The Pittsburgh Village Project provides educational opportunities for students from birth to 12th grade through personalized, social justice oriented and community-inspired learning opportunities in and out of schools. We are a cooperative of students, families, community members and educators who equitably strengthen the education system through culturally responsive consulting and the development of project-based, community service oriented curricula.
In 2019 the Outdoor Inclusion Coalition was founded to progress the pressing questions of diversity in the outdoor industry. Through collaborative approaches, the Coalition is at the forefront of making quality recreation experiences more accessible while reshaping urban recreation to be a pathway for greater exploration both professionally and recreationally.
From our backstory stems our mission: to support Pennsylvanians through programs dedicated to attracting, engaging, and retaining underrepresented populations in the outdoor industry.
Core Values
Collaboration: facilitating and encouraging multi-sector engagement to elevate the industry
Connection: elevating connections to people, place, and empowerment
Accessible Experiences: mitigating barriers to quality outdoor experiences while nurturing a sense of care for the outdoors
Activation: engaging the communities love for the outdoors while supporting the interest in sustainable outdoor developments
Equity & Inclusivity: continual progress and accountability towards a more just industry and outdoor community
The Outdoor Inclusion Coalition welcomes further engagement from residents, organizations, and governmental agencies. If you would like to receive additional information on the Coalition email marcus@theoic.org.
Outdoor Inclusion Coalition aims to make parks more accessible for all
Our Watershed: The hidden creek beneath us…
Water is constantly involved in any single stage of the Water Cycle. Be it rain, condensation, snow, or a flowing river, water is on the move. When it is moving, water always flows downhill.
In the beginning it may only be the trickle of a spring, coming up from the Groundwater. As you follow the flow of that crick over hollows and hills, that basin ridge outline is called a Watershed. Watersheds are the collection points for all the water as it flows off the land in a river system.
In an urban and developed city like Pittsburgh, those watersheds are still here, however they now are hidden below our feet, in pipes. We call them sewersheds, and they connect us, from the highest hill to the point of our three rivers. Sewersheds follow all the same rules as watersheds.
The Mon Water Project will focus on the watershed basin, flowing through a sewershed, along the Monongahela River.
Our Basin: The geography of our watershed…
The Mon Water Project is home to 4 Mile Run (4MR), a watershed/sewershed located four miles from the point in Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river. Both sewers and cricks in the Oakland, Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, Schenley Park, and Hazelwood neighborhoods flow through this pipe system. This pipe system is hidden beneath our feet, under roads, houses and sidewalks.
On dry days, the water in these pipes flows down under Greenfield Avenue, making its way through larger and larger pipes ,deep underground, to the Allegheny County Sewer Authority (ALCOSAN). That is our regional WasteWater Treatment facility. There it is treated and released in the Ohio River.
On Wet days, the entire system’s contents flow out into the Monongahela River through the M-29 outfall, a big discharge pipe, under Hazelwood Green. Similar, smaller unnamed streams and pipes are under and throughout Hazelwood. They discharge on wet days to individual outfalls counting up to M-40, near Glen Hazel. Combined, these systems make up the Monongahela peninsula of Pittsburgh and the Basin for the Mon Water Project.
Our Spring Water: The trickle of an Idea…
The MWP creates connections across governments, agencies, non-profits, businesses, and residents to direct resources to develop and implement integrated water resource plans based on One Water principles in 4MR and neighboring watersheds.
Our Groundwater: The foundation to build from…
MWP will use principles based on a philosophy known as One Water. One Water is the focus on all aspects of water, with equal value and importance, seeing the water cycle as continuous, and water systems as overlapping. This approach removes traditional water permitting “silos” and allows a community to address many issues at once.
Our Tributaries: Working together as a community…
Our work centers environmental justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as we build community power for the management of our watersheds.
Our Floodwater: The challenges of urban restoration are substantial…
Over five years ago, Pittsburgh Water Sewer Authority was looking to address flooding, manage stormwater, rehabilitate old infrastructure, and decrease water pollution to the Monongahela river. They began the design, modeling, and implementation of the 4 Mile Stormwater Project. The project is hoping to improve the quality of life, protect property, and change the hydrology of a watershed affecting the lower half of the neighborhood in Greenfield, known as the micro-neighborhood “In the Run.” The Run historically floods with only a half inch of rainfall. It isn’t just any flooding, its manhole popping raw sewage that flows directly into homeowner basements, central streets, and neighborhood cornerstone businesses. Residents in The Run neighborhood have had to silently endure the issues for years. When the PWSA 4MR Stormwater Project was being developed, the residents of The Run worked hard to advocate for their community needs. With a unified voice they asked for real and last solutions.
Our Water. Our Work.
The Mon Water Project will build on the current ‘swell’ of resident and organizational movements that grew from the 4MR Stormwater Project. MWP will work to develop a unified strategy for ALL our water resources, partner to implement projects that protect the residents of our most vulnerable communities, and build an educated coalition of neighbors that advocate for science based solutions in our cricks and hollows.
The path forward is clear (unlike the muddy waters of the Monongahela) and with the support of New Sun Rising as a fiscal sponsor, starting in October 2022, The Mon Water Project is ready to officially launch. Follow us, join us, and support us as we flow towards a future that is truly sustainably alongside the Monongahela River.
Will you join us?
Chocolate Nutcracker will utilize the classical “Nutcracker” as a springboard to create a fresh, local interpretation of the iconic ballet. Directed by Norma Jean Barnes an African-American and intergenerational cast will celebrate the Nutcracker, Black and world culture with the purpose of building bridges of hope, love and compassion in Pittsburgh and the world! Auditions, rehearsal and performances (live and virtual) will take place The Pittsburgh Project on Pittsburgh’s Northside.
Relapse Prevention Group (Y12SR)
Group Therapy is a wonderful way to connect like minds together in collective support of your healthier future. Yoga Recovery Pittsburgh is an affiliate of Y12SR, a program that combines the fundamentals of the 12-step method with trauma healing, cognitive reprogramming, and the art and science of yoga.
Reiki
Reiki is an energetic healing regimen that rebalances the body, mind, and spirit. It is a beautiful complement to yoga as a discipline, and has profound effects on mental health. Reiki mitigates withdrawal symptoms, assists with chronic illness, and relieves trauma and stress.
Recovery Retreats
For more intensive, community-based programming based in alternative healing methods, consider a weekend getaway to set intentions and make concrete plans for your recovery journey.
Since 2016, Anthropology of Motherhood has provided ongoing curation of artwork and design that engages in the complex visual, material, emotional, corporeal and lived experiences of motherhood, care-giving, parenting, nurturing and maternal labor. As an annual hybrid amenity/exhibit at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, our message and aesthetic of the Culture of Care has reached thousands of viewers, instilling the value of caregivers and the importance of prioritizing compassion and care in our daily lives. Our exhibits have traveled to McDonough Museum of Art, Sleeth Gallery and will be exhibiting at Dyers Art Center in Rochester, NY in 2023. With support from the Opportunity Fund (Pittsburgh) and in collaboration with the City of Asylum, we recently concluded our speaker series, Culture of Care inviting artist-caregivers from around the world to share where caregiving and receiving intersects with their practice.
We are excited to announce a partnership with Amherst College Press to develop a full color edited volume of Anthropology of Motherhood with an expected publish date of Fall 2026, in time for our 10th year anniversary.Your generous support will allow us to continue our work through exhibits, programs, and our upcoming book.
Thank you.
Gallery Closed is a unique public-facing experimental art space in Troy Hill, Pittsburgh, run by artists Phillip Andrew Lewis and Lenka Clayton. Conceived during the pandemic, the gallery is designed to be permanently “closed”, yet at the same time continuously open.
All exhibited work can only be viewed through two street-facing windows, the door always remains closed. At night the gallery is brightly lit, so that artwork is visible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Gallery Closed is for everyone and specifically embraces its accidental audience of neighborhood passers-by.
Gallery Closed’s first season featured the work of 27 internationally renowned artists including Philip Glass, widely regarded as one of the most influential living musical composers, photographer and MacArthur fellow Deborah Willis, and Pulitzer Prize winning artist Raven Chacon.
We are now fundraising to commission site-specific solo exhibitions by four artists/artist teams for Gallery Closed Season Two.
YogaRoots On Location, LLC® leads embodied antiracist organizing through Raja yoga.
We aim to meet people where they are and offer AntiRacist professional development, integrative group and individual yoga classes, and Certified AntiRacist Raja Yoga Teacher Training across the country. Collective liberation is our path to healing. It is our dream to recognize our humanity and find the courage to end systems of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism, together.
We see Integrative Raja Yoga as a path to do so.
Yoga Teacher Training – Teaching yoga through a social justice framework.
YogaRoots On Location ® Certified Yoga Teacher Training is an antiracist and social justice yoga teacher training offered through the Yoga Alliance’s 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) Certification. This year-long training integrates systems-based and trauma-informed frameworks with the Raja Yoga 8-Limbed Path practices of behavioral observances and restraints, movement, breath awareness, sensory awareness, concentration, meditation, and divine purpose while centering Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
Our Need
YROL curates spaces for folks to vulnerably share and explore the impact of systemic and internalized oppression. We teach the Raja Yoga path as a way to sustain this work. YROL is seeking fiscal sponsorship to pursue grant funding that will offset Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) tuition and Continuing Education costs for adults and youth of the Global Majority and those facing financial barriers to pursuing YTT.
Birth Your Way exists to connect expecting parents to community resources to support and educate expecting parents of their options to having a healthy and successful pregnancy and delivery.
To further support Black and Minority maternal health, Birth Your Way is fundraising to provide scholarships for Black midwives in Pittsburgh. The scholarship covers tuition fees for Black women to attend Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery, a Black midwife college designed to enable students to gain the knowledge and skills needed to become highly competent midwives. We are asking community members, partners, and leaders to invest in the future of Black birth and make this dream a reality.
The 2019 Pittsburgh Gender Equality Report revealed that Black women’s maternal mortality rate is higher in Pittsburgh than in 97% of similar cities. Black birthing women are dying from complications that are 60% preventative compared to white counterparts. Unfortunately, in a city with merits for being medically advanced with superior health care systems, Black birthing women are not reaping the benefit of being residents in the most livable city. Pittsburgh is rated as one of the worst cities for Black women to give birth.
Racism, blatant, passive-aggressive, microaggressions, and complicit biases directly correlate between Black women and infants dying or surviving. Since the Gender Equality release, many organizations have attempted to combat these statistics with new doula community programs, town hall meetings, and other services created to address this national health crisis.
Kiva Pittsburgh helps financially excluded entrepreneurs fund their dreams by providing access to 0% interest capital and a community of 1.8 million supportive lenders. Over 200 businesses in Southwestern Pennsylvania have received Kiva loans!
New Sun Rising partnered with Kiva and the Segal Family Foundation to establish this service in the Pittsburgh market.
#TOYZSTEAM Dah-Varsity Scholars is a fiscally sponsored program focused on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) creator industry.
We also foster entrepreneurship, and improve economic mobility in disadvantaged populations, by empowering people to be the superhero version of themselves, through training and multi-generational mentorship.
We have created a virtual adult workforce training course with the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), providing students with laptops, internet access, and hardware, along with books and materials.
These students use our Dah-Varsity app, our anti-bullying song created with the music department at Carnegie Mellon University, “Stop The Bullying,” along with our teaching materials, to deliver STEAM programming to middle school and high school students, in an after-school setting.
Our program uses digital storytelling, 3D modeling, game design, coding, audio production, music, and entrepreneurship to teach students how to create, sell, and tell their stories through designing and manufacturing superhero toys.