Sustainable Pittsburgh

Tag Archive: diversity

• SCDN Leadership Forum: Attracting Residents & Building Community Resiliency through Cultivating Diversity

  June 26, 2018 9:30 pm Leave a Comment

  City of Duquesne Municipal Building
  12 South Second Street
  Duquesne, PA 15110

  Register Here
  Light dinner will be served
  FREE

  5:30 pm – Registration opens
  6:00 pm – Speakers begin

  As communities in Southwestern PA struggle to maintain their current populations and work to attract new residents and businesses, it is helpful to understand what current residents expect and what new residents and employers desire. Please join the Sustainable Community Development Network (SCDN), facilitated by Sustainable Pittsburgh, along with the Local Government Academy (LGA) for an evening Leadership Forum discussing the numerous advantages of fostering a diverse and innovative workforce and how communities can improve economic and community growth through implementing equitable policies.

  Please share with your elected municipal officials and community leaders!

  A diverse workforce (age, gender, race, etc.) has been shown to encourage innovation and creativity and is now sought after by employers and jobs seekers alike. A workforce that includes varying socio-economic backgrounds provides the employer with access to broader social networks for talent attraction and other inherent benefits. The SCDN Forum kicks off with a conversation about how your municipality or organization can lead by example by creating an inclusive workplace.

  Melanie Harrington, Executive Director of Vibrant Pittsburgh, will how discuss how to cultivate proactive leadership to foster diverse workforces that accelerate economic growth and workplace success.

   

   

  anupama jain, Executive Director, City of Pittsburgh’s Commission on Gender Equity, will introduce her new role with the city and share experiences from her extensive academic and organizational work with gender equity solutions.

   

   

  Shon K. Worner, Senior Associate, Campbell Durrant Beatty Palombo & Miller, P.C., specializes in labor and municipal law and will explore the legal aspects of equitable access to employment and human resources.

   

   

  The SCDN Forum will also include a discussion of how community policy and the enforcement of municipal laws can affect people with different abilities, incomes, and/or social capital/access to power.

  Shad Henderson, Director of Community Partnerships and Investments, Neighborhood Allies, will talk about the “All In Pittsburgh” initiative and how equitable development can ensure that everyone participates in and benefits from the region’s economic growth.

   

   

  Wasi Mohamed, Executive Director, Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and a steering committee member for Change Agency, will talk about the creation of programming that can provide simple actionable steps to improve community equity.

   

   

  

  Laura Poskin, Director of Age Friendly Pittsburgh – an initiative of Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging, will illustrate the need for policy that addresses the varied ages and abilities of residents and how it will create a stronger, more resilient region.

   

   

  SCDN and LGA are excited to bring together these regional experts who focus on issues of racial, gender, age, religious equity and more.  They will discuss how you can assess the equity of community development work and create policies that will improve the creativity, innovation, and economic development in your workforce and your community.

  Questions?  Please contact Jim Price, Sustainable Community Manager, Sustainable Pittsburgh at jprice@sustainablepittsburgh.org or (412) 259-5331.

• Webinar: Crowdfunding for Racial Justice

  June 12, 2018 5:00 pm Leave a Comment

  More info & registration
  FREE

  Join ioby to learn from project leaders who are addressing their neighborhood’s need for racial justice and have created community solutions around racial equity. They’ll share how crowdfunding supported their grassroots projects and how they got started, built support, and overcame challenges. Indigo Bishop, one of ioby’s Action Strategists, will also share more about how we work to support social justice changemaking.

  You’ll hear from these on-the-ground experts and have the opportunity to ask questions in real time:

  Amanda King, Shooting Without Bullets
  Christin Farmer, The Mothership Connection
  Leah Lewis, The X’s and O’s of Race/ism, a Docu-series
  Indigo Bishop, ioby’s Cleveland Action Strategist

• State College Borough Achieves Platinum in Sustainable Community Certification

  2:29 pm Leave a Comment

  

  Kudos to State College Borough! They have earned Platinum Certification, currently the highest performance level in the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification program. The Borough was previously recognized at the Gold level of certification for meeting the program’s rigorous performance criteria. State College Borough has had a longstanding commitment to sustainability in operations, management, and provision of public services through numerous innovative actions.

  As a testament to their understanding of the importance of sustainability as a governance strategy, State College Borough created a formal Sustainability Committee, supported by the Borough Council and management, and it guides their municipal work. This committee laudably defines sustainability as “using best practices to create lasting environmental, economic, societal and fiscal vitality as part of State College’s overall mission to enhance the quality of life by fostering a safe, vibrant, diverse and sustainable community; by providing quality, innovative, cost-effective services; and by allocating resources efficiently with professionalism, integrity, transparency and accountability.”

  Initiatives that are ongoing in State College (far too numerous to list in their entirety) include:

  • Achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Standard for the Municipal Building in 2015.
  • Participating in the first cohort of the National League of Cities’ Race, Equity, and Leadership (REAL) program, a program designed to ensure every local official is equipped to effectively lead and serve an inclusive, thriving and healthy community.
  • Maintaining a Human Relations Commission and an LGBTQ Advisory Committee.
  • Constructing local rain gardens to minimize stormwater runoff.
  • Outlining greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals in an official resolution and working with partners to complete a community-wide greenhouse gas inventory.
  • Establishing the first municipality-wide food waste collection and composting program on the East Coast.
  • Creating the State College Community Land Trust in 1996 and assisting in the development of their new Greenbuild program, that includes selling reasonably priced “Zero Energy Ready Homes” to low/moderate income residents.

  “The mayor and borough council members have been strong advocates for sustainability, and as a result, State College has a long history of focusing on sustainability,” Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said. “Being recognized as a Platinum Certified Community by the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification program shows that we’ve made measurable strides towards our sustainability goals. We are honored to be recognized by our peers as a leading community in this field.”

  The Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification is intended to bring recognition to municipalities that are implementing the policies and practices of sustainability to advance community and regional prosperity. Sustainable Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania Municipal League are proud to have State College represented in the top tier of sustainable communities.

  View details about State College Borough’s certification performance.