diversity : For Good

This year's Girls Coalition Annual Conference on June 13 – dubbed "Girls Can Change the World!" – is all about engaging girls' voices and hearing what girls are doing to advocate for change, says Heather Mediate, program director for the Coalition.
 
It will highlight thriving girl-led initiatives, solutions to continuing issues for girls and ways to build the success of girl-serving organizations.
 
Partnering this year with The Ellis School as its host, the Coalition's conference will cover such topics as "Grassroots feminism in Pittsburgh," "Developing inclusive programming," new developments in Title IX (including Pennsylvania's recently enacted Equity in Interscholastic Athletics Disclosure Act, set to take effect in October) and the Hardy Girls, Healthy Women curriculum.
 
This curriculum, developed at Colby College in Maine, "is really about helping girls to build strong critical thinking skills," says Mediate. "A lot of it is media literacy, and helping the leaders of girls' groups deal with the problems they see all around them" – and take action. Chatham University and the local Girl Scouts of America are piloting the curriculum here.

The leader of the Philadelphia chapter of Black Girls RUN!, Deneen Young, will speak at the conference about this organization, which has 55,000 members nationwide but no Pittsburgh chapter yet, and promotes solutions to health risks in the black female community.
 
The Maikuru Project: Teen Mom Mentoring Study out of the University of Pittsburgh will also be featured. Maikuru aims to prevent repeated teens pregnancies, using young mothers or couples as mentors to provide role models in parenting, wellness and decision-making and get teen mothers connected with the resources they need.
 
The other major goal of the conference is to bring together organizations that share the Girls Coalitions' focus. Thus, the conference has sessions for local leaders on building strong organizations, training and using a dedicated volunteer force, using social media and other crucial topics.
 
"Let's start some of the work and learn what is working," says Mediate.
 
Writer: Marty Levine 
Source: Heather Mediate, Girls Coalition Southwestern Pennsylvania

"We're really excited about leveraging the Athena Awards to elevate the discussion of women and leadership in our region," says Beth Marcello, chair of the event's host committee and director of women’s business development at PNC.
 
The Greater Pittsburgh ATHENA Award, to be given on Sept. 30 this year, recognizes not only established women who are leaders, but through the ATHENA Young Professional Award honors an emerging leader age 35 or younger. While it's true that more American CEOS are female than ever, just 18 women – less than four percent – head Fortune 500 companies. So instead of simply calling for nominations, as Athena has done in the past, organizers are holding a special April 25 panel discussion and breakfast to kick off the nominating process this year, which ends June 28.
 
"Women in Leadership: The Male Point of View" features Robert Krizner (managing partner at KPMG), Daniel Roderick (president and CEO of Westinghouse Electric Company) and John Barbour (CEO, managing director and chairman of the board of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney). Tickets may be purchased for $25 here before April 22. The panel will be moderated by Bill Flanagan, Allegheny Conference executive vice president for corporate relations and host of "Our Region's Business" on WPXI.
 
"We wanted a strong diversity in terms of age and experience and men who have opinions and a story to share," says Marcello of the panelists. "These are all companies that are advancing women's leadership. These men are leaders in our community. Other leaders in the community in general value what they say." Thus, participants will have the chance for "a real program that explores women's leadership in our region, to talk about their perspectives, what their companies are doing and what their challenges are for our region."

To those who question why a male perspective is needed -- don't men always chime in, even if no one asks them? -- "hopefully we're going to get the views of the progressive men," Marcello says. "From a corporate perspective, women are only going to advance when men and women work together.
 
"We're trying to reach as many people as possible to stimulate the discussion and to get people thinking about the women in leadership in their companies who should be nominated for an Athena Award," she adds. "Hopefully the pool of our Athena nominees will really reflect the quality of who we have here."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Beth Marcello, The Greater Pittsburgh ATHENA Award

What began for Anwan Wesley with the creation of Fatherhood magazine in Pittsburgh in 2006 for young and expecting urban fathers has evolved into a nonprofit called the Street Ministry Institute, reaching an increasing number of fathers and their kids in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.
 
"We're trying to find innovative ways to get these men involved and stay involved," says Wesley, of East Liberty. "There are stereotypes of how fathers should be, and some of the men shy away from them, thinking it will make them look weak. A lot of these guys were in need of encouragement. That's what the magazine was always for -- to open people up."
 
Many of Wesley's Institute efforts use sports as the both the draw and the model for the father/son relationship. "When the men see their kids excelling at athletics, they want to be a part of it," he says. "That's a bridge they can cross. Then we try to transfer that into the schools."
 
Fathers and sons can join in his Steel City Thunder basketball teams for 3rd and 4th graders, 5th and 6th graders and 7th and 8th graders, as well as NFL Youth Flag Football for 2nd-12th grades and a baseball program as well. The fathers and team coaches also get involved in their children's school at the same time -- as a school coach should, he says.
 
Club D.A.D. (Doing it All Day) in the schools uses sports to encourage academic achievement. "My big thing is being accountable for what you learn -- because when game day comes you're going to have to [use] it," Wesley says.

"The same accountability we transfer over to schools," with fathers visiting classrooms or participating in parent-teacher conferences. "The presence of the father in the classroom is going to make the difference," because he can act as a kind of classroom coach. "If I show up in school and expect you to be doing this and this and you're not doing it, there are going to be consequences. Kids respond like they do on the basketball court -- but at the end of the day, they see their value rise, because their teachers are sending home good reports."
 
The Institute is also working with Homewood Renaissance Association on a sports-themed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program, teaching sports-themed STEM academics at the African American Music Institute and the YMCA in Homewood. "We're trying to open our kids' eyes to other opportunities around sports," he explains, such as being a sports lawyer, doctor, trainer or agent.
 
The Institute also has an arts initiative and donates socks each December to a nursing home in Homewood. On Father's Day, June 16, it will hold its largest annual program, a Father's Day Cookout at Mellon for the seventh year.
 
"There are other programs we will unveil in the coming months to rebuild the relationship between the child and the father," Wesley says. "We can't be everything to the kids if the parents are acting [badly]. There's a lot of broken homes. The only way to fix that is to get to the common ground -- the kid and his best interest."
 
He also hopes the cookout will be the beginning of his own push against violence in the community. "There's been too much gun violence," he says. "The violence [prevention], it starts with us. If we're not there, that's when violence and chaos consume the family. If you're quiet, it's like you're being held hostage by your own people."
 
In the end, it's Wesley's three sons who keep him dedicated to this cause, he says. "I see a lot of potential in them. I know their potential won't be realized if I don't do what I've got to do and make a path for them. Knowing that they don't know how great they are makes me go harder.
 
"I've got a daughter on the way," he adds, "and I believe the Lord is going to take me to another level."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Anwan Wesley, Street Ministry Institute

The Education Partnership's three-year effort to give school supplies to schools where students lack even the basics is more necessary than ever.
 
"We're seeing kids coming to school with nothing," says the Partnership's Program Manager Andrea Zimmer, who oversees the free school-supply application process. "It's really setting them apart from their peers [socially] and putting them at a disadvantage compared to their peers."
 
From pens, pencils, glue sticks and notebooks and to reams of copy paper, the free-supply list is large, and it can be replenished once during the year. At schools' requests, the Partnership has also supplied such things as tee shirts, granola bars (with the help of General Mills and Giant Eagle) and incentive items for students, such as art supplies.
 
"At the end of this year's program, we'll have distributed 150,000 pencils," notes Zimmer. "I think that shows both the impact of this program and the need in the schools."
 
Applications for the 2013-14 school year are now available here. Schools in Allegheny and four surrounding counties -- Beaver, Butler, Washington, Westmoreland -- are eligible if at least 70 percent of their students receive a free or reduced-price lunch. That covers 100 schools in the five-county region, Zimmer says. Previous recipients are still eligible, but they must apply again. The deadline is midnight on March 22.
 
The Partnership will notify 20 selected schools in June and distribute the student supplies during an in-school distribution event in December.
 
"If a student's parent cannot afford to provide a lunch, it's unlikely that they will be able to provide all the school supplies that are necessary," Zimmer adds. Teachers on average spend $1,200 a year to supply their own classrooms and students, but that's an unsustainable situation. "We're trying to step in there and fill in that gap. And we're hearing very great results."  Children can concentrate on schoolwork without wondering how they can correct their notes or a test answer without an eraser, she says.
 
She urges schools that aren't familiar with the program to stop in to the Partnership office to learn more, or to call her at 412-922-6500. The group accepts donations, too, she adds.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Andrea Zimmer, The Education Partnership

At 22 years old, just eight months out of Duquesne University, Maura Rodgers may be the youngest applicant to give a pitch to the Social Venture Partners-Pittsburgh (SVP) and win their annual Fast Pitch event, which coaches area nonprofits on telling their story effectively and rewards the best ones.
 
But the pitchers whom Rodgers helps in her own nonprofit are younger still, and even more impressive, she believes.
 
Rodgers is the executive director and only employee of The Miracle League of the South Hills, which runs baseball leagues that pair mainly kids (but also adults) with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. The kids without disabilities may run or hit for their baseball buddies, or they may just cheer them on. But both groups learn important lessons while having fun and making friends.
 
"What's innovative about the Miracle League is that we're giving kids with special needs the chance to become teachers and teach their peers about falling down and getting back up again… The Miracle League is changing our social fabric."
 
Her $20,000-prize winning message, she says, was not about why her group needs the money but about what the Miracle League is doing for the community and how the community can get involved.
 
After just a year and a half in existence, the South Hills League (there are two others in Pittsburgh) has 150 kids as young as age five on their Upper St. Clair field, and they are always looking for more players and buddies. "We're still growing and learning and SVP was certainly invaluable in that process."
 
The SVP gave all competing nonprofits seven weeks of coaching about everything from fundraising to sharing their story with a larger audience. "Very often it's hard to see what is appealing about your message," says Rodgers, "and what really connects with people in your community, because you're so close to your organization."
             
Indeed, says Elizabeth Visnic, director of SVP-Pittsburgh, the seven weeks of training is more important in the end than the prizes. The money and the time are investments by SVP's partners, working toward the group's goal of "growing philanthropists and strengthening nonprofits. Our focus on capacity building for the nonprofits was a step deeper" this year. The coaches, she says, helped the presenters become "incredibly inventive and articulate."
           
Nonetheless, the money certainly helps. Winners were chosen based on the innovation of their programs, their programs' impact or potential impact and their presentations' effectiveness. "This year it was anybody's to take," Visnic says of the first-place award. "Everybody was amazing."
 
SVP offered more prizes this year, including second place to Strong Women Strong Girls, the Coaches’ Prize to The Saxifrage School, and the SVP Kids Prize to Camp COPES. The SVP Kids are SVP partners' children who are learning about philanthropy as well; the prize, given for the first time year, came from money Kids' group graduates pooled by themselves. Finalists Beverly’s Birthdays and Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center also $500 prizes. Additional capacity prizes were awarded from the three judges and their organizations,including Pop City.
 
SVP gained three new partners through the event as well, who immediately gave $1,000 prizes of their own.
 
The Miracle League's award money, Rodgers says, will help them build a playground next to their field. It will contain adaptive features devised from working with special-needs professionals, parents and kids. "It's a place designed for development and growth and interaction with all children," she says. "Hopefully it will be unlike anything anyone in our area has seen before."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Maura Rodgers; Elizabeth Visnic, Social Venture Partners-Pittsburgh 

WQED has begun a concerted effort to collect hundreds of stories of African-American men and boys talking about what they do to make a difference in their communities.
 
Thanks to a $390,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments, the media company is partnering with Black Male Engagement (BMe), which has already piloted this story-collection project in Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore.
 
The idea behind the project, says Darryl Ford Williams, WQED's vice president of content, is to hear in particular from black men who are involved in community service, as well as those who are doing things "on a smaller scale. Is there one person in the community, one kid on the street you're helping keep up with their homework?" Do their activities as a father, coach, Sunday School teacher or neighbor change their community or the lives of one person in a notable way?
 
Such positive activities are "never reflected in the media," Williams says, which mostly features African-American men when they are involved in crime, sports or entertainment. BMe will embody "the idea of improving the self-image in the African-American community and the way in the larger community we know, accept and relate to each other."
 
BME will continue the effort begun by WQED and the Endowments last year with its “African American Men and Boys: Portrayal and Perception” initiative, which included a televised town-hall meeting and four documentaries portraying African-American entrepreneurship, musical forms and media images.
 
The BMe project will also result in documentaries and a town-hall discussion this spring. Participants can upload their stories through BMe's online portal. WQED will also send out street teams to collect stories and hold BMe Days at local barbershops, churches and community organizations. Each story, 1-4 minutes long, will be collected on video, capturing each person's experience serving their community and their hopes are for its future.
 
"Ultimately, the goal is to connect people here in Pittsburgh with people in other BMe cities," Williams says. "How can they connect what they are doing in the community with what people are doing in Detroit? We hope to leverage the power of numbers."
 
Do Good:
Looking for additional places to aid the local African-American community? Connect with PACE: The Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Darryl Ford Williams, WQED

When Duquesne University basketball player Chuck Cooper Jr., the first African American drafted into the NBA, emerged from his six-year professional career in 1956, he had a tough time finding good work, says Chuck Cooper Foundation Chairman of the Board Zak Thomas. Advice he received to attend graduate school was the key, Thomas says.

After Cooper earned his master’s degree in social work from the University of Minnesota in 1961, he began a life of public service:  first as parks and recreation director for the City of Pittsburgh, then with PNC as the urban affairs officer, leading affirmative action and community development programs.
 
That's why the Cooper Foundation just awarded its first graduate scholarships to five individuals to study locally and get ahead. Thomas says he is surprised "just how low the numbers have been and continue to be at the graduate level for diversity students" --  six percent in the 1960s and just 11 percent today.
 
The foundation at first was going to award a single scholarship based on the applicants' academic excellence and community work.
 
Unable to decide among the excellent candidates, the foundation increased its awards to five, including a $5,000 scholarship from PNC Bank to Rufus Burnett, Jr. to attend the McAnulty Graduate School of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University. Burnett intends to use his graduate degree to prepare minority youth for meaningful careers in in social science and the humanities. Previously, he did humanitarian work in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and ran an afterschool program for minority students.
 
The other scholarship winners, all of whom will study at Duquesne, are:

• Juel Smith, $3,000 to study in the School of Education: Smith, already a working scientist, now hopes to help minority studies pursue the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines;
• Florence St. Jean, $1,000 to study in the School of Education: St. Jean has performed humanitarian work in Haiti and following Superstorm Sandy and wants to lead and teach counseling with emphasis on the disenfranchised;
• Michelle Outcalt, $1,000 to study in the School of Leadership and Professional Advancement: Outcalt is a determined single mother whose daughter will also be attending college in the fall;
• Candice Aston, $1,000 to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy: Aston, the first member of her family to attend college, hopes to start a non-profit organization to assist single mothers pursuing their education.

The foundation's hope, says Thomas, is to expand the scholarships in future years to students across the nation.
 
"The one commitment that they've all made -- and that's why we chose them," he concludes, "is giving back to the community. The scholarships we're giving today will be returned many times in the future by the acts of these people."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Zak Thomas, Chuck Cooper Foundation

After accumulating 10 years of data about wages and benefits in local nonprofits, Peggy Outon would like to know "why in the social-justice sector we are seeing larger pay gaps than the one that prompted President Obama to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Act."
 
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was designed to close the wage gap between men and women working in businesses nationally. While in 2002, women working for Pittsburgh-area nonprofits made 67 cents for every dollar men made. In 2012 they make only 74 cents on the dollar -- an improvement of just seven cents in a decade. Outon, as executive director of the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University, which conducts the survey, notes that "there is a true pay equity issue in southwestern Pennsylvania, and it extends not just to the senior management of these organizations but all through the organizations. Over time, the survey has served sort of like a canary in a coalmine."
 
The Bayer Center is now working with Eden Hall Foundation and Bayer USA Foundation to do deeper research on hundreds of IRS nonprofit forms, checking on the pay gap in all such local organizations, since participation in the survey is voluntary and doesn't cover all groups. Following this research, she reports, "the wage and benefits survey results have been validated."
 
Their big project is called 74 percent, because women make up nearly 74 percent of the nonprofit workforce. Thus, of 300,000 nonprofit employees, 225,000 are women. "Very few are being paid excessively, so we have concern for men's lives in this as well," Outon says. Organizations must ask themselves, "'Are people being treated fairly in your organization? How do you know you are paying the right salary?' All too often, salary-setting at nonprofits has appeared out of the air."
 
Other findings of the survey include: Sixty-four percent of nonprofit leaders are women and 36 percent are men. Among total employees, 73 percent are women and 27 percent are men. And the amount of health-care premiums paid by organizations has dropped from 59 percent in 2002 to 37 percent today.
 
The survey, Outon adds, will also let nonprofits benchmark their leaders' salaries against other groups, as the IRS has been requiring for the past several years.
 
"I am under no illusion that there is a pot of money out there waiting to rain down on the people who work in the nonprofit sector," she says. However, she concludes, "more equity" is needed among the organizations that most often push for equity in other areas of life.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Peggy Outon, Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management

Many nonprofits are offering service opportunities and celebrations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21. Here's a brief guide to just some of the available activities:
 

• East Liberty's Union Project is holding a free community meal and meeting "about Dr. King's dream, how we pursue it, and how we are living it today." This year's location is Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 250 N. Highland Avenue, 4-7 p.m., sponsored by the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development.

 

• Pittsburgh Cares and PUMP are collaborating on Volunteer Speed Dating to match those 21 or older with local nonprofits that can really use volunteers' skills, time and know-how. The event will take place on Jan. 16, 6-8 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District; free pre-registration is recommended, because it's $5 at the door.

 

• Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity are asking you to volunteer at the food bank in honor of King and of President Barack Obama's inauguration that day. Register here to participate.

 

• The Student Conservation Association and Venture Outdoors are partnering for a free Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the Park from 1-4 p.m. on MLK Day in Schenley Park, featuring refreshments, ice skating, snowshoeing, arts and crafts  and more.

 

• Carnegie Mellon University has a day of festivities and forums. It begins with a School of Drama tribute at 12:30 p.m. and includes programs by the Arts Greenhouse and the Children's School, a campus "Big Questions" interactive session on "What are you doing for others?" and a keynote address and reception featuring Binta Brown -- described as a "political advisor, humanitarian, award-winning corporate attorney and World Economic Forum global leader" -- at 5 p.m. in the Rangos Ballroom of the University Center.

 

• The University of Pittsburgh's week of celebration, called "Becoming a Just Community," begins with an interfaith service full of music, dance and spoken-word performances by students from Pitt and elsewhere on Jan. 18, 7-8 p.m. at the Heinz Memorial Chapel. Included in the week are service projects for Pitt students on MLK Day, a social-justice symposium about faith and spirituality on campus and a lecture by famed activist Angela Davis, now a University of California at Santa Cruz Distinguished Professor Emerita (both on Jan. 24).

 
Writer: Marty Levine

Betty Hill has been puzzled when local schools and foundations report that their anti-bullying programs are working, yet she still hears so often from LGBT students that they're being bullied.
 
"There's something wrong here," says Hill, director of Persad, which runs many programs for LGBT youth. "There's a disconnect that [schools] are not seeing. We want to get people involved and we want to get solutions. We can't just leave behind this whole group of LGBT kids who are not benefitting" from local anti-bullying efforts.
 
That's why Persad is teaming with local chapters of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and other organizations to hold a Safe Schools Summit -- the first of a three-part effort to bring local resources to bear on this continuing problem. The summit will be held in the Lexus Club at PNC Park on Jan. 16.
 
Nationally, GLSEN has been studying the school climate for LGBT kids for two decades. Their latest survey from 2011, just released, found that 90 percent of LGBT students say they have been verbally harassed, 39 percent physically harassed and 18 percent assaulted in the previous year due to their sexual orientation. Sixty percent report that they feel unsafe in school.
 
Bringing local experts on LGBT issues together with educators will attempt to bridge the gap between general anti-bullying approaches and the needs of LGBT youth. Part of the effort will include conducting the first comprehensive research on the local school climate.
 
The summit will feature national speakers from the Trevor Project (an LGBT youth suicide-prevention hotline), GLSEN, and PFLAG, as well as local school bullying research findings presented by Laura Crothers and Jered Kolbert of Duquesne University.
 
Apparently, says Hill, "kids do not label the negative things done against gay kids as bullying. So they don't use their anti-bullying skills because they don't see the anti-gay things as bullying." Finding out why this goes on, and what to do about it, is the goal of the Summit, whose third part she expects to be later this year. It will include a series of a focus groups with area students, parents, educators, and LGBT community-service groups to discuss local research and ways to proceed from here.
 
Do Good:
Looking for another way to help LGBT youth? Volunteer at the local Gay and Lesbian Community Center.
 
Writer: Marty Levine 
Source: Betty Hill, Persad

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 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

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

"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