Strategy: Culture

#TOYZSTEAM Dah-Varsity Scholars

#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.

WIN-Spirations

Our purpose is to reduce poverty and build gender equity by providing networking, professional mentoring, and education to women experiencing economic hardship.

PARTICIPANTS: WIN will connect participants with an individual in the desired field to offer advice and assistance as it relates to personal and professional growth. Participants will receive a minimum of 1-year support and connection to professional experts in the areas of business and career mentoring, resume review and writing services, personal finance education and support, education about homeownership, and assistance in locating relevant resources such as insurance, professional attire, along with services such as career advancement opportunities.

All projects are charitable in nature and fall in line with section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status for our sponsors, donors, and grantors.

Flourish Ed

Flourish Ed is a fiscally sponsored educational outreach program in collaboration with the founders of Strong Ambitious Women, Kind-R-Garden and The Pittsburgh Village Project.

The mission of this program is to develop and implement a framework  for conscious teaching and learning in a post pandemic world. We reimagine the present by nourishing a positive self and community image in support of a flourishing future. Through focusing on soft skills and creative resilience, students grow as meaningful contributors and impactful leaders whose radiance promotes the growth of their communities.

Our goal is to reimagine education to be authentic. We aim to empower learners to be creative contributors through a focus on social and emotional wellness and project-based learning, while nourishing a positive self and community image. By cultivating leadership, learners will be active participants in engaging and empowering their social circles to be positive catalysts for change. 

 

Kate’s Kid Book Bash

Kate’s Kid Book Bash is a children’s book festival featuring a book sale and signing with some of today’s most influential children’s authors and illustrators. The event, which benefits Reading Is FUNdamental Pittsburgh, will be held at the Kingsley Association in East Liberty. A 2021 date is soon to be announced. The festival is made possible with the support of Pittsburgh independent bookseller Riverstone Books.

Kate’s Kid Book Bash is named after beloved Pittsburgh children’s author Kate Dopirak, who lost her life to a neurodegenerative disorder at the age of 43.

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Today & OneDay PGH

TodayPGH is a teacher storytelling platform that began in 2020. It seeks to share powerful stories of diverse Pittsburgh educators to inspire future generations, lift up the profession and build bridges of empathy. This project transcends across school districts and grade levels, opening new windows into the field. TodayPGH hopes to recognize teachers who are working to insert humanity back into education, and transform the field in regards to diversity, equity and inclusion. Teachers are continuing to leave the field at an alarming rate, and this organization wishes to recognize the stories that often go unnoticed and encourage future diverse educators into the field.

 

One Day is dedicated to our youth who are our future in creating more equitable school environments. One Day currently targets Middle School students across Southwestern Pennsylvania. The pilot chapter began at Dorseyville Middle School in 2020, and we will continue to plant seeds in neighboring schools. Embedded within student councils, students will begin to identify curricular gaps, deliver social justice lessons to elementary students and work towards creating a culturally affirming school environment. Utilizing a mirror (identity), window (perspectives of others) and bridge (action) framework, students will work to create culturally affirming environments. One Day hopes to encourage diverse educational leaders into the field.

 

Students will also identify curricular gaps and deliver social justice lessons to elementary-age students throughout the year. Through this peer-teaching-peer model, Middle School students will continue to explore topics embedded within a mirror, window, bridge framework focusing on identity, diversity, justice and action as delineated by the Teaching Tolerance Anti-Bias Framework. The hope is to create a network of Middle Schoolers who can learn from each other across schools such that schools begin to work together in transforming education rather than apart. It also hopes to foster a new generation of teacher-leaders who are committed to education, justice, diversity and inclusion.

 

Today & One Day’s goals are twofold. TodayPGH will continue to utilize storytelling as a powerful change-agent. Storytelling segments will be written and a podcast will be created-centered around today’s most critical topics. Our new podcast segment will be entitled: One Year Teaching in a Pandemic: What Has Changed? What Hasn’t? This podcast will be driven by teacher and for teachers. In addition, this storytelling is meant to uplift teachers, celebrate success and practice empathy. We hope to recognize the teachers that are creating sunshine in the darkest places within Pittsburgh. Often times, teachers are working around the clock with little to no recognition. This organization hopes to change this mindset. Prior to COVID-19, states have been experiencing teacher shortages. With the extra stress of the pandemic, teachers are continuing to leave this field at an alarming rate. If we do not begin to focus on uplifting voices and listening to stories, we are going to find ourselves in a devastating predicament.

 

One Day will continue to spread chapters across Southwestern Pennsylvania. The pilot took place at one Middle School this year. Initially, the target will be Middle School students who will continue to plan projects centered around the actionable components of justice. Students will also identify curricular gaps and deliver social justice lessons to elementary-age students throughout the year. Through this peer-teaching-peer model, Middle School students will continue to explore topics embedded within a mirror, window, bridge framework focusing on identity, diversity, justice and action as delineated by the Teaching Tolerance Anti-Bias Framework. The hope is to create a network of Middle Schoolers who can learn from each other across schools such that schools begin to work together in transforming education rather than apart. It also hopes to foster a new generation of teacher-leaders who are committed to education, justice, diversity and inclusion.

Pittsburgh Bridges OCD

Pittsburgh Bridges OCD is a local group of folks with OCD. Although we got together with the intention of helping each other, we have always had our eyes on something bigger: building a thriving OCD community in Pittsburgh.
 
Our mission is to:

  • be an organization populated & led by people who are affected by OCD;
  • foster a vibrant OCD community by offering support groups, social gatherings, community projects, & artistic endeavors;
  • champion OCD-specific peer support & OCD-specific peer sponsorship;
  • provide education about OCD & proven treatment modalities such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP);
  • advocate for redefined health insurance standards & guidelines for OCD treatment providers;
  • be ambassadors for our community.

SkatePlus

SkatePlus is a non-profit project of Shred Your Fears with a mission of promoting health, creativity, and education through skateboarding.

We held our first workshop (Skate+Write) in December 2019 in partnership with Write Pittsburgh and Switch & Signal Skatepark. This event for female-identifying and non-binary teens ages 11-14 combined learning to skateboard with a creative writing workshop led by Shred Your Fears Founder Maya Haptas.

We are launching our next event Skate+Together in November 2021. Skate+Together is a series of free skateboarding workshops at Switch & Signal Skatepark for women and girls to learn to skateboard together.

To be notified by email of Skate+Together and other programs sign up here.

Tabitha’s Daughters

the project

“If you empower women, you can change the world.”  Tabitha’s Daughters believes this assertion.

Where women gather to transform an issue or challenge, you will find our stories of strength, resilience, and determination.  We want to change Pittsburgh!  In order to change our city – a city where women, and especially African-American women are living with health, educational, housing, and economic disparities that are ” the worst in the nation,” (based on the Gender Equity Commission Report of 2019), women must be a part of the solutions for change. In a city which claims to be the “most livable city in America,” women must force change in political, social, educational, and economic systems that impede our progress and keep us from participating in the growing prosperity of Pittsburgh.

Our project is a social justice initiative where women of all ages and ethnicities are invited to be a part of the transformational change that needs to happen in Pittsburgh.  Using the Gender Equity Commission Report as the framework, we will gather to analyze and honestly discuss this report, choose an indicator to attack, and build an initiative that will improve, via one of the 5 indicators, the living standard of women in our city.  This project will involve 3-4 mini symposiums where experts will assist us in being a part of what must change in our city.

the steps

Training the Trainers – Interactions that will employ techniques and strategies to train those who will lead the discussion group and build the strategies for affecting the negative indicators affecting women.

1st Mini – Symposium – Collaborating with experts on the Gender Equity Commisison Report that can lead the women who gather to understand and unpack the report.

2nd Mini- Symposium – Group “table talks” on what the report means to the women mentioned in the report (African-American, Latina, Asian, & Euro-American women)

3rd Mini- Symposium – Choosing one of the 6 indicators (health mortality, infant mortality, educational, housing, economic) to build a strategy of improvement and impact around.  Building out an initiative that partners with collaborators to continue to work the program and promote change.

why we’re doing it

Tabitha’s Daughters believes the “future is female.”  Women, who occupy more space on the globe than men, must be moved to leadership positions that allow us to be a part of our own solution.  Our project, through the information provided in the Gender Equity Commission report, allows women to take ahold of our own future.  This report gives us the problems and challenges; now, Tabitha’s Daughters wants to build out solutions to create equity within our city for women who live, work, worship, and support their families.

Our project will ultimately be a solution to the statistics housed in the Gender Equity Commission report through concerted action.  Whether educational, health, housing, or economic disparities, we will work one of these indicators to viable solutions and affect change in the city.  We believe that small groups can make a difference and this project is constructed to make that difference.

 

source: https://ioby.org/project/tabithas-daughters-framing-future

Unshakeable Motherhood

The “Unshakeable Motherhood” Project is a movement for new mothers, veteran mothers and soon to be mothers with similar desires and interest. Over the past two years, we have raised funding to support the training of seven aspiring African American birth doulas while offering community educational workshops that educated the community of doula support that lead up to a one-night event. Which offered the opportunity for each expecting mother to explore new options and find resources on the aspects of pregnancy, birth, babies, or parenthood that are most important to her. We provided attendees with the opportunity to consistently be refreshed, build relationships with a community of moms to be restored by education and proper guidance.

The mission is to establish a community of diverse women who support, exhort and encourage one another along the journey of motherhood. The goal is to ensure Pennsylvania adopts and maintains an adequate system for inspiring and educating women and mothers through proper parenting skills, financial foundations and navigation support.

The “Unshakeable Motherhood” project will extend to connect and build with the original selected birth workers that we have fund raised to support birth doula’s with training funds. As these birth workers will contribute maternity, birth, postpartum and beyond lessons. This would include parenting workshops, breastfeeding guidance, birth prep class, vegan eating guidance, virtual parent empowerment support group and inspirational talks with professionals. We will offer yearly membership options where mothers can have access to exclusive content that can help them in other areas after birth such as parenting and homeschooling methodology. 

As the app and membership hub of video lessons and tutorials will offer support, educate and exhort women in their motherhood journey. Unshakeable Motherhood teaching videos, free informational downloadables and blog series spotlighting mothers, physicians and therapists. Mothers will have the opportunity to select a mommy concierge based off her profile to be able to support her prenatal and postpartum lifestyle needs.

Visible Hands

Visible Hands creates a cohort of community mental health workers who are certified to perform ICT, a unique form of community therapy that requires only short-term training, can accommodate groups from 15-200 people, and can be performed successfully in an online format.

Seasons Project- DEMASKUS Theater Collective

Note on Commercial Theater by Langston Hughes

You’ve taken my blues and gone

You sing ’em on Broadway

And you sing ’em in Hollywood Bowl,

And you mix them up with symphonies

And you fix ’em

So they don’t sound like me.

Yep, you done taken my blues and gone.

 

You also took spirituals and gone.

You put me in Macbeth and Carmen Jones

And all kinds of Swing Mikados

And in everything but what’s about me

But someday somebody’ll

Stand up and talk about me,

And write about me

Black and beautiful

And sing about me,

And put on plays about me!

I reckon it’ll be

Me myself!

Yes, it’ll be me.

 

DEMASKUS is a national service-oriented collective of artists and administrators seeking to make known the messages of the marginalized. We achieve this through the production and presentation of quality, compassionate, and inclusive artistic events. Everything around us is changing, but our purpose has not. Now more than ever, we must share profound truths from formally marginalized voices that refuse to go unheard and may even offer solutions and solace in a world in dire need of uncompromising reminders of what makes us most humane.

Most Christians will immediately associate DEMASKUS with Damascus–the Syrian capital that is home to the road where Saul of Tarsus had his transformative encounter with God. God struck Saul blind and confronted him about his past. High-born and scholarly, Saul was prone to violence toward early adopters of Christianity. The Collective’s name embodies the idea of revealing the truths that lie beneath the mask(s) of our own blind behavior and beliefs. Art, at its best, helps us to rethink and reimagine that which we think we know. Consciously removing a metaphorical mask certainly requires self-examination. (Based on an exchange with DTC member the Rev. Dr. Leah Lewis, J.D., alluding to Acts 9:1-8). Another source of inspiration for our work is the historic and notable poem, We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Whatever the masks you wear, we invite you to lay them down and join us on a journey filled with crossroads, but free from the expectations and oppressive standards of others. Our art is about us, made by us at times and is always for us.  There is freedom here. Welcome home.

 

Images: You Wouldn’t Expect Production Photos © Martha Rial
Images: WINE IN THE WILDERNESS- Production Photos © Sager McDill