UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Community Outreach Partnership Center

Six-Month Report

Report Period: July – December 2002

1. HOUSING

Oakland

Collected data on selected housing in South Oakland: occupancy, ownership, tax-liens, and other conditions. The information is being used by COPC partner Oakland Planning and Development Corp. for their housing development strategy in South Oakland.

Completed Central Oakland Rental Housing Database, includes legal owner and tax addresses. Students assisted with closings on home purchases.

Brochure created for home for sale in Oakland.

Expanded OPDC’s GIS to include property types. Putting data on website. Added more information on relocation guides.

Added Fair Housing information to COPC web site.

Recruited Law School intern who is working with a group of law students to develop a tenants rights packet and other housing rights guidelines to be put on Community Housing Resource Center website linked to COPC website.

Working group on housing reactivated after summer to work on issues of code enforcement, absentee landlord targeting, housing education and outreach, and operating the Community Housing Resource Center outreach office. Code enforcement review and monitoring process has been streamlined and reestablished.

COPC leadership worked through University Senate and its Community Relations Committee to renew efforts to develop a University-based Employee Assisted Housing Program in cooperation with Fannie Mae.

Recruited Community Development Work Study intern to activate Community Housing Resource Center office.

Sabina’s Neighborhood and Community Development Course completed its study of Pier Street. A report is being finalized, and the students also made a video for the project. Note: Pier Street residents using the City’s new “Private Right of Action” and with Oakland Community Council staff support (former COPC intern), were successful in a suit against one of Oakland’s worst absentee landlords.

Fall’s Neighborhood & Community Development class completed Oakland Square study.

Hazelwood

Collected, organized and analyzed 2000 Census data at block group level for community partner Hazelwood Initiative and its planning committee. Data include value, tenure, and age of housing stock. Information is being used for fund-raising.

Researched preservation opportunities and possible funding sources for Woods House, oldest residence in Pittsburgh.

2. NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION

Allequippa Terrace Oak Hill - Food Pantry

COPC holds three main goals in its role in the Allequippa Terrace/Oak Hill Food Pantry: raise funds for adequate monthly food allotments and pay food pantry staff, increase nutritional education and value of food, and develop Residents Council’s ability to run the food pantry. Problems have arisen in all of these goals in the last few months, but they are being resolved.

Funding is a major issue because HOPE VI funds, which supported the pantry, are no longer available. The COPC intern, with the help of Housing Opportunities Unlimited (Community Partner in Oak Hill) and Pitt faculty, has written three grant proposals for additional financial pantry support. The intern is also working the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to determine ways to solve this dilemma. Further, the intern has been working with the Giant Eagle grocery store chain to seek additional support.

The most difficult problem has been the lack of strong and sustained leadership, but residents are cognizant of and are addressing the problem. This fall, the Residents’ Council not only replaced the person who organized the food pantry, but they also placed new members on the council board. Recognition of inefficient leadership is a positive step toward empowering the community members. On a positive note, Residents’ Council President has shown more effective leadership and management skills in recent months.

The Residents’ Council has become more involved in organizing pantry volunteers. They recruited about 10 regular community volunteers to unload the truck and distribute the food monthly. The Council holds mandatory monthly meetings on pantry policies and procedures, and inefficient volunteers are replaced.

With COPC intern help, the residents' council developed a written plan for improving the food pantry. For example, the first hour of distribution has been designated for seniors only.

The COPC intern, who graduated from Pitt in April, was hired on a full-time basis at HOU. In December she was promoted and transferred to their Washington D.C.

A new intern was hired this past fall term and will continue until April.

Summary of Major Activities (Progress on Tasks)

Improved nutritional quality of food ordered since COPC implemented
Policies and procedures developed and incorporated into written form – given to residents and volunteers
Written three grants and developed relationship with three grocery stores in order to provide funding when HOPE VI money runs out – still waiting for response
Established relationship with jitney service to deliver food to shut-ins in community
Community residents have begun to develop necessary skills for leadership and are running a more organized distribution of food.

Oakland

Revised and completed Oakland community focus group report. Focus groups conducted with major Oakland stakeholders last report period. Report identified Absentee Landlords as primary issue across stakeholders.

Conducted COPC forum with Allegheny Conference on Community Development (ACCD), the region’s major planning and development agency, to learn about proposed community and economic development strategies to make Oakland again a “showplace” community in Pittsburgh. ACCD is now working collaborative with the Oakland Task Force that includes the University of Pittsburgh and community partners.

Formed collaborative with Graduate School of Public Health (Center for Minority Health) to pursue Robert Woods Johnson Foundation “Active Living by Design” grant for an Oakland Active by Design partnership.

Hazelwood

Researched information and writing proposals for other grants for HI, including Main Street project. Put together a database of grants and time frames for future funding cycles.

Students wrote articles for the Hazelwood Homepage, the monthly community paper produced by HI.

Helped to organize 5K, community race as part of Oktoberfest community celebration.

Economic baseline survey for the business district underway. New information added to contacts database.

Helping HI devise future strategies for the organization and helping Homepage to increase advertising.

Oak Hill

HOPE VI evaluation study published and added to COPC website. Project completed and forum held in Oak Hill community for public report to Residents Council, developers, and City Housing Authority.

Overall COPC

Formed collaborative with United Way of Allegheny County under its new Neighborhood Development Impact Council to develop funding for “Catalyst for Community Builders” grassroots leadership training to continue beyond HUD-COPC. Proposal for two annual cohorts submitted and outlook favorable.

(Funding secured in January)

3. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The focus of the economic development portion of COPC is entrepreneurial training to address the welfare-to-work transition. The Self Employment Opportunity Program (SEOP) of the Small Business Development Center has successfully filled this void providing training for three classes of twelve women. COPC will expand this effort by offering training to 8 – 10 women from the targeted neighborhoods of Hazelwood, West Oakland, Oak Hill/Allequippa Terrace.

Summary of Major Activities (Progress on Tasks)

# The first class on the Self Employment Program under COPC was completed in December 2001. Only three finished with a strong plan. In the time since the class ended, these people have followed up with the program but none have begun their business. The program will continue working with these class members and will be available for assistance when they indicate readiness.

# Marketing efforts were underway all year to successfully fill the second class with a stronger group more likely to actually begin their business. Continuous contacts have been maintained and developed with community leaders as well as entrepreneurs in the target neighborhoods.

# Ms. Meyers developed a strong presence in the Hazelwood community with regular participation at the monthly Hazelwood Task Force meetings as well as providing technical assistance to established business in this area.

# With the assistance of a graduate student, flyers were distributed several times throughout the community.

# These efforts were rewarded in September 2002 with the start of another session of the Self Employment Opportunity Program. The class is small with only four members but two of the participants have begun their businesses during the tenure of the class. One additional class member is expected to begin her business soon while the fourth woman has plans to begin in summer 2003.

# The challenge in this class for Ms Meyers was the low educational level of three participants, and the fourth woman holds a M.A. in Corporate Communications - however, this woman’s math skills were limited. Many class sessions were devoted to accounting for the benefit of all. Other sessions dealt with business plan development and it is expected that each person will have a functional business plan by January 2003.

# Only one of the participants will require additional outside funding to begin their business.

# The Self Employment Opportunity Program will conclude the weekly classes during January 2003. Follow up technical assistance and business counseling will continue for as long as necessary with each individual.

4. JOB TRAINING

The University-Community Career Development Partnership was nominated for the Goodwill Industries of Southwestern PA Power of Work Awards (October 2002)

Renewed funding from the Pittsburgh Partnership added another $50,000 to the standard budget and included the addition of a full-time Workforce Development Trainer/Mentor Coordinator to assist with all aspects of job seeking, workshop scheduling, and contact with UCCDP mentors. A staff person was placed in November, 2002.

In Oakland, UCCDP formalized its collaboration with Job*Links to provide expanded job readiness and placement services for local participants and reduce any duplication of services.

The National Student Partnership Project (a student volunteer organization at the University of Pittsburgh located in the Job Links office) has been conducting weekly computer training.

The UCCDP Advisory Board, composed of strategically selected Pitt and UPMC staff members, and community leaders, has been meeting on a quarterly basis to monitor UCCDP progress, assist with efforts to gain more credibility and visibility for the program throughout the University and the UPMC Health System, give insight about possible partnerships with other community programs, and focus on acquiring potential paid work experience sites for UCCDP

The UCCDP Director is currently enrolled in the Workforce Development Facilitator’s Certification Program and Duquesne University for professional development and networking.

UCCDP submitted an Proposal Summary to COPC for submission to Citizen’s Bank for support of University-Community job readiness initiatives with a particular focus on banking and financial job opportunities. Citizens Bank has requested a full proposal.

Summary of Major Activities (Progress on Tasks)

# Since July 2002, 16 carryovers and 10 new participants have been served through UCCDP. 11 have obtained full time employment, 11 have been or are currently participating in job readiness and 22 have been or are currently placed in Paid Work Experience sites throughout the University. Continued recruitment efforts in Oakland, East Liberty (Addison Learning Terrace) and the downtown (Training, Inc.).

# Supportive services: Application completion assistance and cover letter/resume’ preparation have been provided to all participants. Mandatory workshops have been incorporated into the program with regular speakers.

# An MSW student intern was assigned to work in the UCCDP office for 2003 for training UCCDP participants in weekly workshops pertaining to life skills and career development and assisting with day-to-day operations of UCCDP.

# The Director has made numerous contacts with potential partners in surrounding Oakland communities through the efforts with support of UPMC Manager for Workforce Culture

# The Annual UCCDP Picnic took place on August 10, 2002 at Mellon Park with 51 UCCDP participants and their family members attending along with staff and Advisory Committee members.

# The Annual Holiday Gift collection program contributed over 100 gifts and toys to 65 UCCDP participants’ children.

5. EDUCATION

Tutoring

Pitt Project TUTOR, a one-to-one tutorial project served children aged 5 to 10 in grades Kindergarten through 4^th grade during the fall term. The tutorial site is at the Mercy Neighborhood Center near the School of Medicine on the University of Pittsburgh campus.

During the fall 2002 term 14 tutors worked with 22 children twice a week for one hour sessions over a period of eight weeks.

Tutors were volunteers from a variety of undergraduate programs, six of whom had tutored the previous semester. Two of the students were from the Urban Studies Project.

Site counselors assigned tutors to children. They indicated that the students needed close attention and activities that encouraged on-task behavior. Tutors helped with homework, provided assistance in decoding skills, read and played games that developed reading comprehension, assisted with practices in mathematics skills, and provided attention that helped with developing self esteem. At the end of the term each child received a book especially selected based on that child’s interests and reading ability. The tutor coordinator attended the site and supervised the tutorial activities.

Based on on-site observations, formal and informal discussions with tutors and students, and the site staff, Pitt Project TUTOR staff conclude that the project activities were successful in meeting the Project goals.

Youth Career Development and Mentoring

This successful collaboration with Breachmenders Ministries in W. Oakland was featured in the Pitt Magazine article on COPC (December 2002).

This initiative has been successful in helping Breachmenders career development and mentoring efforts expand to all ages and include a family and community support component. Over $450,000 in funding has been developed to support the community. A model curriculum for the project has been created and Breachmenders staff members are now trained to work from this curriculum without ongoing support.

While the University Partner continues to work with the staff and leadership at Breachmenders on fine-tuning the curriculum and program efforts, this program is no longer under HUD-COPC funding. More importantly, the program initiative can be carried on with a renewed staff capacity without COPC oversight.

Consideration is being given to extending this curriculum and initiative to South Oakland.

6. HEALTH AND WELLNESS

UPMC Health System’s Department of Community Initiatives collaborated with the two community health partnerships, HI HOPE and HOP (Healthy Oakland People), located in the COPC service area.

HI HOPE

HI HOPE continues to operate an outreach office on Second Avenue in Hazelwood. The office is supported by funds from the PA Department of Health. HI HOPE is a State Health Improvement Plan partnership as designated by the PA Department of Health. The program employs a project director, a community nurse and two community health advocates. The nurse focuses her efforts on health programs for senior citizens (example: stress reduction classes, flu shots for shut-ins) and youth (examples: hygiene classes in the middle schools, conflict management classes, nutrition classes). The community health advocates work with community members on numerous health-related issues such as access to prescription drugs for those who cannot afford it and treatment and follow-up care for people with chronic illnesses (diabetes, cancer, asthma)

Healthy Oakland People (HOP)

During the past six months HOP, the Oakland Community Health Partnership advanced from the planning and development stage and evolved into a phase of identifying outcome indicators based on the community’s definition of a health community. In June 2002 the executive leadership of HOP secured the expertise of a consultant from The Graduate School of Public Health to facilitate additional focus groups to identify issues and concerns to be addressed in order to create a healthier community. The three focus groups were organized by local residents and comprised of a diverse group of participants from South Oakland, West Oakland and Central Oakland neighborhoods. (Reports are available and will be posted to COPC website)

Given this data, HOP has since formed three working group to address these needs: 1) Transportation, 2) Dissemination of information regarding health services and youth programs available 3) Institutional collaboration with UPMC Health System and the University of Pittsburgh. The working groups are charged to increase community participation in goal setting and create measurable outcomes for each of the focus areas. Efforts so far, include:

Explore Oakland residents using Pitt’s shuttles during off-peak hours.
Explore the potential for using hospital employee shuttles to transport patients to doctor's appointments at Oakland facilities. .
Request that Port Authority Transit reroute buses in W. Oakland for more coverage.
Encourage more institution collaboration to accomplish the following:

o Design and implement a mentoring program for Oakland children who want to enter specific careers, such as public health, medicine, nursing, and others identified by community residents;

o Plan and carry out annual comprehensive screening fair and a family "fun day"

o Develop and print a neighborhood resource guide;

o Create a neighborhood community newsletter that shares information about health services. Each will feature an Oakland organization that promotes health and healthy lifestyles.

o Organize recreational activities for community children.