As the days get shorter and the air turns crisp here in Pittsburgh, most of us are preparing for the holidays. We are turning up the thermostat, pulling out winter coats, and getting ready to gather with family.

But for too many of our neighbors, the approach of winter brings anxiety, not joy. For a senior with a failing furnace, a veteran with a leaking roof, or a family with drafty, broken windows, winter is a season of risk. A cold home isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s dangerous. That is why we are thrilled to announce the launch of our “Season of Safe Homes” matching gift challenge!

The Big News: Your Gift is Now DOUBLED

Thanks to the incredible generosity of a dedicated donor, every dollar you donate to Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh between now and December 31st will be MATCHED, dollar-for-dollar, up to $25,000.This is a game-changer for our work. It means we have the opportunity to unlock a total of $50,000 to provide critical, free home repairs across Allegheny County.

Here is how the math works for you:

• You donate $50  We receive $100 (Enough for safety grab bars and a shower wand).
• You donate $150  We receive $300 (Enough to repair a hazardous walkway or broken step).
• You donate $500  We receive $1,000 (A major investment toward a furnace repair or roof patch).

Why This Matters Right Now

We recently worked with Mr. Darwin, an Army National Guard veteran in the Hill District. He and his wife have lived in their home for over 30 years, but water damage and a failing roof threatened their safety. Through our programs, we were able to replace the roof, repair the plumbing, and renovate the kitchen to make it energy-efficient and safe. Mr. Darwin told us: “I walk into our home now, and it feels like a brand new chapter.”

There are hundreds of neighbors just like Mr. Darwin on our waitlist. They are the people who built Pittsburgh, our retired steelworkers, teachers, veterans, and grandparents. They want to age in place with dignity, but the cost of repairs has simply outpaced their fixed incomes.

How You Can Help

The match is active right now. We have until December 31st to reach our $25,000 goal. Every donation, no matter the size, helps us get there. This holiday season, you can give the gift of warmth. You can give the gift of safety. And for a limited time, you can double that gift to help twice as many neighbors.

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Together, let’s make sure everyone in Pittsburgh has a safe and healthy home for the holidays. Donate today!

The post Double the Warmth, Double the Safety: Announcing Our $25,000 Season of Safe Homes Match appeared first on Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh.

We’re looking forward to partnering with Neighborhood Allies to deliver the renovations highlighted in this article. The work represents a critical commitment to equity in rebuilding the communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

Neighborhood Allies supports people and organizations by providing onramps to prosperity through capital programs and strategic resources, connects community builders together to forge stronger networks and collaborations that drive transformative change, and impacts the community by co-creating solutions to long-term social problems. Using their Healthy Neighborhoods Framework as a roadmap, they make and support neighborhood-based investments that seed creative community ideas.

The post Equitable Recovery Playbook Highlights appeared first on Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh.

Alan Sisco, CEO of Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh

Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh’s work to make everyone’s homes safe and healthy has always been motivated by our belief in equity. However, we know that we still have work to do to overcome true racial inequality and injustice in the communities that welcome us each day. We continue to reflect on who we are and how we conduct our business.

Our commitment to social justice should be present in everything we do and that requires a constant process of engagement, outreach, and education. We need to understand that our organization exists in large part because of the unequal health and economic burden carried by low-income, often Black, communities in Pittsburgh. We need to grow beyond happy homeowner stories that reinforce stereotypes of the “deserving poor” and share our impacts in the contexts of the assets we help our clients preserve.

Internally, RTP has a very active Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee that exists to listen, learn, and advocate for change starting within. The committee is comprised of deeply engaged members of both our board and staff, each member with a personal sense of ownership and high standards for RTP’s DEI efforts. Since the summer of 2020, they have pushed the organization to recognize and embrace that RTP exists to address the people and environments created by past social injustice such as redlining and disinvestment.

Toward that end, we recently instituted Service Holidays at RTP. These are three intentional occasions for staff and board to participate in services projects that are developed through a DEI lens. The three holidays are Martin Luther King Day, Juneteenth, and Veteran’s Day. Each service project is matched with an educational component so RTP staff and board can step outside their daily viewpoints to see the broader community in which we work.

Externally, we are working to identify and partner with community-based and diverse contractors. We are allocating new resources to maintain our strong track-record for authentic community engagement. And perhaps most critically, we are building capacity and consensus for new board and staff candidates that better reflect the diversity of our community.

I look forward to continuing to update you on the advancements RTP achieves in our equity goals.

You can subscribe to future RTP newsletters at the bottom of this page.

The post Winter Newsletter Notes From Alan Sisco appeared first on Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh.