In early 2014, Neighborhood Allies formally re-launched as a new and improved 21st century community development organization, with a renewed and revamped commitment to improving the social and physical infrastructures of Pittsburgh’s distressed and transitional communities.
Since the re-launch, we’ve been hard at work – building our staff and expertise to deliver results and impact to neighborhoods at the level they need and deserve, making investments and grants that support resident and neighborhood dreams and aspirations, and forming new and nurturing existing partnerships with the allies that will join us in building a better Pittsburgh for all. Our organization has evolved to be a unique community development partner, unlike any other in Pittsburgh, growing into the role of being part funder, lender, connector and consultant.
Each and every day, our staff works to catalyze fresh thinking, take strategic risks, test new approaches and track progress and impact. We’re proud of the progress we’re making organizationally and on the ground with our partners, but we realize we can and need to do more in order to be the partner and supporter that our allies need.
To that end, we’ve realigned staff responsibilities and roles so that we are better able to serve our partners, funders and grantees, elevate our collective impact and be a powerful force for progress in our neighborhoods:
Talia Piazza will transition to Program Manager for Communications and Marketing and will spend a greater amount of quality time on executing our communications strategy and elevating our media and marketing platform, including website, social media, published success stories (such as One Northside), media relations, marketing our programs and managing public events. Additionally, she will place greater emphasis on promoting the target neighborhoods and community development organizations on a local, regional and national level, and ultimately increase positive news stories about our target neighborhoods. Our communications platform will be a key driver of our success in raising revenue and other support for the community development system.
Shad Henderson, will manage the day-to-day operations of our grantmaking to ensure that our investments are aligned with our strategic priorities and that program progress is tracked, measured and communicated effectively. This new role coincides well with Shad’s current responsibilities as the formation of cross-sector community partnerships is an essential element to create positive long-lasting change in our neighborhoods.
Upon completion of her Fellowship this summer, Doni Crawford was hired as Program Coordinator for Research, Evaluation & Policy. In her new role, Doni will work with staff and leadership to develop strategies to enhance our organization’s capacity to collect, aggregate, analyze, and report data around performance, outcomes and impact. She will work with program staff to evaluate our programs and grantees, and serve as an asset to our partners for research and pursuit of funding. Additionally, she will administer the Project Hope database and web application by: populating the database with timely primary and secondary data; generating Hope reports and maps as needed; and managing relationships with vendors and contractors for the ongoing maintenance and growth of the program.
