NSR supported projects harness the power of culture, creating space for healing and connection

Posted on November 6, 2025 by Alyse Horn

Above: Participants of Building Bridges Day 2025 pose for a photo on the Roberto Clemente Bridge with founder Ebtehal Badawi (center). Photo courtesy of Ebtehal Badawi.

For the last several years on a Saturday in August, the Roberto Clemente Bridge has closed down to host hundreds of people for Building Bridges Day, an event that promotes unity and connection among all individuals, regardless of their background or differences. 

The day includes a variety of activities that celebrate global cultures through mural painting, performances, community dialogue, and live music. This year, founder Ebtehal Bawadi highlighted a collaborative dance by an African band and an Irish band as a standout moment.

“The Irish band consists of girls in their mid-to-late teens, and members of the African band are adults, so it was beautiful to see not only the cross between these two cultures, but the younger and older generations being brought together,” Bawadi said. 

Though this event provides a space for thoughtful dialogue about culture, identity, and values, Bawadi said the origin of Building Bridges Day began six years ago in response to a racist comment made by one of her son’s teammates from a local hockey team, for which they eventually apologized. Shortly after that, she heard on the news that a young Syrian refugee was beaten up at school. As a mother, it was painful to see her son—and other children—experience hate on such a level. At the same time, she found herself wondering what those other children must have gone through to act that way.

“I created this nonprofit with the intention of bringing people together to heal and connect with people from different backgrounds while celebrating and sharing their culture. This year felt like the most important time to do that,” Bawadi said. “It was like a statement that we are a community, we can come together and celebrate our differences. We don’t need to hide.”

The importance of culture, connection, and community care also fuels Exploring Identity: Teen Voices, a project of Sharing Our Story. Founder Sally Rafson, an educator and anthropologist, said with the resurgence of hate speech and biases, especially anti-semitism, racism, and xenophobia, teens are the most affected by these forms of hate.

“We use digital storytelling to build bridges and provide education to the community about people who are often marginalized and aren’t always asked about their stories,” Rafson said. 

The project primarily engages refugees and immigrants, as well as Jewish and African American teens. Over the course of weekly writing workshops, this diverse group has formed meaningful bonds by sharing and learning from one another’s stories. On November 2, their work culminated during a community celebration in Levinson Hall at The Squirrel Hill Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh. A second celebration is planned for January 31 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mount Lebanon.

“[Teens] aren’t often heard, but they are at a point in their lives where they’re trying to figure out what their identity is, and many of them have conflicting identities. What is the culture they identify with and how does that fit into the American tapestry?” Rafson said. 

While Exploring Identity: Teen Voices amplifies youths’ experience through storytelling, Artist Talk Mental Health works with adult and teen artists to learn and grow their professional artistry while developing skills and acquiring tools to maintain and take care of their mental health.

Founded by Sydney Davis during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Artist Talk was created to give Black and Brown artists a platform to affirm and advocate for their own value and themselves. Davis recalled people wanting to support the art community by donating supplies, but through conversations with fellow artists, she knew what they “really needed was housing, food, and mental health support.”

She began hosting small, supportive gatherings that averaged around five artists and soon blossomed into full events combining art showcases with open, therapist-led conversations. The first event was held in the South Side and 20 tickets had been reserved in advance. As Davis was prepping for the evening, she went into the bathroom to do her makeup before people started to arrive. When she exited, there were close to 70 people in attendance. 

“I had to go back into the bathroom because I started tearing up,” Davis said. “When we put our ideas out here and host showcases, you never really know who is going to show up, so it was really beautiful to see a lot of people in the room on a [weekend] trying to do better and actively seeking support for their mental health.”

That event helped Artist Talk fill other gaps and needs for the Black community, leading them to create the series Black Therapy 101, which is a panel discussion with therapists designed to make conversations about mental health feel safe, accessible, and rooted in Black experiences.

 “This panel series was created from direct feedback from our event and showcase when we were having a therapist lead community discussions about what was coming up for artists in the community like imposter syndrome, burn out, and help navigating health care systems,” Davis said.

Each event invites healers and mental health practitioners to engage directly with attendees, offering both education and hands-on wellness practices that participants can immediately apply in their daily lives.

Now entering its fourth year, Artist Talk also offers three other programs: the Mental Health Showcase, Therapeutic Spaces cohort program, and the newly created alumni network called Therapeutic Roots and a Dose of healing community workshops. On November 22, Davis will be celebrating the anniversary of Artist Talk Mental Health by hosting Black Therapy 101 at Artist Image Resource (AIR) on the Northside, including breakout sessions with each therapist, which  something new for the event.

These initiatives — Building Bridges Day, Exploring Identity: Teen Voices, and Artist Talk Mental Health — are rooted in lived experience and united by a powerful idea: that healing begins with connection and the diverse contexts, values and identities that shape us should be celebrated as vital parts of our shared humanity. At a time where many of these values and ideas are being challenged, New Sun Rising is proud to support this important work by providing financial management, capacity building, and strategic guidance.

Affordable housing initiatives ramping up in Triboro Ecodistrict

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Alyse Horn

Above: Houses along North Avenue in Millvale.

When people are safely housed, it sets the foundation for them and their community to thrive.

It’s something that the Triboro Ecodistrict understands deeply and, through its partnerships with the Millvale Community Development Corporation, the City of Bridges Community Land Trust, and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, has been able to provide equitable and affordable housing to five families in Millvale thus far. 

Most recently, the Millvale Community Development Corporation (MCDC) and the Millvale Community Library (MCL) worked with City of Bridges to secure housing for a refugee family that moved to the borough in the fall of 2022. The family came to Pittsburgh from Tanzania with the help of JFCS Refugee & Immigrant Services, which connected with the MCDC and MCL to support their resettlement in the area. 

“My husband and I moved here a month after they did, so we were all new and the kids were actually the first to enroll in our music education program,” said Georgia English.

English and her husband run You Be You Inc., which takes systemic approaches to empowering diverse groups of students to express themselves fully through the global language of music. Through her role as an educator, involvement with Rivertown Kidz, and board member of MCDC, English has built a strong relationship with the family, and she isn’t the only one.

“The whole community truly fell in love with them,” English said. “The kids are Millvale kids through and through, and it’s been really fun watching them start to kind of take up some space. The whole family has a wonderful sense of humor that just transcends those cultural barriers in some cool ways.” 

Ed Nusser, executive director of City of Bridges Community Land Trust, said that while he hasn’t met the family yet, “there’s no way to exaggerate” how rewarding this type of work is. 

“Being able to be a small part of making sure that homes stay affordable in these neighborhoods that are so rapidly changing is critical,” Nusser said. 

The house was purchased by MCDC with the help of a grant through City of Bridges Buyer-Initiated Program, which lowered the overall cost of the house and therefore lowered rent to an affordable rate for the family. Nusser said the goal is that within the next decade, the family will be able to purchase the house from the MCDC. 

The Buyer-Initiated Program works directly with homebuyers to provide a flexible grant towards their down payment, closing costs, or home repairs in exchange for signing a ground lease and becoming a part of the community land trust. Nusser said the agreement with MCDC was the first of its kind for the program.

“We were excited to pilot this long-term lease to purchase arrangement with Millvale CDC and keep this family in the neighborhood they know with the support they already have and rely on,” Nusser said. 

Millvale Community Development Corporation is also involved in renovating a home on North Avenue in Millvale that was purchased by the Tri-COG Land Bank after sitting vacant for nearly two decades. Brian Wolovich, MCDC board president, said during the two years of renovations, over 250 volunteers, including from University of Pittsburgh’s Habitat for Humanity, contributed to getting the house move-in ready. This home will be purchased in April by a family of long-time Millvale residents who have been renting a home in the community.

In Etna, City of Bridges is working on getting a handful of homes ready for sale, including new construction and rehabilitation. Megan Tuñón, executive director of Etna Community Organization (ECO), said there are four new townhouses being built and some abandoned homes that were transferred from Etna Borough to City of Bridges that should undergo rehabilitation soon “and become sage and lovely homes for two new families in Etna.”

“The borough will continue to work with our partners like [City of Bridges], Tri-COG Land Bank, and use the resources available to us to fight blight and bring more affordable housing and greenspace to the community,” Tuñón said. 

In Sharpsburg, Nusser said there is one project that they “hope to start this year.”

Through their relationship with the community and partnership with Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization (SNO), Roots of Faith Pastor Scott Shaffer knows that affordable housing is a top priority for Sharpsburg residents. Primarily, he said he hears stories of people struggling with increased property taxes and rent. 

“We’re doing everything we can to help address their financial needs so they aren’t displaced,” Scott said. 

Roots of Faith offers a handful of programs and social services that allow residents to receive assistance for a variety of needs, including community dinners and free legal clinics, which falls in line with achieving equity in the Sharpsburg Ecodistrict and Triboro Ecodistrict. Equity is one of six quality of life lenses that have been identified by Triboro Ecodistrict residents as necessary for sustainable community development, and acts as an umbrella for food, water, energy, mobility, and air quality. 

These lenses were modified to fit each community and shared in 2016 through the Millvale Ecodistrict Pivot Plan 2.0, and in 2019 through the Sharpsburg Community Vision Plan and Etna EcDistrict Plan. Scott said the work between Roots of Faith and SNO aims to achieve their community plan, which highlights preserving affordability, building community wealth, and protecting existing assets. 

“Our big vision is to not only preserve affordability, but also take older buildings and make them more energy efficient and handicap accessible,” Scott said. 

In the last year, Roots of Faith was able to pick up a project that had been stalled by the pandemic and secure a privately owned building in the borough containing 10 apartment units. It’s still in the works, but Scott said they will be utilized for affordable housing. 

Aiming to assess the Triboro Ecodistrict as a whole, evolveEA is assisting the community with the  Triboro EcoHousing Plan, a two-part Workshop series that kicked off in January to develop an affordable housing toolkit that navigates future scenarios in the housing market through a resilience framework. 

The first workshop focused on identifying the driving forces behind positive and negative change in the boroughs, shared information on current housing trends in the Triboro Ecodistrict, and identified current and future uncertainties. The second Triboro EcoHousing: Scenario Planning Workshop will take place in March and focus on developing the narratives of potential futures, explore the implications of each, consider who and how to adapt, and identify the most robust actions and strategies to move forward. 

If you’d like to learn more about the programs and services Roots of Faith offers, call (412) 799-0111 or stop by their Sharpsburg location, 800 Main St.

If you’d like to volunteer in Millvale cleaning, painting, and preparing houses for habitation, contact Brian Wolovich: brian@triboroecodistrict.org or (412)977-7672. There are two work days coming up on Thursday, March 14 and Monday, March 25.

If you’d like to learn more about City of Bridges Community Land Trust Development Program or Buyer-Initiative Program, call (412) 621-1811 or visit their website.

The Triboro Ecodistrict is a fiscally sponsored project of New Sun Rising. 

Team led by Energy Efficiency Empowerment wins $400,000 from DOE to increase affordable, green homes in the region

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Alyse Horn

Above: Looking at the rooftops of these homes, it is easy to see the houses without proper insulation. Courtesy of Lucy de Barbaro.

Energy Efficiency Empowerment is a new organization created to contribute to a greener, more sustainable future for all by embracing energy efficiency practices, and the team it formed just won $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to do so.

Buildings Upgrade Prize (Buildings UP) is a DOE prize designated to build capacity to accelerate equitable, widespread energy efficiency and efficient electrification building upgrades across the country. 

Over 360 applications were submitted and the team, led by Energy Efficiency Empowerment (E3), was chosen as one of the 45 Phase 1 winners from 32 states. In Phase 1, Buildings UP is set to distribute a total of $22 million in cash prizes and expert technical assistance. The winning teams will receive this support and are expected to advance through Phases 2-4 in the forthcoming years.

Founder of E3 Lucy de Barbaro’s winning concept, “Biggest Climate Impact for Least Cost,” is a multifaceted approach to address the unique challenges of aging, energy-inefficient housing stock, economic disparities, and environmental inequalities in the Pittsburgh region where 61% of the housing stock is over 100 years old. 

This leads to energy inefficiency and high maintenance costs due to aging systems, and as a result residents face substantially higher year-round energy bills compared to other areas in the Northeast. This issue is compounded by pockets of neighborhood poverty ranging from 22% to 40%, which creates a disproportionate energy burden.

De Barbaro said the project calls out the opportunity to dramatically increase the energy efficiency of vacant homes undergoing renovations for the affordable housing market across the region and in doing so advance the electrification and climate goals within the Justice40 framework. 

“The second pillar of our initiative is proposed at a neighborhood-scale, where the local community groups will help develop and implement energy use reductions tactics. We came up with an ‘energy audit’ of a whole neighborhood and plan to build out community groups’ capacity to do this work,” said de Barbaro. 

E3, a fiscally sponsored project of New Sun Rising (NSR), will pair up with interested nonprofit rehabilitation developers to provide technical assistance, home performance measurement and verification as well as additional funding to achieve 30% or higher improvements in energy efficiency. Mincin Insulation, one of the team members assembled for this initiative, will be involved in air sealing and insulating attics of homes that currently have no insulation.

The project was submitted under NSR and Hazelwood Initiative (HI), with E3 receiving $300,000 under NSR’s fiscal sponsorship and Hazelwood Initiative receiving $100,000.

“[This project] will give us invaluable tools to make our new vision a reality: collaboration, expertise, technologies and subsidies to ensure that our low-income homeowners can save money on their energy bills while the community becomes more environmentally healthy and ultimately makes a difference in fighting climate change,” Dave Brewton, senior director of real estate at HI, said in the letter of support. 

Other partners include: Rising Tide Partners, East Hills Consensus Group, CONNECT, and Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization. Nonprofit organizations interested in participating in this initiative are invited to fill out this form. 

In Phase 2, E3 will work with technical advisors and team members to develop their concept into an executable pilot plan. 

About the Buildings Upgrade Prize: The Buildings Upgrade Prize (Buildings UP) provides more than $22 million in cash prizes and technical assistance to support the transformation of existing U.S. buildings into more energy-efficient and clean energy-ready homes, commercial spaces, and communities. Buildings UP is an American-Made Challenge funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.