the individual award have included David Shapira, head of Giant Eagle, and former City Councilman Doug Shields, while groups from PNC Financial Services to The Union Project have won previous organizational awards. Another award, chosen by Coro, will be given to an alumnus of the group.
 
Says Crowley: "We really see this as a networking opportunity for like-minded people who want to learn about themselves and strengthen their ability to be their best."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Greg Crowley, Coro Center for Civic Leadership

And now for something completely different: The Women and Girls Foundation for the first time is giving their annual awards exclusively to men.
 
While every year for the past seven years the foundation has been celebrating women in a different sector of society, CEO Heather Arnet says the group has long been discussing a way to reward the good works of their male allies. The awards ceremony -- "Celebrating woMEN!" -- will take place on Dec. 1 at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. The honorees are:

• Jim Abraham, Law Office of James E. Abraham LLC
• Gregg Dietz, University of Pittsburgh and Shaler Area High School
• Tanner Fitzgerald, Pennsylvania State University student
• Rep. Dan Frankel, Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• Dr. Freddie Fu, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine
• William Gay, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers
• Michael Aaron Glass, Dress for Success Pittsburgh
• George Greer, The Eden Hall Foundation and H.J. Heinz Company
• Andrew Hoover, American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania
• George Kantor, Carnegie Mellon University and Girls of Steel
• Maxwell King, Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media
• Lou Rood, Belle Vernon Area School District and Pittsburgh Passion
• Hon. Gene Strassburger, Superior Court of Pennsylvania

Freddie Fu, for instance, is being recognized for bringing an unusual number of women into the sports medicine field in Pittsburgh. "Freddie has really broken down so many barriers for women in that field," says Arnet, calling the Steelers "singular in the NFL" for having physicians, therapists and others on their training, therapy and treatment teams. And while the national average is five-percent female faculty and residents in academic orthopedic surgery departments, the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, which Fu chairs, has 19 percent female faculty and 29 percent female residents.
 
Tanner Fitzgerald (son of County Executive Rich Fitzgerald) was one of the more surprising nominees, says Arnet, since he is still a Penn State undergraduate. He is president of Men Against Violence, which addresses the sexual assault of women, on PSU's main campus, and has worked at the Center For Women Students there. He also helped bring ”Walk-A-Mile in Her Shoes: The International Men’s March To Stop Rape, Sexual Assault, and Gender Violence” to Penn State. "We all know way too much about the culture of athletics here," says Arnet. "We'd like to see even more college-age men taking leadership roles."
 
Jim Abraham, who works with Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania, was also chosen for an award -- recognition of how important women's health issues remain, especially with family planning becoming such a subject of contention during the recent election. And former Steeler William Gay was chosen for his continued commitment to helping the Women’s Center and Shelter here. When Gay was 8, his mother died as a result of domestic violence, which has been his inspiration ever since. "There are way too many stories like his and he is really a brave and compassionate person," says Arnet.
 
A special honor is being given to Dr. Gary Cuccia, whose teenage daughter, Demi Brae Cuccia, was killed by her boyfriend in 2007. Cuccia has created protocols for teachers and administrators to learn the warning signs of escalating domestic violence situation, so they are able to take action. He also speaks at numerous school assemblies to educate teens on preventing future tragedies.
 
It was difficult picking these honorees among the 47 nominations, Arnet says. The Women and Girls Foundation has therefore created a book with all nominees' stories, which is available for purchase by contacting the foundation.
 
Says Arnet: "We hope everyone can be inspired by their stories."
 
Do Good:
Want another way to help women and girls? Get involved with the Women's Law Project -- a cause the Women & Girls Foundation is involved with too. They're looking for volunteers here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Heather Arnet, The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania

Jewish Family & Children's Service has been helping the Pittsburgh community for 75 years now, and the need for their many nonsectarian services has only gotten stronger in recent years.
 
"We're finding more people in need of direct assistance" today, from food and shelter to help paying utility bills, says President and CEO Aryeh Sherman. "And we're seeing more people struggling more, even though our employment rate is better than some areas. We have an aging population, so there is really a need to expand services."
 
Among the 8,200 the Service helps each year are refugees from Bhutan, who have been evicted from Nepal in its dispute with China. Pittsburgh, perhaps surprisingly, is one of the main cities where Bhutanese have been settling, at the rate of 500 a year.
 
"One of our goals is to help diversify the workforce in our region, especially by supporting immigration," says Sherman, whose agency began by helping to resettle Jewish refugees from the Holocaust and later brought immigrants from the former U.S.S.R. here. "It is our contribution toward diversifying our community. In a few years, it might be a new population."
 
Another major focus of the Service is serving the city's seniors. "Our goal is to help the elderly live independently and safely in their own homes or in the least restrictive environment possible," Sherman says. Their efforts are having a measurable effect. While seniors receiving Service help average 26 emergency-room visits per 100 clients each year, that's just half the national average, he says. And their clients' rate of hospital stays -- also 26 per 100 seniors per year -- is below the national average of 34 per 100. Only 2 percent of Service clients are admitted to skilled nursing facilities each year, versus nine percent of Medicare recipients in the U.S.
 
Some of the Service's other programs help to feed local residents through the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry, which distributes 240,000 pounds of food a year, and assist with adoption and foster care for 260 children and families each year. The newest program serves the growing population of job seekers through Work Able, which provides job placement and job readiness services.
 
Sherman knows that Jewish Family & Children's Service needs to reach out to southwestern Pennsylvania if it will be able to reach all who need its help in the future. Concludes Sherman: "We have to be more and more mobile and out in the community."
 
Do Good:
Want another way to help seniors? The Jewish Agency on Aging partners with the Jewish Family & Children's Service and is looking for volunteers here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Aryeh Sherman, Jewish Family & Children's Service

Spark's Kids+Creativity Network is ready to gather the troops, review its recent accomplishments and introduce new plans for growth -- including an attempt to establish only the third Hive program in the country, after New York and Chicago.
 
The Assembly will be Nov. 30, from 2 to 4 p.m. at The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and you can register here.
 
Spark, a program of The Sprout Fund, brings together and funds learning-program creation at the intersection of technology, media and the arts. Hive, says Spark spokesperson Ryan Coon, is developing into a national collection of regional learning networks supported by the MacArthur and Mozilla foundations. "It's a lot like Spark, in that it creates a supportive structure for different organizations working together" to create new learning opportunities for kids, Coon explains. Hives usually have the city's larger, more prominent kid-focused groups as members, such as libraries and museums, as members, as well as smaller organizations and individual researchers.
 
If Hive arrives, it will offer everything from new funding opportunities to fresh ways to spread the word about new learning ideas, focusing on middle- and high-school-age students and allowing Spark to go back to focusing on children ages 10 and below. The Hive would also likely attract new funding to the region.
 
Besides gathering member ideas for the Hive, the Kids+Creativity Network Assembly will feature other working sessions on future activities, including one that covers Connected Learning -- the idea that the three areas of children's lives (their social lives, their personal interests and their academics) connect and shouldn't be separated. In fact, says Coon, "Connected Learning is a way of creating an environment where kids are learning anywhere, anytime," and it is also one focus of the Hive.
 
Other talks at the event include speakers from the Museum's MAKEShop and from the Science Learning Activation Lab at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center.
 
The Assembly, concludes Coon, will create "recognition among the members of the Kids+Creativity Network of all we've accomplished over the past year and will reenergize the network as we begin to launch new activities in 2013."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Ryan Coon, Spark