McAuley Ministries awards 29 new grants totaling $2,123,190

 PITTSBURGH (August 20, 2020) – McAuley Ministries, Pittsburgh Mercy’s grant-making foundation, today announced 29 new grants totaling $2,123,190 to support advocacy, health & wellness, community & economic development, education, and capacity building initiatives in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Uptown, and West Oakland communities. McAuley Ministries continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by awarding Phase II Emergency Operational Support grants of $260,000 to 13 community partners, so they can continue serving vulnerable populations by providing food, shelter, child care, educational support, and other resources.

The West Oakland-based, grant-making foundation awards approximately $3.5 million in grants annually, making it one of the region’s largest philanthropic foundations. View grants awarded by year at www.mcauleyministries.org.

Michele Rone Cooper, executive director of McAuley Ministries, noted that the foundation’s goal was to balance the emergency needs of the community by sustaining those organizations that are providing critical support during the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing to invest in initiatives that will have a longer term impact on the health and development of the foundation’s focus neighborhoods.

Grouped by grant-making priorities, the recipients of the most recent grants are as follows. For further description of each grant, please visit grants awarded.

Emergency Response to COVID-19

• Acculturation for Justice Access & Peace Outreach (AJAPO):  $15,000
• ACH Clear Pathways:  $25,000
• Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Inc.:  $25,000
• Center That CARES: $10,000
• Extra Mile Education Foundation, Inc.: $10,000
• Friendship Community Presbyterian Church/The Corner: $15,000
• Hug Me Tight Childlife Centers: $10,000
• Macedonia Family and Community Enrichment Center:  $50,000
• Neighborhood Resilience Project:  $25,000
• Schenley Heights Community Development Program: $10,000
• Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship and Veteran’s Home:  $25,000
• Sister’s Place: $25,000
• The Intersection, Inc.: $15,000

Advocacy

Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP): $50,000, to increase voter engagement, education, overall participation, and turn-out of Pittsburgh’s Black community.

Hill District Consensus Group: $100,000, payable over 2 years, to provide housing justice programs for low- to moderate-income people, helping renters and homeowners navigate public/private resources, legal systems, and supports to prevent homelessness.

The POISE Foundation: $10,000, to support the Human Equity and Justice Fund which will provide financial support to organizations and movements that are on the frontlines responding to crises that significantly impact the Black community, or advancing youth-led social change and community-based intergenerational collaborations and programming.

Community & Economic Development

Community At Holy Family Manor, Inc.: $50,000, to provide home repairs for low income elderly and disabled homeowners.

Hill Community Development Corporation: $500,000, for developing a commercial and cultural corridor along Centre Avenue, anchored by New Granada Square, a mixed-use epicenter of office, educational, food, art, and performance space.

NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania: $50,000, to support a second mortgage lending program that will make homeownership more attainable to renters in the Hill District and throughout the Pittsburgh region.

Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh: $450,000, payable over 3 years, to provide repairs focused on owner-occupied low-income homeowners living in the Hill District.

Education

Reading is FUNdamental Pittsburgh: $300,000, payable over 3 years, to support literacy programs in the Hill District community.

The Pittsburgh Promise Foundation: $50,000, payable over 2 years, to establish “Promise Coaches” at Pittsburgh Milliones University Preparatory School.  The coaches will serve all students providing personal career exploration and appropriate interventions to ensure Promise-readiness upon graduation.

Capacity Building

Citizen Science Lab: $25,000, to help support operations of its outreach programs with the Hill District’s young future scientists.

Hill District Consensus Group: $10,000, to support development of a strategic plan for #ArtsInHD aimed at advancing arts and culture in the Hill District.

Hill District Consensus Group: $14,780, to support work with the CMU Create Lab team to design an IT solution that will track referrals and outcomes from their housing navigation program.

Jubilee Association, Inc.: $25,000, to help bridge the gap between affordability and the cost of doing business created by COVID-19 in order to keep the child development center open and to continue to provide a quality experience for students.

Neighborhood Allies: $50,000, supporting Amani Christian Development and Communion™ to complete community planning for Herron Avenue and develop a site plan for the renovation of a building on Herron and Wylie for affordable live/work space.

Neighborhood Allies: $150,000, payable over 3 years, to continue building healthy neighborhoods through investments in financial, human, social, and intellectual capital in under-resourced communities.

Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship and Veteran’s Home:  $28,410, to provide heavy-duty metal doors with protective, built-in viewfinders and increase the number of security cameras to better protect Veterans, staff, and volunteers from external threats and dangers.

About McAuley Ministries

Named in honor of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, McAuley Ministries is the grant-making foundation of Pittsburgh Mercy. McAuley Ministries awards grants to nonprofit organizations which focus on the Hill District, Uptown, and West Oakland communities, historically served by the Sisters of Mercy, and to organizations sponsored by and/or affiliated with the Sisters.  It awards approximately $3.5 million in grants annually. To learn more about McAuley Ministries and the initiatives it supports, visit www.mcauleyministries.org.

 About Pittsburgh Mercy

Pittsburgh Mercy, a member of Trinity Health, serving in the tradition of the Sisters of Mercy, is   a person-centered, population-based, trauma-informed community health and wellness provider. Pittsburgh Mercy includes Bethlehem Haven, McAuley Ministries, Pittsburgh Mercy Behavioral Health, Pittsburgh Mercy Community Health, Pittsburgh Mercy Intellectual Disabilities Services, the Pittsburgh Mercy Parish Nurse & Health Ministry Program, Pittsburgh Mercy’s Operation Safety Net®, and Pittsburgh Mercy Family Health Center. Together, these Pittsburgh Mercy programs and their 1,500 colleagues serve more than 33,000 individuals annually at 70+ locations in Southwestern Pennsylvania. To learn more about Pittsburgh Mercy, or to make a donation in support of its important work in the community, visit www.pittsburghmercy.org.

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