Earlier this week, our allies at PCRG hosted the 6th Annual Community Development Summit in downtown Pittsburgh. Over 600 registrants came together to learn and share knowledge, best practices and experiences focused on the theme of this year’s conference “The Power of Place”.
The conference featured keynote speakers: Ed McMahon from the Urban Land Institute, Charles Montgomery, author of the award-winning book: Happy City, and F. Javier Torres from ArtPlace America, all presenting on the importance of place and what impact vibrant and inclusive places have on our communities and cities.
In addition to the national speakers, a host of local thought-leaders, including both Presley Gillespie and Mary Taylor from the Neighborhood Allies team served on panels at breakout sessions throughout the conference.
Mary joined our allies, Jamil Bey of The UrbanKind Institute and LaShawna Russ, PCRG’s Beltzhoover
Community Coordinator to talk about “Resident-First Community Building”. The session was focused on work happening in the Southern Hilltop communities and the promising approach to developing those neighborhoods. Mary spoke about her experience working in Beltzhoover on the Greater Beltzhoover Toolkit.
Presley joined Dr. Karen Hacker and Abby Wilson from the Allegheny County Health Department, and An Lewis from Steel Rivers Council of Governments to present on “Building Healthy Communities: New Partnerships in
Public Health”. Presley spoke to the natural intersection of health and community-building as well as the cross-sector collaborations that are happening on the ground, locally to promote and support healthy communities and residents across Pittsburgh.
Neighborhood Allies has been a long-time supporter of the Community Development Summit, and this year, our financial support provided 22 full scholarships for neighborhood folks to attend the conference!
Congratulations to PCRG for another successful CD Summit! We’re looking forward to next year!
