Category: Featured

Partnership with local foundation offers fiscal sponsorship support for community initiatives

Posted on by Alyse Horn

Above: Leon Ford (left), co-founder of The Hear Foundation, and Sergeant Tiffany Kline-Costa (right), Pittsburgh Police Bureau of Community Engagement Office, at an event in May announcing microgrant recipients for the second round of funding from The Hear Foundation. (Photo courtesy of The Hear Foundation.)

Twice a month during the school year, Sergeant Tiffany Kline-Costa and Officer Jonathan Bradford interact with 600 students throughout six Pittsburgh Public Schools with Youth Connections, a project of the Pittsburgh Police Community Engagement Office.

Youth Connections grants officers the opportunity to talk with 9th grade Civics students, share information about how to safely interact with police, and build relationships with each class.

Kline-Costa said they intercept a lot of questions from students about their experiences as police officers, a common first question being, “Do you like donuts?”

“That is always asked,” Kline-Costa said with a laugh. “Once they loosen up a little bit and get to know us, they’re really interested in police work and what we do.”

Pittsburgh Public School students during an event with the Pittsburgh Police Bureau of Community Engagement Office.

In May, Youth Connections was one of 15 local nonprofits that received a community microgrant from The Hear Foundation, the first and only nonprofit in Pittsburgh dedicated exclusively to collaborating with community leaders, Pittsburgh Police, residents and the City to create a safe, thriving community for all. 

Bradford said the funding will be used to provide food and supplies for the program to help create a positive space for relationship building. 

“We try to change the dynamic of police in the community and break that barrier while teaching them how to interact with law enforcement and to not be fearful of the police,” Bradford said.

The Hear Foundation was co-founded by Leon Ford and former Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert. In 2012, Ford was shot by a Pittsburgh police officer five times and paralyzed during a traffic stop after being mistaken for someone else. The experience led him to become an advocate for social justice, police reform and reconciliation between police and community. When he and Schubert met in 2020, their conversations around creating safe, thriving communities led them to establish the nonprofit.

“We’re a new organization and hadn’t run an open grantmaking round before, but it’s a core part of our mission,” said Kamal Nigam, executive director of The Hear Foundation. “We formed a partnership with New Sun Rising to facilitate our grant process because of their expertise in this area and knowing how to interact with grassroots leaders.”

The awarded grants will support work being done in Pittsburgh neighborhoods to foster strong, positive relationships between Pittsburgh Police and local residents; create safe communities; and bring opportunities for healing and support to those impacted by trauma and violence. 

Valerie Dixon, founder of Prevent Another Crime Today.

Youth Connections and Prevent Another Crime Today (P.A.C.T.), which also accepted a community microgrant, are receiving fiscal sponsorship through New Sun Rising. Valerie Dixon, founder of P.A.C.T., said the experience so far has been positive and she’s thankful for the connection.

“It’s truly a plus and I like [New Sun Rising] approach,” Dixon said. “I feel very confident of their support moving forward.” 

Dixon created P.A.C.T. after her son, Robert Dixon, was murdered in 2001. Separate from the police investigation, she began her own community outreach to find information on the person who killed her son and through that she connected with other mothers who were experiencing the same turmoil. To raise awareness, she created a website, secured billboard space, and received funding to reward anyone who could provide information to her or other families about who killed their loved ones.

The initiative has grown into a support system for people who have lost family and friends to violence. The community microgrant from The Hear Foundation will support P.A.C.T. ‘s Family Action Network (F.A.N.), which works to honor, support, educate, and guide families impacted by homicides. Families who wish to share their stories and experiences with youth programs, schools, community centers, and more can receive training to provide audiences with a clear picture of what trauma looks like and how crime affects individuals, families, and communities. 

“They are humbled to know that there is an outlet and a platform for them to speak [about their trauma] and learn what to say,” Dixon said. “They’re able to connect with families going through the same things, and there is camaraderie in knowing that they aren’t alone on this journey. They know it may not solve the case, but it gets them involved and pulled out of the darkness.”

If you would like to learn more about The Hear Foundation and how to support their mission, contact hello@hearfoundation.com.

 

New Sun Rising’s partnership with The Hear Foundation is the latest example of their Community Grantmaking Support Service, where NSR’s agile approach is designed to meet the unique needs of donors and foundations who want to offer more responsive and flexible grants, but do not presently have the infrastructure to administer themselves. Past Community Grantmaking Support Service programs have included Arts Equity Reimagined: Collective Action, One Northside Mini-grants & Rapid Response Funds, COVID Crisis Mitigation Response, and the Transformative Teaching Artist Awards.

Vibrancy Index illustrates healthcare disparities among racial, ethnic groups in Southwestern PA

Posted on by Alyse Horn

Since 2014, thousands of civil lawsuits have been filed against four U.S. companies that produced prescription opioids, which local and state governments say fueled the ongoing opioid crisis throughout the country for decades. 

A settlement was reached in 2022 for $26 billion and Pennsylvania will receive more than $1 billion, which is intended to fund opioid remediation programs throughout the state. 

According to Spotlight PA, “For several years, Pennsylvania has had one of the country’s highest drug overdose death rates. In 2021, Pennsylvania had 5,350 fatal drug overdoses, and 78% of them involved fentanyl, state data shows.”

Deaths caused by drug and alcohol overdoses, suicide, or liver failure are known as “deaths of despair.” This cause of death in Allegheny County is 22.4% higher than the Pennsylvania average and 45.1% higher than the national average. 

According to data collected through New Sun Rising’s Vibrancy Index, the Black Community makes up 13% of the population in Allegheny County, but suffers 29% of overdose deaths in the area. 

“It starts off as recreational, as a means of escape from the everyday stress of just living life on life’s terms,” said Denise Zellous, director of Zellous Hope Project. “Living with generational poverty and getting up to another day of surviving versus living, it’s easy to get entrapped in something that gives you relief and drugs is something that does.”

  

Zellous Hope is based in McKees Rocks and provides a bridge over the holes in the road to better living by working with existing organizations to assist with what people say they need.

The high percentage of deaths of despair and the disproportionate effects of overdose deaths in Black Communities contribute to a lack of progress on Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being and lowers our region’s overall Vibrancy Index score. There are a total of 17 SDG’s, which were created globally as a call to action to raise the quality of life for all people and preserve the future of our planet.

Analysis shows Allegheny County communities that fall within the lowest 20% for Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3) also rank lower for No Poverty (SDG 1), Zero Hunger (SDG 2), and Life on Land (SDG 15). Furthermore, these communities tend to be communities of color, with the non-white population being 2.7x higher in communities with the lowest health index score.

In 2021, 94.6% of county residents had health insurance, which is higher than the state and national average, but that doesn’t always equal adequate support. Zellous said most of the safety nets that are accessible for those who need help have holes where people can slip through, or don’t cover the basic needs necessary to stabilize an individual. And it is not only the affected residents who are impacted by these statistics.

Community leaders working with those who suffer from generational trauma or addiction can become burnt out physically and emotionally. This kind of exhaustion only became exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and recognizing the lack of support for leaders in the area, the Nonprofit Resilience Program was developed through conversations between New Sun Rising, Neighborhood Allies, B.O.S.S Consulting, and other members of The Partnership Network who were concerned about the retention of nonprofit leaders.

“You talk about professional boundaries, but you’re human,” Zellous said. “It really takes a toll on you, because you can’t help but be emotionally moved by the fact that for every person you help, there are four to five more that you can’t reach.”

“And not only are you fighting to make a difference, but you’ve got policies in place that make it almost impossible to do that, because you’re fighting against laws that are outdated and counterintuitive to what it is that you’re trying to do.”

To learn more about how funds from the opioid lawsuit settlements will be distributed and to voice your opinions in the decision making, click here.  

New Sun Rising supports multiple projects and organizations through our fiscal sponsorship program that are elevating the health and well-being of Allegheny County, including: Pittsburgh Bridges OCD, Unshakeable Motherhood, Melanin Mommies, Flourish Ed, Birth Your Way, Visible Hands, and Grow Sto-Rox. 

This Power in Numbers data story is part of New Sun Rising’s commitment to using data, technology, organizing, communication, and creativity to help people advocate for the future they envision. Learn more about the Power in Numbers initiative and access the Vibrancy Portal platform. Is there something that you would like to share about health and well-being in your community? Contribute to the conversation through the Community Voice feedback form.

The Vibrancy Index helps people to understand conditions in their community through 50 institutional data points.  The VI also generates sub-indices in Culture, Sustainability, Opportunity, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).  The Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3) Index includes five different indicators such as rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, substance abuse and addiction, and air quality. 

Nonprofits & Artists collaborate to launch Creative Advocacy Playbook

Posted on by Scott Wolovich

Scattered across Southwestern PA, nonprofits, educational institutions, religious organizations, foundations, activists and more are working toward asserting greater agency over the future of their communities. Since the fall of the steel industry, community leaders have regularly lamented regional division as well as a misaligned direction for the future, making many residents of the region uncertain of how to formulate effective, sustainable change. That’s where creative advocacy comes into play.

On March 30, New Sun Rising and RiverWise announced the release of the Creative Advocacy Playbook, a dynamic in-depth resource that provides adaptive, evolving and practically applicable tools for practitioners of community-focused work. Creative advocates are committed to understanding, engaging and transforming mindsets in ways that produce greater agency and transforming mindsets in ways that produce greater agency and more vibrancy in their community.

The Playbook was introduced during the Ignite Creative Advocacy workshop, where leaders received information about the concepts and strategies of creative advocacy, individual mentoring from artists and advisors on campaign plan development, and participated in a pitch competition where they shared their campaign plans with a panel of judges. Three creative advocacy campaigns were then selected to each receive a $5,000 grant and three months of technical assistance to support the implementation of their plan.

The Creative Advocacy initiative is a partnership between New Sun Rising and RiverWise to help build community capacity and power across Allegheny and Beaver counties. The development of the Playbook was supported by a diverse team of Creative Advisors, along with the research and design support of Trailblaze Creative and Collaborative Craft.

“Although community leaders are increasingly aware that their communities are missing out on opportunities, they often do not know how to make a public case for something different,” said Daniel Rossi-Keen, executive director of RiverWise. “The Creative Advocacy Playbook helps leaders develop effective strategies for communicating what they want to see come alive in their communities.”

This form of advocacy is a public and intentional form of engagement that employs artistic practice to disrupt prevailing narratives and strengthen community movement toward an identified goal. Creatives — artists, writers, artisans, performers, documentarians, and more use their skills to expose, explore, and elevate a specific issue, all while inviting others to think critically, ask questions, and find their own way to be active participants in that movement.

“Creatives help you dig a little bit deeper into seeing things in their natural state, answering questions with people that are going through the issues, seeing their surroundings and their environment, being able to see their actual emotion as opposed to it being scripted, or acted out or reimagined in some way,” said Jay Manning, otherwise known as JM the Poet, who serves as a creative advocacy advisor.

When undertaken intentionally and deployed wisely, creative advocacy can help communities become better informed, inspired, connected, mobilized, and resourced to realize their shared vision for the future. RiverWise used creative advocacy during a 30-day social media campaign in September 2022 to raise awareness of a bridge and trail project, which includes transforming Black’s Run Bridge, an historic bridge that crosses Route 51 between Monaca and West Aliquippa.

Most recently, RiverWise and New Sun Rising together produced “Boom & Bust,” a documentary following a handful of community leaders from Beaver and Allegheny counties who, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, took a trip to Louisiana’s chemical corridor to learn from locals about the impact of petrochemicals. The film poses questions about the future health and vibrancy of Beaver County in the wake of Shell opening its ethane cracker plant in Potter Township. Beyond Rust, an artists’ response to industrial development in Beaver County, will take place on April 21st from 7-9PM and kick off an ongoing campaign.

Creative advocacy is meant to engage a wider group of people in dialogue and provide opportunities for them to contribute to the future that they envision. Using creative and innovative techniques can equip residents to be active participants in moving their region forward. New Sun Rising helped communities advocate for a just use of vacant property through the Ground Truthing project led by Grounded Strategies. The alternative future expressed in the campaign video was envisioned by Homewood residents, and produced by artists Marlon Gist and Christopher Padgett, owner of Human City Creative.

“If we are to overcome the economic, social, and environmental issues of our time, we must find new ways to inspire more people to take action,” said Scott Wolovich, executive director of New Sun Rising. “Our hope is that people will use the resources in this playbook to bring community leaders and creatives together and mobilize people towards shared goals.”

The Creative Advocacy Playbook combines theory and practice to help community organizations de-risk their commitment to and investment in advocacy efforts. It explains the who, what, when, where, why, and how of building a campaign. The playbook includes 17 worksheets that can be adapted, used individually, or together as part of a sophisticated campaign to guide readers through the creative advocacy process.

Read + Download the Playbook

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New Sun Rising supports the people building vibrant communities through culture, sustainability, and opportunity. They provide capacity building, accessible funding, data, and creative advocacy to help nonprofits, social enterprises, and collaboratives lead and benefit from the future they envision.

RiverWise is a nonprofit organization working to organize community power and voice so that residents of Beaver County can create the kinds of communities in which they wish to live,

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Beaver County residents utilize Innovate program to formalize entrepreneurial dreams

Posted on by Alyse Horn

Above: The second cohort of the Innovate program during a showcase in November 2022. Photo by Akyera Thompson. To view more photos from the event, click here.

During Christina Leeman’s time as a social worker, she became highly aware of the lack of affordable housing in Aliquippa.

According to the Vibrancy Index, there are 9,238 residents in the community and 56 percent of residents are homeowners compared to 71 percent in Beaver County.

“I never realized the problem and how hard it was to find safe housing,” Leeman said. “It was really put on my heart to pursue this, then Covid happened. But now doors are opening and now is the time.”

In November of last year, Leeman completed the Innovate program to help formalize her business Unique Grace Properties, which aims to connect rent burdened families with safe and affordable housing so they can thrive. The three month cohort is for early stage entrepreneurs with the goal of launching leaders in the direction of their dreams. 

Greenhouse Lab hosts Innovate, and Leeman learned about the program from its Executive Director John Jordan. 

“Innovate is specifically designed for people who are either starting new businesses and nonprofits, or who desire to get more serious about a side hustle they’ve been operating,” Jordan said.

Leeman currently has one house she and her husband are fixing up to rent with the vision of acquiring four more houses over the next two years. Through her involvement with Innovate, she was able to work individually with a coach who helped her hone in her business plan, and in group sessions she could talk through her ideas with the other 12 participants to get feedback.

Melissa A. Rhines during the November showcase presenting her business, Broken in2 Beautiful. Photo by Akyera Thompson.

Ferdinando Turkovich was in the latest cohort with Leeman for his business Crossroads Craftsmens Shoppe. He said the six group sessions and one-on-one coaching sessions worked out perfectly with his schedule and provided him with the direction he needed.

“Innovate helped me synthesize my dream and make it something more tangible,” Turkovich said. “I was able to process the information in my head in such a way that allowed me to put it on paper and see it as something that is obtainable instead of something that, in the mindspace, dies on the cutting board.”

Crossroads Craftsmens Shoppe is a custom woodworking shop with the goal to provide heirloom quality wood products at affordable prices, but the ultimate goal is to create a makerspace that provides access to professional tools, advice, and “allow individuals to explore their healing through tactile activities.”

Turkovich would like to work with adolescent kids who’ve experienced trauma and provide them with coping mechanisms through woodworking. Eventually, he would like to add metal fabrication and auto-body repair to the shoppe. 

“Those are the three main areas that if you learn one of those trades you are most likely to be successful, and when I say successful, I mean it’s something that you can rely on that ultimately gives you a [profession] and a way to escape the things that are going on around you in a healthy way,” Turkovich said. 

The Innovate program also included: Michelle M. Gabriel, Good Noodle Neighborhood; Stephanie Mason, Mason’s Delectable Delights; Karyn Stuart, The Sanctuary; Jamyra Harrell, Traveling Arrows; Melissa A. Rhines, Broken in2 Beautiful; Chynna Wilcox, The Table ESL Center; Lakeshia Tucker, B3 Women’s Empowerment Community; Erik Kerr, Getting Ahead Beaver County; Maximilian Elliot, The Lemonaide Lab; Marquay Priest, Priest Cleaning Solutions; Troi Moon, Moonlight Hair Co.

When Jordan co-founded Greenhouse Lab in 2020, he wanted to create a social impact incubator to help people start new businesses and nonprofits that would “revive and renew” the Aliquippa community. They offer five different services to leaders through a platform that builds on relational, practical experiences of the grassroots leaders in the area: strategic coaching, relevant trainings, marketing support, shared workspace, and financial management. 

Innovate is one of the two main programs offered by Greenhouse Lab, the second being Cultivate, which is designed for Innovate participants to continue receiving support as they implement their plans and launch their initiatives. Jordan said the development of these programs was largely based on materials from New Sun Rising’s Launch Incubator curriculum. 

“NSR said ‘Here is our stuff, adapt it if you need to,’” Jordan said. “Scott [Wolovich] and I have met pretty regularly for him to coach me through this and make sure we are adapting stuff well. I really value his input into the process and helping me think through things differently.”

The first session of Innovate was held in the early months of 2022 with seven participants, and the second cohort nearly doubled in size with 13 participants. The third cohort will begin February 2023 with a cap of 10-12 participants.

Jordan said the program is able to work at the capacity of how many coaches are available for the number of participants, which is volunteer based. When the second cohort concluded in November 2022, the program held a showcase for participants to present their full-formed ideas. 

“A lot of the coaches left saying, ‘If we could just bottle up that showcase and give that to people [to hold on to].’ It was a really cool night to experience what these folks represent in our community and what they’re bringing to our city and the cities around us,” Jordan said.

If you’d like to volunteer as a coach for the Innovate program, email john.jordan@greenhouselab.org.

If you’d like to learn more and support Unique Grace Properties, email celeeman75@gmail.com. For Crossroads Craftsmens Shoppe, email turkannacreations@gmail.com.

Judi Costanza hired as Director of Vibrancy Funds at New Sun Rising

Posted on by Alyse Horn

New Sun Rising is happy to announce that Judi Costanza has been hired as the Director of Vibrancy Funds for the organization. 

In this role, Judi is making funding more accessible to the people and communities supported by NSR through fiscal sponsorship and programs that offer grant funding, loans, and awards. 

“As my learning about NSR continues to deepen, the idea that [we] are intersecting community development, triple bottom line fundamentals, and proven principles of business and product design is amazing,” Judi said. “The more I immerse myself in NSR, the more it feels like real change at the neighborhood level – at scale, is possible.”  

Over the course of her 20 year career with a New York based start-up, Judi accumulated a Swiss Army Knife collection of skills and held a wide range of positions at the company. As the pandemic set in, she felt it was time to honor a voice from within and focus on the compelling need for environmental and societal change. For her next venture, her list of criteria included: a collaborative team working locally, alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, and to help channel funds from larger foundations into grassroots projects.

“Accessible financial capital is a key ingredient to building vibrant communities. Unfortunately, many change makers have difficulty securing and managing resources to fuel their efforts,” said Scott Wolovich, Executive Director of NSR. “Judi’s experience, creativity, and heart will greatly enhance our ability to support them through the Vibrancy Funds.”

Judi said she is excited to serve, learn, and help NSR grow internally so the organization can expand externally through partnerships with communities, and where she can continue learning and growing as a human.

“Previously when I thought about how real societal change takes place, I believed it started with fixing our systems. Somewhere along the way, that flipped for me,” Judi said. “The power of the people is the necessary force to lead change and I believe that starts from the ground up.”

Funding to establish the Director of Vibrancy Funds position was generously provided by Heron Foundation.

Sto-Rox collaborative’s strength-based strategies aim to support, maintain community growth

Posted on by Alyse Horn

Above: Community leaders take part in the Launch Sto-Rox Incubator: Remixer event

To open an NAACP chapter, one hundred signatures are needed, each accompanied by $30 for the annual membership fee.

In distressed communities that membership fee can become the reason why a chapter doesn’t open, as opposed to lack of interest. For over 80 McKees Rocks residents, the Grow Sto-Rox collaborative is covering the cost.

“This is a real way to get people involved, and the first thing we’ve put our names on as Grow Sto-Rox,” said Taris Vreck, Executive Director of McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation. 

The Grow Sto-Rox collaborative includes: Communities in Schools of Pittsburgh Allegheny County (CISPAC), Focus on Renewal (FOR), McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation (MRCDC), Sto-Rox School District (SRSD), and Zellous Hope Project (ZH).

Albeit this is their debut as one entity, the organizations that are Grow Sto-Rox started to coordinate their efforts in 2014 when SRSD Superintendent Frank Dalmas called on local leaders to support critical youth and family programming. 

“I always thought of that as the beginning of what has become Grow Sto-Rox,” Vreck said.

Today, the collaborative exists to improve the quality of life of Sto-Rox residents through programs which are trauma informed, strength-based, and create equitable economic impact. The programs are continually molded by data gathered from community surveys and in person feedback, but an initial survey taken six years ago is regarded as the eye-opener for understanding the challenges Sto-Rox residents face.

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In 2015, MRCDC and FOR partnered with New Sun Rising (NSR) to administer a community survey by a resident-led outreach team that identified the challenges and needs of the community, as well as the public’s perceptions of FOR and its programming.

“Oh my God, did we learn a lot,” said Cindy Haines, Executive Director of FOR.

Around 200 people completed the survey. For Black residents, their top three concerns were Violence, Transportation, and Food Security. For white residents, their top three concerns were Transportation, Creative/Social Connections, and Economics/Financial.

“Even if they were neighbors, it just showed that when you walk out your door, are you going to be afraid of gun violence? [For many people], it’s the way you wake up in the morning,” Haines said. 

Community members led the Sto-Rox survey, identifying their assets, needs, and opportunities

According to 2020 US Census data, the total population of McKees Rocks is 5,919 with 55.5 percent identifying as white and 33 percent identifying as Black. In Stowe Township, the total population is 6,197 with 69 percent identifying as white and 23 identifying as Black.

Violence in a community has detrimental impacts on residents of every age. Since January of this year, there have been over 30 shootings in the area. Bridget Clement, executive director of CISPAC, said a lot of students don’t feel safe walking to school, so they don’t go.

Another piece of the puzzle is understanding how stress at home hinders a student’s ability to learn, said Sto-Rox School Board President Samantha Levitzki.

“We can’t serve our students to their full potential when their moms and dads are struggling,” she said. “If the guardian is stressed out and worrying about money, lack of healthcare… it filters into the kiddo and we want to alleviate that stress so they can grow.”

According to the Vibrancy Index, 27.5 percent of the Sto-Rox population live in poverty and median household income is $37,084 which is 62% lower than the Allegheny County average. Index scores for Sustainable Development Goal 1: No Poverty and 8: Work & Employment are worse than 90% and 81% of the County, respectively.

Through critical needs programs, Zellous Hope and FOR have been able to provide immediate assistance to families and individuals unable to meet basic needs.

Haines said that Sto-Rox is a designated food desert and about 40 percent of residents don’t own a car. In the initial survey, when asked about where they got their groceries, some responded by saying that FOR’s pantry was their primary food source. Of the some 1,500 students at SRSD, 100 percent of them qualify for free-and-reduced price lunch. Grow Sto-Rox partners collaborated on food distribution throughout the pandemic, led by FOR. They’re also working with Grounded Strategies to bring a community garden and collective healing program to fruition. 

What ZH is able to offer is emergency funds that help people cover urgently important bills, such as an automotive expense that could keep someone from getting to their job. Both ZH and FOR offer services that provide the community with diapers, feminine hygiene products, cleaning supplies, and other necessities. Located inside the Father Ryan Arts Center, FOR shares the building with the Sto-Rox Public Library and is able to offer additional support and programming like Positive Parenting and Family Foundations Early Head Start.

Denise Zellous, executive director of ZH, said it’s important to move away from the “cookie cutter” approach of assuming what residents need, and instead asking them directly through conversations, phone calls, videos, and surveys what they need to improve their lives. Her “Things to Know Show” via Facebook Live has quickly become a reliable place to learn about the opportunities being coordinated in response by core members of Grow Stow-Rox. 

“What is most important to [Grow Sto-Rox] is that people know our main goal is to bring a strength-based approach to this community and not just put a bandaid on addressing the symptoms of what we believe is wrong, but get to the root cause,” Zellous said.

The collaborative understands they face the significant challenge of unraveling generational poverty, and that their efforts need to be trauma informed. As a group, they’ve attended trainings and learned different types of interventions to use when engaging with the community that can help people through the “trauma block,” Vreck said. 

Launch Sto-Rox Showcase + Celebration in 2019.

To implement this in a meaningful way, the anchor organizations need to continue the slow process of building relationships and transferring power to residents. Vreck said he knows the community is distrustful because “they hear about millions of dollars coming in [to Sto-Rox] and they don’t see a difference.” So, the collaborative decided that one of the first steps to strengthening their relationship with Sto-Rox would be to put the decision making power for investments into the hands of community members. 

The Community Investment Fund was launched in partnership with New Sun Rising and seeded by the Wells Fargo Foundation, offering $2,500 grants to micro businesses and nonprofit organizations serving Sto-Rox with less than five employees and an annual revenue less than $100,000. The deadline to apply closed on May 7, 2021. 

“This is a small pilot program, but the idea is putting authority and control of the funds into the hands of residents and letting them start to make the choices.” Vreck said. “They can show an impact on the ground that builds trust and encourages people to get involved.”

There have also been serious discussions of building a multipurpose campus in Mckees Rocks, similar to Bidwell Training Center in Manchester or 7800 Susquehanna in Homewood. The development of a campus within walking distance for residents would provide incredible opportunities for adults and older teens in the community. 

That, tied in with plans for the Sto-Rox Junior/Senior High School to become an after hours learning hub for kids and adults, is helping individuals “get into positions where they can hold their families together,” Levitzki said.

“We want to make sure that our students and parents are comfortable, and their living to a successful standard,” she said. “We want to make sure they have all the access and resources, and that’s what we’re trying to rebuild here in our community.”

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After completing a strategic framework and initial operational plan made possible by a grant from The Forbes Funds, the most significant challenge the collaborative currently faces is finding and funding dedicated capacity to backbone the cause. Right now, each of the five organizations is stretched to their limit.

Haines said that “Grow Sto-Rox has been training, learning, coalescing, monitoring, and cementing the five relationships,” and together they hope to raise dedicated funding that can support a shared staff member who will maintain and build upon the momentum. In May, the collaborative was approved for inclusion in New Sun Rising’s fiscal sponsorship program. 

With the right support, the ability to communicate, engage, and encourage the talents of residents at this level would be revolutionary. 

To learn more about the goals and guiding principles of Grow Sto-Rox, click here.