Garden of Peace

Garden of Peace Project was created to uplift, uphold, and empower the narratives and lived experiences of queer and trans people of color. We exist to create sacred spaces of healing, affirmation, and solidarity through action. We currently have 2 directors and 3 temporary/project-based part-time staff members. We make our decisions through a collaborative process, including our community, board of directors, and leadership team. We just celebrated five years as an organization and we have several ongoing projects, including Trans Voices, VOICES Week, Roots Pride, QTPOC Market, & Livin’ Out Loud.

The Language Access Project

Global Wordsmiths’ Volunteer Initiative, The Language Access Project (LAP), was designed to provide free language translation and interpretation services to local nonprofits (Partner Organizations) working directly with immigrants and refugees. LAP is structured as an internship that provides bilingual university students with comprehensive interpreter training, service learning experience, monitoring and support, mentorship and professional references as well as a stipend or college credit in exchange for volunteer hours. Global Wordsmiths then pairs these trained volunteer interpreters with Partner Organizations at no cost so that these organizations can provide their clients with language interpretation and translation services.

Each intern is required to commit a minimum of five hours per week to LAP during the 23-week cycle. With five interns approved to participate in the fall 2017 pilot program, LAP will provide nearly 1,200 hours of free language services to its Partner Organization for this cycle, Jewish Family and Children’s Services. This represents significant output and provides an invaluable service to clients of JFCS with limited English proficiency, and it serves the Global Wordsmiths’ core mission, which is to improve language access in Western Pennsylvania.

Hilltop Huskies

Our mission is to strengthen and heal our community through football, education, and mentorship. Using team building to develop and promote accountability and leadership skills that fosters growth and a future success in the youth. Our goal through sports-mentorship activity is to get as many young men and women off of the streets and show them a better path.

Puppetry Guild of Pittsburgh

Mission Statement: The Puppetry Guild of Pittsburgh aims to provide an accessible community promoting communication, networking and awareness within the field of puppetry arts.

Established in 2016, the Puppetry Guild of Pittsburgh aims to create a community dedicated to puppetry arts.
Membership in the Guild is open to all, without regard to sex, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, marital status, disability or sexual orientation. Members do not have to be practicing puppeteers or puppet makers. Anyone interested in the art of puppetry is welcome. Current members include ventriloquists, arts educators, librarians, ministers, visual artists, professional puppeteers, as well as people interested in learning more about puppetry. Those interested in learning more about the Guild are invited to come to meetings or slam events. Annual membership dues are $15 for individuals or $20 for families.

The Guild operates with a set of bylaws and a board of officers. Quarterly meetings are held to socialize, share ideas, and to plan for public events. The Guild produces an annual puppet slam, a showcase of member performances that is open to the public. Guild activities are published on the Guild website and Facebook page. Public workshops, including puppet construction and voice for puppeteers are also offered. The Guild is affiliated with Puppeteers of America, a national organization established in 1949.

Black Tech Nation

Black Tech Nation is a budding social good organization aiming to be a voice and an advocate for more black representation in tech. We pride ourselves on being a fun and informative safe space for black tech professionals, or as we like to call ourselves, “black unicorns”, to connect, share, and exchange resources. Our goal is to influence the tech industry to become more diverse and close some of the barriers to entry that plague countless black tech professionals across the country. Through our strategy, “Gather. Connect. Affect.” we plan to make Pittsburgh the model city for true tech inclusion..

Gather: So far we’ve created a personal online network of 150+ black tech professionals, which we plan to grow to 500+ members through various events, heavy outreach, and online & community engagement by March 2018.

Connect: We partner with tech companies and diversity groups alike to create socially conscious work cultures that make everyone, specifically black techies, feel comfortable in typically white, male dominated work spaces. It’s a complicated issue that we’re ready to tackle through purposeful and culturally sensitive programming.

Affect: Thanks to Pittsburgh’s City Council, The Mayor’s office, and some of Pittsburgh’s black elected officials, we’re on our way towards implementing policies around hiring and tax incentives for companies interested in creating diverse workplaces that are inclusive to black tech professionals.

Black Tech Nation is also working with local institutions and Ph.D faculty to conduct research and find data on black tech professionals in our region, including employment numbers, salaries, positions, retention rates, resource pools, and more. This report will be made public by late 2018.

If you or your organization would like to partner with Black Tech Nation in any capacity, email info@blacktechnation.com.

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Protohaven

Protohaven’s purpose is to serve the public good by providing space, tools, knowledge, and community for creation and innovation.

In a culture dominated by consumption, we believe that engaging people in the process of making things – from learning simple skills, to crafting things for a living, to inventing a new piece of technology – serves to both develop the individual and create a more productive, responsible society.

Our primary facility will be a professional-level design and fabrication co-working space and school. The space will be multidisciplinary (graphics, plastics, electronics, textiles, woodworking, and metalworking) and focus on combining digital technology (CAD, CAM, and CNC) with traditional design and fabrication techniques.

Standup Sisters and Look Who’s Here!

Unabridged Press elevates the stories of people who don’t typically receive media attention–but should! Through events and online content, Unabridged Press has two projects, Standup Sisters, featuring inspiring stories of heroic Catholic sisters; and Look Who’s Here! All-Abilities Media, in which people with disabilities play a prominent role in covering activities and issues about their community.

Black Girls Do Bike

Blackgirlsdobike.com’s interest is in growing and supporting a community of women of color who share a passion for cycling. We champion efforts to introduce the joy of cycling to all women, but especially, black women and girls. We are establishing a comfortable place where female cyclist can support, advise, organize meet-ups/rides and promote skill-sharing. We look to share positive images of ladies and their bikes to affirm the truth that black girls do indeed bike! We support bike advocacy, education, volunteerism and safety in all communities and corners of the world.

City of Play

City of Play creates, produces & promotes playful ways for people to engage with their city, and with each other. They produce annual events, such as “The City Spree” & ‘The Best Games Fest,” weekly game nights at ‘The Game Cafe,’ and civic engagement initiatives ‘We Are Here’ & ‘Community Lawns.’

Our Way Home Documentary

“Our Way Home” is a student produced, professionally filmed documentary follows the homecoming stories of nine veterans from WW2 to present day. “Our Way Home” focuses on the psychological effects of war, specifically Post Traumatic Stress. The film will directly show how the nation’s culture affects Veteran’s homecomings. This project will benefit veterans, their families, and community members nationwide. Our premier will be at Soldiers and Sailors Pavilion on November 12, 2015. During the day, we will host the screening to university students followed by an optional discussion group. At night we will host the premier for the Pittsburgh community followed by an interactive discussion panel.

There are dozens of organizations working on behalf Post Traumatic Stress in the Pittsburgh area alone. The difference between Our Way Home and those organizations is that they offer aid and services, while we hope to create a community for veterans to engage in dialogue about their illness and educate the community about PTS through the film and discussion panels.

Work Hard Pittsburgh

Work Hard Pittsburgh creates services and relationships that position Allentown as the Southern hub for inclusive business development in the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding neighborhoods. Their social impact projects seed programming that will better position the region to grow and attract talent, money, and business. It includes: Launching of a Software Academy that produces 8-15 second-career software engineers every 12 weeks, and Services to the Street produces, distributes, and designs impact measurement of digital media and marketing content to the mainstreet corridor of Allentown.

PearlArts Studios STAYCEE PEARL dance project

PearlArts Studios|STAYCEE PEARL dance project (PAS|SPdp) exists to interpret and mirror culture and community through dance and dance centered multi-media experiences. With diverse casting and programing, PAS|SPdp explores innovative conceptual possibilities while participating in meaningful collaboration with artists, educators, musicians, choreographers, and activists.