In 2014, we launched our Community Development Fellowship Program to increase leadership capacity in our focus neighborhoods and the City of Pittsburgh. The goals of this program are to ensure our communities are growing equitably, attract and connect emerging and potential leaders to local community development opportunities, and create a mentoring program that pairs community development staff with senior-level professionals in the field.
Since launching the program in 2014, we have hosted three fantastically bright and passionate fellows for one-year placements who have each developed and led initiatives that are having a positive impact on our communities.
Today, we’re happy to announce our Community Leadership Fellow, Shikha Jerath, will begin a full-time position with Neighborhood Allies as our Program Coordinator for Community Building and Civic Engagement beginning September 19th, 2016! 
Shikha joined us in September 2015, as our Community Leadership Fellow. She took the Community Leadership Forum, which was basically just a good idea, and successfully launched it, selecting 18 forum members and meeting with them individually and as a group over many months until they trusted each other and the grassroots grantmaking process. Together, they developed the vision, goals and guidelines, discussed pertinent issues, and became an effective and efficient grantmaking committee, which ultimately developed the Love My Neighbor! Grassroots Grantmaking Program.
“During my year as a fellow, I, alongside the Community Leadership Forum, a group of residents form our target communities, created and developed Love My Neighbor! grant program for residents. What I love most about this program is that it focuses on partnership. Forum members and Neighborhood Allies staff understand that they are not above residents judging their projects with gavels in hands. They stand beside residents, listening, learning, and building relationships with the people that know their communities best. This next step with Neighborhood Allies means I can continue and strengthen the work we’ve started. I really look forward to working for an organization that believes in the power of people. I feel incredibly grateful for this opportunity.”
-Shikha Jerath
In her new role, Shikha will strengthen Neighborhood Allies’ practices around civic engagement and social connectivity, define our role in community capacity building, operationalize and manage our CDBG contract to benefit neighborhoods and residents, ensure that residents and their strengths are at the forefront of all we do, and connect with partners and funders in pursuit of community change visions.
Please join us in welcoming Shikha to her new role! We’re excited to keep building from the solid foundation established over the past year, expanding both our knowledge and effectiveness in resident-driven neighborhood change!