Neighborhood Allies supports the De’Avry Thomas Community Center with $15,000 “first in” investment, jumpstarting the revitalization of a youth community center in Penn Hills

by Chelsea Contino | Dec 9, 2024 | Advance Equity, Build Capacity, Front Page, Revitalize Neighborhoods

After his family was devastated by gun violence in 2013, pre-teen Kahlil Darden began to dream about changing his community for the better. Now, years later, his organization Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens (YBMKQ) brings together “young men and women...

From Gray Space to Green Space: CEA Breaks Ground on Community Plaza

by Chelsea Contino | Nov 26, 2024 | Advance Equity, Build Capacity, Front Page

Rashad D. Byrdsong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Empowerment Association (CEA), has dreamed of turning the parking lot beside his building into a community gathering and event space for quite some time. Last month, after years of fundraising,...

Jordan Swartz, Neighborhood Allies Social Impact Designer, Selected to AIA Pittsburgh’s Leadership Institute

by Chelsea Contino | Sep 13, 2024 | Build Capacity, Front Page

Jordan is one of 20 young professionals in architecture to be selected for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Pittsburgh’s Leadership Institute! A program of the Pittsburgh Architecture Foundation, the institute’s purpose is to “explore and...

Social Impact Design | Call for Projects

by Chelsea Contino | Sep 6, 2024 | Advance Equity, Build Capacity, Front Page, Revitalize Neighborhoods

Neighborhood Allies, through the Social Impact Design (SID) program, is seeking proposals from community organizations, local leaders, artists, designers, and small businesses in Pittsburgh’s underserved neighborhoods. We want to work together on projects that...

From Vision to Action: Creating a Creative Analytic Play Space in the Hilltop

by talia piazza | Sep 6, 2024 | Advance Equity, Announcements, Build Capacity, Front Page, Hilltop, Revitalize Neighborhoods

Last summer, our Social Impact Design team partnered with The Brashear Association, Inc. and South Pittsburgh residents to co-design a Creative Analytic Play Space (CAPS) to be built in a vacant lot across from the Brashear CARES Center.   Our team worked...

Kincaid Street Garden Project

by Chelsea Contino | Aug 30, 2024 | Build Capacity, Front Page, Revitalize Neighborhoods

Between January and August of 2024, Neighborhood Allies collaborated with the Kincaid Street Community Garden to design a new community space that could bring life to the garden’s vacant southern lot. The goals of the project included designing a space that...