This story was originally published by NEXTpittsburgh, a news partner of PublicSource. NEXTpittsburgh features the people, projects and places advancing the region and the innovative and cool things happening here. Sign up to get their free newsletter.

Pittsburgh’s Downtown will soon see an expanded space dedicated to starting and accelerating Black businesses through mentorship and networking.

The Greenwood Plan, a Black-founded and Black-led nonprofit committed to advancing economic justice for Black communities through education, networking and resources, recently acquired the Pitt Building on the corner of Smithfield Street and Boulevard of the Allies through Greenwood Smithfield LLC, its subsidiary company. 

Founded in 2021 by Khamil Bailey and Samantha Black, the Greenwood Plan developed from a one-week Black entrepreneurial conference called Greenwood Week. That program began in 2018 and brought local entrepreneurs together to share experiences and resources.

“People believed that, ‘If someone comes from the same place as me and had similar hurdles, I could also do that thing,’” says Bailey, the executive director. “From that, we decided to expand into year-round programming, and that’s how the nonprofit came to be.”

The Black Business Conference, Greenwood Week, occurs each October. The conference includes networking, performances and classes that fall under five pillars of health: environmental, physical, mental, financial and spiritual. 

“It’s almost our pep rally for the year,” Bailey adds. “Everybody gets riled up about starting a business, running a business and exploring business.”

The Greenwood Plan focuses on intentional resource redirection, economic justice, business growth and sustainment and socioeconomic guidance. The aim is to eliminate barriers for Black entrepreneurs.

In addition to its Greenwood Week conference, the Greenwood Plan hosts industry-specific summits and recently added an arts organizing program for creative entrepreneurs. It also provides $500 mini-grants to Black businesses to alleviate business costs.

It works with the state’s Department of General Services to help Black businesses win state contracts. It also collaborates with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Bridgeway Capital.

Shannel Lamere first attended a Greenwood Week conference in 2019 and began doing film and photography for Greenwood. She now owns and operates Shannel Lamere Films.

“She has grown with us over the past four years,” Bailey says. “People will give their talent, their treasure and come to us when they need things that we can provide, which a lot of the time is audience.”

Permanent space for Black business acceleration

Bailey received a LinkedIn message shortly after founding the Greenwood Plan in 2021 from the manager of the America’s Club co-working space, formerly in the Pitt Building. The club was looking to bring in more diverse entrepreneurs. After a tour, the Greenwood Plan became a member.

“We found ourselves making coffee, straightening up and tidying the space, and just greeting people when they came in the door,” Bailey says. “So we took a bit of ownership in it.”

In November 2021, the Greenwood Plan took out a lease on the space, renaming it Emerald City Pittsburgh. The 12,000-foot co-working space is dedicated to boosting Black entrepreneurship and wealth. That is when Bailey learned of other vacancies in the building. 

“We thought if we’re going to fill up the vacancy, we probably should just own the building,” she adds.

The effort received $1 million from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. The space will become an incubation and accelerator space with commercial storefronts, mentorship programs and networking opportunities for Black business owners. 

Russell General Contracting, a Black-owned family business, is leading the consulting for renovating the building.

In addition to Emerald City, the three-story building has a Cricket Wireless store and a mutual aid nonprofit. The third floor, which is currently a gym, is slated to become an event and assembly space.

“It has vaulted ceilings and breathtaking skylights,” Bailey adds. “We always knew this would be the next space for the building because people need to get their eyes on it.”

Third-floor renovations are scheduled to begin in February. 

Pittsburgh has a rich history of Black entrepreneurship. Bailey says that is at the forefront of creating the new space and ensuring that business leaders get the support they need.

“We want to remind people of the history that has already existed here,” Bailey says. “Black entrepreneurship is not new. Out of necessity, Black entrepreneurship has thrived.

“We’re at a point now where it is necessary again for Black entrepreneurship to grow to be able to take care of the communities that exist here.”

Ethan Woodfill is a freelance journalist interested in telling the stories of people doing great things to build community and sustainability.

The post Greenwood Plan to bring business accelerator Downtown to aid Black enterprises appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

This story was originally published by NEXTpittsburgh, a news partner of PublicSource. NEXTpittsburgh features the people, projects and places advancing the region and the innovative and cool things happening here. Sign up to get their free newsletter.

A program that provides young LGBTQ people of color with a space for creative expression and sexual health services is graduating to a new phase in its 11th year. 

Project Silk, which began out of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health to provide services to young queer people of color, was acquired by Allies for Health + Wellbeing last month from Community Human Services.

Project Silk began in 2012 in response to a focus group called the Young Adult Roundtables. The Roundtables initiative began in 1995 in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, regional HIV organizations and stakeholders. It was led by the University of Pittsburgh.

The goal was, in part, to address disparities in HIV cases. Young Black men who have sex with men and young Black transgender women are disproportionately impacted by HIV. A 2018 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that Black men who have sex with men made up 25% of new HIV infection diagnoses. Another 2018 study found Black transgender women have an HIV prevalence rate of 45%.

Nayck Feliz worked with Pitt as a research associate from 2008 to 2011 and as associate director of Project Silk from 2012 to 2015. He says the Young Adult Roundtables would travel the state to share information.

“They all contributed to including the voice of the youth in the state,” Feliz says.

A 2021 paper explains that the group was composed of Black and Latinx sexual and gender minority youth between the ages of 13 and 24. The group identified barriers to HIV and STI testing, including accessibility hours and location, confidentiality and stigma surrounding sexual and gender orientation in STI and HIV clinics. 

When the original National HIV AIDS Strategy was released in 2010, the Roundtables were discontinued, according to Feliz.

The national strategy changed the priorities, he adds. “The Pittsburgh group was mainly a lot of young people of color and transgender women, which was the population we wanted to reach. So we asked their input on what they would like to see in the Pittsburgh area, and that’s how Project Silk got started.”

There was a particular emphasis on those in Pittsburgh’s Ballroom community. Ballroom exists as a counterculture to drag balls, which, in the 20th century, were often exclusionary of people of color.

Many Young Adult Roundtable participants were involved in the house and ballroom community, which hosted balls and competitions. They suggested a drop-in center that also would allow for activities such as vogue — a style of ballroom dance — to engage youth. 

Sean DeYoung, CEO for Allies for Health + Wellbeing, says the goal was to provide a recreation-based community health space that would pair activities with HIV and STI prevention, testing and treatment. 

The program provided a safe space for young men and transgender women and connected them with medical care, mental health and substance use counseling, dental care and hormone treatment. It also connected them to housing and shelter, education and job readiness assistance, legal services and leadership training.

From 2013 to 2015, Project Silk reached 30% of the target population per year. It provided 107 tests for sexually transmitted infections and served an average of 102 participants annually with direct social services, housing and mental health services.

“The proudest thing for me was getting it off the ground,” Feliz says. “Getting the information from the youth and seeing it come into shape was very rewarding. I’m hoping that Allies will go back to the beginning to what it was all about: listening to what people need and trying their best to provide what they need for them to stay healthy.”

Project Silk was recognized as a best-practice model for engaging young Black men who have sex with men and young Black transgender women by the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Project Silk-Lehigh Valley and Project GLO-Harrisburg are modeled off the original implementation. 

In 2015, Project Silk was acquired by Community Human Services.

“It has been an honor for our organization to be trusted with such a brilliant and innovative project,” said Alicia Romano, CEO of CHS in a statement. “We believe the time has come for Project Silk to embark on a new chapter of growth and expansion beyond what we can offer.”

“It wasn’t a great mission fit for CHS,” Allies CEO DeYoung says. “They are primarily a homeless services organization. We were happy to take this on.”

East Liberty-based Allies for Health + Wellbeing, formerly the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, offers inclusive primary care and specializes in HIV, hepatitis C, and STI testing and care, as well as gender-affirming care. 

Allies has received a Ryan White Part B grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to provide funding for HIV health care and support services. 

DeYoung says he has pulled in people who formed Project Silk to get their feedback on how the program will look moving forward.

“We’re going to make sure that we do it right,” DeYoung says. “We’ve been around a long time, and our primary focus has been both intervention and caring for people living with HIV. This is just another opportunity for us to make a bigger impact in the community that we’re trying to serve.”

DeYoung says participation in the program had declined under CHS. Allies plans to partner with TransYOUniting, a North Side-based mutual aid nonprofit, and its community space.

“The space is supposed to be a creative space for them to work on their art or what they’re doing in the community and add in good programming around good sexual health education,” DeYoung says. “They don’t have a lot of resources, so we’re going to be able to provide staff and financial resources for their space.”

DeYoung expects the program to be fully staffed and running in January.

“Kiddos can come and do laundry or take a shower because a lot of them are transient and will have a safe space to come and get clean,” DeYoung says. 

“I just want people to know their status. If they do have HIV, they can get the meds they need, get into our case management program. If you don’t have insurance, we can help get insurance.” 

Ethan is a freelance journalist interested in telling the stories of people doing great things to build community and sustainability.

The post Project Silk renews mission to help young LGBTQ people of color appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

This story was originally published by NEXTpittsburgh, a news partner of PublicSource. NEXTpittsburgh features the people, projects and places advancing the region and the innovative and cool things happening here. Sign up to get their free newsletter.

Plans are moving forward to develop the former ShurSave site at 4401 Liberty Ave. in Bloomfield. O’Hara-based Echo Realty plans to build a Giant Eagle, 248 rental units, 10,000 square feet of retail space and an outdoor plaza. 

The grocery store would be built along Howley Street with five stories of apartments above it and retail shops near Ella Street with another four stories of apartments above them. 

The Bloomfield Development Corporation and Echo Realty presented plans to develop the site at two community meetings held at the West Penn Hospital School of Nursing on July 11 and 15. About 140 people attended in person; the event was also live-streamed on Facebook.

The proposed five-to-six-story complex is set to go to the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment for a hearing on Aug. 10. Among the four variances requested is one that is needed to build six stories whereas the current site is only zoned for three stories. 

All parking would be located behind, under or inside the buildings. Commercial parking is planned for Howley Street with residential parking on Ella Street. The proposal includes 199 underground spaces and 119 spaces on the first floor and mezzanine level.

The site has had a long history of proposed developments. 

In 2018, Milhaus proposed an apartment complex on the site, which sparked widespread community opposition and questions about housing affordability. Milhaus dropped the bid in late 2018.

In 2019, the Bloomfield Development Corporation and Action Housing developed the Bloomfield Central Gateway Development Guidelines in response to the proposed development. Based on a number of workshops and in consultation with the design firm Studio for Spatial Practice, a number of guidelines were created for future developments.

“We came away with a set of recommendations for the property, including what people didn’t want to see on the property, like surface parking,” says Christina Howell, executive director of the Bloomfield Development Corporation. 

In 2020, Echo Realty purchased the site for nearly $6 million, and ShurSave reopened as a Community Market operated by Giant Eagle. Echo’s original redevelopment proposal in 2021 was for a four-story complex with 190 apartments.

“A key component (of the new proposal) is that there’s a grocery store included,” says Sam Spearing, community development manager at Bloomfield Development Corporation. “That was a big thing for a lot of people. People have varying opinions on the actual operator of the grocery store, but at the end of the day, people are excited to see a grocery store there.”

Spearing also says the outdoor plaza is critical as part of the area’s beautification and gateway identity. 

“Currently the site is mostly a surface parking lot, which makes it very easy to cross through the site,” Spearing says. “It’s very walkable, and so a lot of people walk to the grocery store. (Echo) has both north-south and west-east pedestrian routes that cross through the site.”

The affordability of apartments was also a top concern for Bloomfield residents, according to Spearing and Howell.

About 10% of the units are required to be affordable to people making 50% or less of the area median income as part of the city’s inclusionary zoning, which was expanded to include Bloomfield last year. Plans are for a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. 

Questions were also raised at the meetings about housing choice vouchers. Philip Bishop, vice president of Echo Realty, said he would encourage a prospective operator of the housing development to accept vouchers. 

Massing, which considers the three-dimensional spacing and shape of the complex as it coordinates with the rest of Bloomfield, is also a critical consideration, Spearing indicates. 

“(Echo) tried to make the massing contextual to the neighborhood streets,” Spearing says. “They looked at the tall, bigger windows and brick arcades along Liberty Avenue that break up the flow a little bit more. They looked at the more residential facades along Gangwish and Ella and tried to match those.”

There are also plans to add street trees and preserve and improve bus stops.

“The bus stops are relatively well-used, particularly Ella and Liberty,” Spearing adds. “It’s at the intersection of several bus routes, so people will stand at that corner and whichever bus gets there first is the one they’ll jump on to get to Downtown.”

If the Zoning Board of Adjustment grants approval, the proposal would move to the city’s Planning Commission. Demolition could begin in 2024 if all approvals are met. 

Ethan Woodfill is a freelance journalist interested in telling the stories of people doing great things to build community and sustainability.

The post New Giant Eagle and apartment complex could cause zoning changes in Bloomfield appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

This story was originally published by NEXTpittsburgh, a news partner of PublicSource. NEXTpittsburgh features the people, projects and places advancing the region and the innovative and cool things happening here. Sign up to get their free newsletter.

Sandi “Sunny” Welch, 74, has been a master gardener for 30 years and saw a need in Pittsburgh’s Hill District for people to learn how to garden and understand where food comes from. 

“I wanted to get people involved in gardening, understanding food, and luckily found somebody who gave me a piece of land to use,” Welch says. 

The Center that CARES donated a parcel of land at 613 Granville St. in the Hill District for the first Sunny’s Community Garden, named after the nickname Welch’s grandchildren gave her. An anonymous foundation sustains Sunny’s with a grant, and Sunny’s does one fundraiser per year for wishlist items. 

Welch says she began the garden in 2021 with an “if you build it, they will come” mentality. She graded and leveled an empty lot.  

“I didn’t know a soul on the Hill when I started, but as people walked by and said ‘What are you doing? Can we help?’ —  we gathered a really solid group of volunteers who came on a regular basis,” Welch says. 

The Hill District garden has 19 raised beds and 15 grow bags. Among the crops, there are tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onion, shallots, leeks, spinach, lettuce, kale, squash and eggplant.

“And all the herbs,” Welch adds. “I don’t think we got any ginger this year.”

Aside from edible produce, there is a memory garden and fish pond, five lunch tables, and a shaded deck for activities. 

Welch also teaches a class called “Seeds of Resilience” to write about lost loved ones to place on a small plaque on a pot. 

Sunny’s serves as a community space — Welch has seen rallies and marches come through the garden, poetry readings, Zumba classes and even three weddings. The space is accessible and embraces diversity, inclusivity, sustainability, fairness and fun. 

“We give away everything we grow,” Welch says. “Sometimes people come in and say, ‘What’s ready today?’ And they’ll walk out with cucumbers or some carrots. Everything is out in the open. The neighborhood is very respectful of the garden.”

Today, Sunny’s Community Garden Fund is managed by the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies and is a member of Grow Pittsburgh, which entitles them to 10 buckets of compost and mulch per month. 

Welch was content with the work in the Hill District. But an empty lot at the corner of N. Franklin and Sedgwick streets in Manchester beckoned.

“I didn’t think I was going to do a second garden,” Welch says. 

But the second Sunny’s Garden opened on June 10 in Manchester, a program of the Manchester Academic Charter School.

Volunteers gathered for a grand opening work session to transform the lot into a garden. They spread soil and wood chips, built a storage shed, work tables, and a compost system, and prepared 13 4’x8’ raised garden beds. 

The garden includes kale, spinach, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, carrots, herbs, onion, garlic, ginger, herbs, and flowers. 

Part of the reason Welch is able to start a second garden is all the help she has received in the Hill District. 

She says she never intended to manage the Hill District garden long-term; rather, she helped train volunteers from the community to maintain the space. 

“My original thought was to turn it back to the community after five years, but after two years, they were ready,” Welch adds.

Welch trained three women from the Hill District to serve as lead gardeners. 

“One day I said, ‘You guys don’t need me anymore,’ ” Welch says. “‘You have the skills, knowledge and enthusiasm for the garden to take it over,’ and that’s what they did.” 

Lisa Minor is one of the lead gardeners for Sunny’s in the Hill District.

“Besides serving as a therapeutic outlet, the garden has introduced me to three lifelong friends,” Minor says. “I could not think of a better way to volunteer: helping feed the community with fresh veggies and herbs while spending quality time with friends.”

Lead gardener Janis Franklin agrees, “I feel a big part of the garden is having a place of beauty where people can come to relax and get away from the cares of daily life for a while. Many times I’ve heard people say that they were having a rough day and just wanted a place to come to relax.”

Sunny’s Community Garden is looking for volunteers in Manchester and the Hill District. For more information and upcoming events, visit the Facebook page. 

Ethan Woodfill is a freelance journalist interested in telling the stories of people doing great things to build community and sustainability.

The post Sunny’s Community Garden grows beyond the Hill District to second location in Manchester appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.