Over the past seven years, Neighborhood Allies has developed focus and expertise in Economic Opportunity and addressing racial wealth equity. We continue to expand, providing more services to greater segments of the population.

In recent years, we have worked to provide services to individuals with disabilities, collaborating with local service organizations, financial institutions, and national stakeholders to build long-term financial stability and pathways to opportunity.

Sarah Dieleman Perry, our Director of Economic Opportunity, has been working with the National Disability Institute (NDI) since 2019, when we helped them to plan for a local convening and then launched and led the Pittsburgh Financial Inclusion Working Group until 2021. The purpose of these gatherings was to connect practitioners in both the financial services and disability services fields and work toward solutions together.

We also organized a five-part webinar series led by Achieva Family Trust on disability awareness for social service and financial service partners.

More recently, as the conversation has turned to the intersection of race, ethnicity, poverty, and disability, we stepped forward to co-lead the Pittsburgh Coalition along with United Way of Southwestern PA. Future plans for the coalition include listening sessions with people with disabilities, training sessions on disability inclusion and etiquette, and selection of BIPOC ABLE ambassadors to promote this program.  

Anyone who wants to get involved in the coalition can contact Sarah at sarah@neighborhoodallies.org.