Academy Pittsburgh

@AcademyPGH provides meaningful skill building opportunities to more and different kinds of people looking for economic advantage and personal growth. Our boot camp sessions, methodology, and partnerships focus on delivering practical value to a community and corporate partners as we help grow the region’s technology ecosystem.

Academy Pittsburgh’s mission is to give back and strengthen the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. A portion of our profits are directed into an impact investment fund to help seed the next round of innovation. Academy does not charge tuition or fees to our boot camp participants. Each session of our 12 week boot camp wraps with a service projects for local nonprofits.

Intervention Fundamentals Financial Assistance Fund

According to the 2011 PA Autism Needs Assessment:

95% of pre-school age children with autism require assistance eating. More than 10% of them still require support as adults.
¼ of adults with autism and nearly 95% of pre-elementary children with autism are not able to independently communicate their wants.
Greater than 70% of pre-school age children and 20% of adults with autism are not toilet trained.

Zachary Benkovitz & Randall Keech founded Intervention Fundamentals in November 2014 to serve families who have struggled to teach their children these skills within the context of conventional supports. Intervention Fundamentals empowers families by enlisting their active participation in the teaching process as we provide them with high-intensity outcome-based training.

Our interventions target essential skill development in four functional areas: toileting, communication, feeding &sleeping. Guiding parents as they teach their child new skills within the unique context of their family’s daily life yields rapid & robust results, and instills all family members with greater confidence as they pursue continued fulfillment of their child’s potential.

However, not every family is in the position to pay out-of-pocket for our services. We have met with numerous families who need help teaching one or more of these skills to their child, but cannot afford our services. In December 2016 we established a Fiscal Sponsorship with New Sun Rising to launch Intervention Fundamentals’ Financial Assistance Fund. This fund will allow any family who has struggled to teach their child these basic skills within conventional supports — not only those with the financial means — to access our services. We are grateful for the initial donation, enough to allow us to serve three families on our financial wait-list, made by one of the families we worked with in 2016.

Donate Here

Digital Bridges Pittsburgh

Digital Bridges Pittsburgh, an expansion of work originating with the Social Media Advisory Counsel in 2013, teaches digital literacy & digital life skills with emphasis on workforce readiness. We teach people how to live better lives via technology, and how to do it safely. Digital literacy — and maintaining digital competence — is an issue for everyone as technology outpaces human adaptability; even more so for those that are in the typical “at-risk” categories.

We try to focus on young adults, and teaching them the realities of the tech in their pocket, how to have an online strategy, & thinking about their social media in terms of professional & personal life. Today everyone has a platform & a voice, which means we all need to know how to navigate that world effectively & safely.

Other examples of folks we love: Displaced middle class & low income workers, or people who need skills & paths to better professions. We also help veterans & former offenders, or people who are placed in a digital bubble due to their respective situations. Digital Bridges Pittsburgh helps them to reintegrate successfully by giving them the tech tools & knowledge they need, and the ability to use it in a way that rebuilds their life.

Hello Neighbor

Hello Neighbor is an organization dedicated to supporting & empowering refugees & immigrants. Our mission is to break down barriers by building bridges. We do this through a variety of educational resources, community events & dedicated programming focusing on refugees & immigrants who have been in the U.S. from between 6 months through 5 years.

We also believe in educating & providing resources to mentors so they can become Refugee Advocates. We believe that by being a conduit to relationships through mentorship & community building, we can help remove stigma & prejudice around refugees & immigrants.

Prototype Makerspace

Archived Project. To make a donation, please visit https://prototypepgh.com

What started as a personal studio for co-founders Erin Oldynski and E.Louise Larson is now a feminist makerspace. Prototype was born from the idea that we are constantly prototyping the kind of world we want to live in. As two women who love making, educating, and Pittsburgh, this is our first prototype for the future. We see Prototype as a space where feminists of all genders are welcome to make things, fail quickly, and find the support to start all over again. Prototype is a recipient of the 100 Days of US grant through the Sprout Fund.

Latham Street Commons

Latham Street Commons (LSC) is a living laboratory that focuses on improving the health of all people living in Pittsburgh’s Garfield & Friendship neighborhoods by addressing their social, educational & economic needs. We are building a resilient & sustainable ecosystem of people working together to address all of the factors affecting access to good health — social support, health care, education, diet, employment & connection to nature.

Centered on the idea of integrating food commerce & community with education & sustainability, we provide an innovative approach to workforce development & employment so that individuals can become self-sufficient. Our mission is to provide the necessary tools so people of all ages can design shared learning experiences that improve the overall health of their community. We aim to dissolve the idea of us vs. them, so that we’re left with just us, living well, together.

Braddock Tiles

Braddock Tiles is a socially engaged business that produces durable handmade ceramic architectural tiles and fine art tiles. Situated in the neighborhood of Braddock PA and within the larger context of post-industrial unemployment, we are committed to creating job opportunities for our neighbors and providing work readiness programming for young adults.

We have in invaluable partnership with the Braddock Youth Project, a very successful youth employment and empowerment program serving the local community since 2006. Braddock Tiles served as a work site for youth over the summer of 2016 and through the 2016-17 school year, with an anticipated group of six youth for the 2017 summer. Local youth discover the ceramic medium by learning the art of tile making and have opportunities to explore other tools and techniques in the shop. Over the months, youth develop “soft” job skills and learn to make high quality, hand-crafted architectural tiles.

McKoy Creative Games

McKoy Creative Games is developing fun, innovative ways to engage communities, empower action, and provide them with access to the resources to do so. By gamifiying the community engagement process, it makes activation seem less daunting and provides greater access to resources, organizations, and individuals that can affect everything from physical spaces to policy.