Tag: Vibrant Communities

New Sun Rising Supports Resident-led Projects through the One Northside Mini-grant Program

Posted on by Scott Wolovich

The One Northside Mini-grant Program, supported by The Buhl Foundation, will invest $50,000 in awards and development support for community-driven projects. The 2018 program seeks to strengthen connections and create opportunity throughout the 18 Northside neighborhoods, and was previously known as ‘Neighbor to Neighbor’ when managed by our friends at the The Sprout Fund.

One Northside Mini-Grants of up to $1,000 will be awarded for projects that enjoy the support of their community and advance the vision of One Northside – focusing on improving the Quality of Education, Employment, Place, Safety, and Health for all Northside residents.

Grant recipients will receive additional project development support through New Sun Rising and the Mini-grant Street Team Ambassadors. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis and reviewed monthly with decisions announced around the end of each summer month (June, July, and August), as well as a winter cycle (October, November, December).

New Sun Rising, whose mission is to build vibrant communities through culture, sustainability, and opportunity, will facilitate the mini-grant program as a continuation of their Ignite Northside program. Joining them are the Mini-Grant Street Team Ambassadors including four residents (Kate Kelley, Maria Searcy, Ashlyn Taylor, Ginger Underwood) who received training from Levels Creative Empowerment + Consulting Group to recruit and support applicants for the duration of the mini-grant process.

While previous mini-grant recipients are encouraged to apply, New Sun Rising also seeks to broaden the support for long-time residents with projects, creatives, and business leaders making social impact. Applicants who live and work in underserved Northside neighborhoods are encouraged to submit proposals supporting One Northside’s expanded focus on Safety and Health, as well as those which strengthen connections, increase accessibility to resources, and activate significant places to build vibrancy with their neighbors.

Northside community projects seeking financial and development support are encouraged to attend an information session to learn more about the One Northside Mini-Grant process in advance of preparing an application. A public call for applications will be made in June and accepted on an ongoing basis until funds are expended.  See www.newsunrising.org/project/ignite-northside for application details, meeting locations, dates, and times, or contact New Sun Rising staff by phone (412) 407-9007 or email info@newsunrising.org to request an informal meeting.

 

About One Northside

One Northside is a community-driven initiative to improve the quality of life in all 18 Northside neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. Since 2016, through the support of The Buhl Foundation, New Sun Rising has helped 92 Northside residents and community members put their ideas into action through the One Northside Consensus Plan’s focus on Quality of Education, Employment, Place, Health, and Safety. For more information, visit OneNorthsidePGH.org.

 

About New Sun Rising

New Sun Rising  (NSR) is an innovative 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to build vibrant communities through culture, sustainability and opportunity. NSR provides programs and services that create equitable opportunity, solve social challenges, and strengthen the vibrancy of place. Since 2005, over 400 individuals, organizations, and funders have worked with NSR to launch their nonprofit projects, social businesses, and economic development initiatives throughout the Greater Pittsburgh region with $5 million of support. For more information, visit NewSunRising.org.

 

New Sun Rising Impact Report 2017

Posted on by Dan Stiker

For many of us, 2017 brought new challenges to our cultural, environmental, and economic well-being. Tough conversations ensued as people began to ask whether the ‘tendencies in the world’ were reflective of their values or were in need of change. New Sun Rising responded with our most impactful year ever, supporting 156 non-profits and entrepreneurs who committed to use their power to make positive change in their communities.

During this past year we also made some fundamental changes, such as clearly communicating our goals through a new mission statement:

New Sun Rising builds vibrant communities through culture, sustainability, and opportunity.

And, building upon a decade of lessons learned while helping grassroots leaders overcome their challenges, we published the Vibrant Communities framework to inspire others to join the movement. We adopted new core values of Equity, Entrepreneurship, and Place to focus our decision making. We strengthened our team to mirror the diversity we value in life and expertise, adding: Zaheen Hussain (Director of Sustainability), Jamie Johnson (Performance Improvement Manager), and Leigh Solomon Pugliano (Director of Opportunity) to join Daniel Stiker (Director of Culture + Operations) and myself. We also acquired the Millvale Moose to develop a Center for Community Vibrancy with a number of mission aligned partners.

This 2017 Impact Report offers a glimpse into how New Sun Rising and our partners are building vibrant communities. Not simply dreaming about what’s possible, but by demonstrating that today, people are working hard to strengthen our culture, achieve sustainability, and create opportunity for all. We hope that you’ll join us.

-Scott Wolovich, Executive Director

The Vibrant Communities Framework, informed by the shared values of New Sun Rising and our partners, guides our work and strives to bridge the opportunity gap. We believe that transformational change requires a commitment to engage + co-power local stakeholders, connect opportunity with community priorities, and to develop + activate a an entrepreneurial mindset.

By quantifying and reporting on both the social and financial return on our investments, we lift up and value a range of contributions made by the individuals and communities we support.

View the full report here:

NSR 2017 Impact Report

Launch Wilkinsburg Showcase + Celebration

Join us to celebrate 12 months of hard work by the Launch Wilkinsburg incubator cohort. Meet the participants and learn more about equitable development of a vibrant community based on neighborhood values. Children welcome with adult supervision.

Food, drinks, entertainment, and panel discussions with:
The Wilkinsburg Chamber of Commerce
School of Finance and Entrepreneurship
Speak Life Poetry Community
K Theatre Dance Complex
Virginia Dere Swimwear
Impact Redevelopment
Center for Civic Arts
Gizmo’s Dog Lounge
A Peace of Mind

New Sun Rising Announces Director of Opportunity

Posted on by Dan Stiker

New Sun Rising is excited to welcome Leigh Solomon-Pugliano in her role as Director of Opportunity. The primary responsibility of this new position is to scale the impact of established social businesses and nonprofit organizations through the Grow program. Additional duties include further development of Vibrant Communities, the organization’s framework for regenerative community development built upon equity, entrepreneurship, and place. Core Vibrant Community strategies include Culture, Sustainability, and Opportunity, created through Planning, Resources, and Connectivity, in order to create an authentic community Identity.

To achieve these goals, Solomon-Pugliano will develop a Grow programs and services to support established, growth-stage businesses and projects, plan and deliver workshops and entrepreneurial education seminars, increase the diversity of earned income opportunities, support the administration of Vibrancy Funds’ loans, grants, and awards, and more.

Solomon-Pugliano’s past work mentoring and consulting for social entrepreneurs prepares her for this position. She joins NSR from her own consulting firm, Straight Forward Consulting, which provided start-ups, non-profits, and creative entrepreneurs while accentuating diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her experience as a mentor stems from work with New Sun Rising and Social Venture Partners.

In addition, Solomon-Pugliano is the founder and director of a New Sun Rising fiscally-sponsored project: Barrels to Beethoven, a social enterprise launched in 2014. Programming focused on music education and development of the steelpan and includes youth programs, summer camps, and supplementary school curriculum. Barrels to Beethoven holds workshops that not only teach attendees how to play the instrument, but also how to construct it — in order to preserve the process of making and maintaining the instrument. 

Since joining the NSR team, Solomon-Pugliano is focused on the development of the Grow program and is currently designing a Grow Residency program for projects, businesses, and social organizations that will foster sustainability through business mentoring, professional development, revenue model development, and civic innovation while finding new and collective solutions to community problems.