In 2023, we invested $1.37M into 122 different MWBE vendors, organizations, and individuals across our work, representing 55% of our total expenditures for the year.

We also invested $180,000 into 8 RISE HIGH Grantee-Partners working towards meaningful and measurable equity and inclusion results in the Pittsburgh area. All of them are MWBEs or are partnering with an MWBE.

Our Social Impact Design Team participated in or led 6 equitable design projects in 2023, 4 of which directly served Black-led organizations, businesses, and communities.

Our Real Estate team supported 26 projects with funding or technical assistance, 81% of which are represented by Black developers or Black-led organizations.

In 2023, our Digital Inclusion programming connected over 3,500 residents with digital tools, including free laptops and hotspots, internet access, digital literacy and upskilling courses, and more. The opening of two new digital learning centers in Homewood bolstered these resources. As leaders of the Greater Pittsburgh Digital Inclusion Alliance’s (GPDIA) Affordable Connectivity Program Working Group, we led the region’s efforts around outreach, enrollment, and advocacy of the federal benefit that provided eligible households with a $30 credit towards their internet bill. As an organization, we reached 2,295 residents through our outreach efforts and began enrolling clients in 2024.

Additionally, as members of the City’s Pittsburgh Digital Equity Coalition (PDEC), we helped to draft a 5- Year Strategic Plan to apply for federal funding to invest in digital inclusion work for our region.

Our Economic Opportunity initiatives addressed racial, gender, and geographic inequities in income, wealth, and opportunity.

• In 2023, we served 93 Black women in Pittsburgh through Money Talks, a virtual community and financial education program created to reduce barriers that women of color face in building generational wealth by increasing their knowledge and confidence in money management and investing.
• We promoted PA ABLE to our Fund My Future PGH participants through specialized outreach, which allows PA residents to save for themselves or a child with a disability without the risk of losing government benefits.
• We continued to co-lead the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Disability Institute’s Alliance for Access and Assets (formerly the Coalition On Race, Ethnicity, Poverty, And Disability), with the goals of sharing knowledge of the intersecting issues faced by people of color with disabilities, and to identify program and policy implications with multi-sector partners that equitably lead to greater financial stability.
• Collectively, between our youth banking initiatives, the Financial Empowerment Center, and Fund My Future PGH, we facilitated the opening of 294 safe, affordable bank accounts in 2023.

Steel Smiling’s ‘Steel Healing’ Program offers Black community members financial assistance for treatment and other mental health supports through Wellness Navigation Services, financial assistance for treatment, and Peer Support Groups. In 2023 alone, Steel Smiling facilitated 63 referrals to Black therapists and disbursed over $17,000 in resources to subsidize and/or cover the cost of mental health treatment for Black residents on a fixed-term basis. Impressively, since March 2020, Steel Smiling has paid over $400,000 in treatment services for Black community members with no barriers or eligibility requirements other than identifying as Black, African American, and/or of the African Diaspora, and a desire to participate in treatment voluntarily.