As the school year begins, Pitt’s CECs welcome neighbors, students and new partnerships

As students prepare to return to classrooms this fall, Pitt’s Community Engagement Centers (CECs) are preparing for a new academic year of their own.

The University’s Neighborhood Commitments in the Hill District, Homewood and Greater Hazelwood will welcome residents with workshops, youth programs, family activities and workforce initiatives. But leaders at each site say the most important work happens long before the first event appears on a calendar.

Rather than creating programs in isolation, teams in Pitt’s Office of Engagement and Community Affairs spend months listening to residents, working alongside community organizations and building on the programs already established by partners in each neighborhood. It’s an approach they say strengthens communities while ensuring University resources complement — not compete with — existing efforts.

“Our neighborhood partners really steer what we do,” said Kelly Protho, director of the CEC in the Hill District.

During the summer, staff at the CEC in the Hill District invited students from nearby public school Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12 to a listening session, asking what they wanted to see from the center. Students overwhelmingly pointed to the arts, and conversations with older residents also surfaced interest in creative activities that build community.

Those conversations helped to shape the Hill District center’s first full slate of programming, which is built around neighborhood partnerships and intergenerational programming in its new home inside the historic New Granada Theater.

[Read more about the Hill District CEC’s new home.]

Among the offerings beginning in the next few weeks is Sew Well, a four-week sewing workshop where adults age 50 and older will learn sewing and mending techniques while creating projects to take home. The workshop is led by local artist and entrepreneur Sharmaine Gamble, founder of wellness-based sewing program House of JeanMarei. Another new partnership, Youth Matters, will introduce high school students to television production, giving them hands-on experience creating a talk show while learning about directing, camera operation, audio production and other behind-the-scenes careers. Additional arts programming invites teenagers to explore identity through mixed-media artwork and encourages residents of all ages to collaborate on a community art project celebrating the Hill District’s past, present and future.

Protho said the emphasis on arts also creates opportunities for intergenerational learning, bringing together youth, parents, caregivers and older residents in shared creative experiences.

That same philosophy of partnership guides the work in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood.

“Our strategy,” said Vernard Alexander (pictured above), director of the CEC in Homewood, “is that we intentionally don’t create things that already exist in the neighborhood. We try to partner with or support what’s already there.”

The CEC in Homewood’s largest back-to-school event, Community Day, happened on Aug. 14. It brought together roughly 20 University and community organizations for a neighborhood celebration featuring a cookout, children’s activities, backpack giveaways and connections to local resources. Organizers estimated attendance to similar to last year’s event, which welcomed hundreds of residents.

Throughout the fall, partnerships continue through programs like PittEnrich, part of the Gismondi Neighborhood Education Program, a 10-week tutoring and STEAM initiative for elementary school students that combines math and reading instruction with hands-on science and engineering activities. Additional collaborations with Pitt faculty will introduce engineering experiences for middle and high school students and create a student-led after-school drop-in center where students from nearby Westinghouse High School will help design activities and establish the program’s culture.

Family engagement also remains central. Working with Homewood Children’s Village and Pitt’s School of Social Work, the center plans to resume its intergenerational Family Night programming, bringing together children, teens and adults for dinners and age-specific activities centered on wellness, mindfulness and community-building.

In Greater Hazelwood, where Pitt’s Neighborhood Commitment continues to foster meaningful community partner relationships and resident engagement, collaboration looks different but follows the same principles.

Jacob Zabela, neighborhood commitment outreach coordinator, said, “Usually we’re partnering really intimately with what already exists in Hazelwood.”

This month, Pitt partnered with Hazelwood’s Jada House International during its annual Back-to-School Blastoff on Aug. 15. Faculty and students offered interactive life sciences activities for children while joining neighborhood organizations in welcoming families back for the school year.

Later this summer, the Neighborhood Commitment launches the second cohort of its Life Sciences Bridge Program, a paid workforce development initiative preparing Greater Hazelwood residents ages 18 to 24 for life sciences careers emerging around Hazelwood Green and BioForge. Participants receive paid job-readiness training, workplace experiences and exposure to employers in Pittsburgh's growing life sciences sector.

[Biomanufacturing and local partnership take center stage in Greater Hazelwood.]

The Neighborhood Commitment also partners with the youth- and arts-focused Center of Life to introduce middle school students to biotechnology through weekly after-school sessions designed to connect science education with opportunities developing in their own community.

Although each neighborhood has distinct priorities, leaders say the underlying mission remains consistent across all three communities. Rather than measuring success solely by attendance, they see their role as strengthening relationships, responding to resident voices and helping neighborhood organizations expand their impact.