New in 2026, this session features a fast-paced oral presentation format where the presenters will share their digital posters with the audience. Each presenter will have four minutes and a single slide to concisely communicate their key findings and insights. This efficient format allows attendees to explore a broad range of topics in one engaging session.
Social Return on Investment of New Sun Rising/RiverWise Community Engagement Projects
Presenters: Ellen Kinnee, Chris Briem, Sabina Deitrick, Anita Zuberi
The University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) collaborated with New Sun Rising and RiverWise (NSR/RW) to analyze the social impact of their investments supporting local community-focused initiatives. UCSUR conducted in-depth interviews with more than thirty directors and primary stakeholders from a variety of real estate development, environment, energy, and food related projects supported by NSR/RW in both Allegheny and Beaver counties. Information collected from the interviews, along with spatial Geographical Information System data, served as input to the REMI economic model to conduct an analysis of the overall Social Return on Investment (SROI) for the region. SROI analysis provides a quantitative measure of the social, environmental, and economic value generated by NSR/RW projects, going beyond just the financial return, by assigning monetary proxy value to often overlooked social outcomes.
CKAN POSE II Project
Presenter: Jamaica Jones
Radical community benefit depends on radically new approaches to the negotiation of power. Centering the example of the CKAN POSE II project, this poster will explore this challenge through the concept of “work in the open,” a quietly subversive means of redistributing power from “authorities” to communities. To work in the open is to expose process and power, leveraging intentional vulnerability and transparent learning as means of redefining who in a community is empowered to act and where knowledge resides. The CKAN POSE II project, funded by NSF and led by a team centered at WPRDC/UCSUR, focuses on expanding pathways to participation by documenting the diverse means of contribution that sustain the community behind CKAN, a global open-source platform for civic data. By documenting process and surfacing power, the project offers a locally grounded model for redistributing authority, meaningfully engaging communities in governance, and supporting collective approaches to community resilience.
Life Sciences Bridge Program
Presenters: Heidi Ward, Jacob Zabela
Through a two-year, community-engaged planning process supported by The Heinz Endowments, the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Engagement and Community Affairs partnered with residents, community-based organizations, industry experts, and University stakeholders to co-design strategies for equitable access to the region’s emerging life sciences ecosystem. Grounded in lived experience and local priorities, this collaborative effort identified workforce development as a critical pathway for shared benefit. To scale these community-driven strategies, the University has since launched the Life Sciences Bridge Program, a 50-hour paid work experience designed to prepare 18- to 24-year-olds without a college degree, particularly those facing employment barriers, for entry-level careers in life sciences. Centered in Greater Hazelwood, the program advances the University’s neighborhood commitment by building job readiness, fostering a sense of belonging, and strengthening diversity within the field. This poster highlights the engagement process, program design, and early insights from translating community vision into institutional action.
B.R.A.V.E. (Bold, Resilient, Aware, Victori us, Empowered)
Presenters: Ashley Shafer, Victoria Sabo, Charlotte King, LaShawn Hopper
B.R.A.V.E. (Bold, Resilient, Aware, Victorious, Empowered) is a community-engaged, parent-centered support group embedded within Family Foundations Early Head Start, serving families with children prenatal to age three across Allegheny County. Developed through an ongoing partnership between Early Head Start families and University of Pittsburgh–affiliated practitioners, B.R.A.V.E. is co-designed with participating parents, who shape group agendas, activities, and priorities. Guided by trauma-informed and healing-centered frameworks, this project uses a phenomenological qualitative approach to center parent voice and lived experience. Findings demonstrate mutual benefits for community and university partners, including strengthened peer connection, increased self-awareness and emotion regulation, reduced mental-health stigma, and improved parent–child relationships. This poster highlights how reciprocal, strengths-based partnerships can generate practice-based evidence while advancing community well-being, leadership, and equity within early childhood systems.
Bridge the Gap
Presenter: Aairah Kulthum
Bridge the Gap is a student-led organization that addresses gaps in Pittsburgh’s support networks for individuals experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, and economic hardship. The organization’s approach creates small teams of motivated student volunteers who not only connect with the community through initiatives like seasonal care packages and service workshops but also inspire and support each other, fostering peer-driven engagement. Volunteers are empowered to take initiative, designing lessons, planning projects, and exercising autonomy, which strengthens leadership, teamwork, and cultural humility skills. Partnerships with local nonprofits, including Light of Life, Jubilee Soup Kitchen, and 412 Food Rescue, ensure that projects respond to community-identified needs. By connecting students to both the community and each other, Bridge the Gap provides a replicable, scalable model for student-driven, community-centered engagement, advancing community resilience while cultivating future leaders.
Swissvale Open Spaces
Presenters: Susan Lucas, Dawna Cerney
Swissvale Open Spaces is a partnership between faculty and students from the University of Pittsburgh, Youngstown State University and a steering committee of Swissvale residents. The focus of the project is mapping underutilized (vacant land) and identifying community-sanctioned re-use strategies. The goals of the project are to provide Swissvale with accessible and editable data and maps. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) plays a significant role in the project from mapping to sharing data. As the project has progressed a distinct pattern of interaction has emerged. We explore that pattern, and the role GIS has played in producing a number of distinct shifts in the direction of the project. Each change in direction is precipitated by either the provision of maps and data (mapping socio-economic conditions), or the tangential interests of steering committee members (mapping tree canopy and stormwater runoff). The overall result has been to slow progress towards our initial goals.
Bellevue Night Market as a Model for Community-Centered Economic Development
Presenters: RJ Thompson, Emiley Stern
Bellevue Forward, a nonprofit community development organization in Bellevue, PA, launched the Bellevue Night Market to reconnect residents, support small businesses, and activate underused public space along its main corridor. Founded by RJ Thompson, Teaching Associate Professor of Digital Narrative and Interactive Design, the organization applies community-engaged research and design to fuel inclusive economic development. Even before its first season concluded, the Night Market was voted Pittsburgh’s #1 Artist Market by over 20,000 readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper. At its peak, the event featured over 65 vendors and now maintains a waitlist of more than 250 artists. This poster explores the interdisciplinary partnerships, community planning, and research-driven strategies behind the market’s success. The Bellevue Night Market exemplifies how scholarship, creative collaboration, and grassroots energy can converge to strengthen local economies and inspire community-centered futures in small towns and boroughs.
Beyond Access: ID Cards, Belonging, and Community-Led Pathways
Presenters: Khirsten Scott, Keith Caldwell
The poster highlights the leadership of HYPE (Homewood Youth-Powered and Engaged) Media youth and Community Engagement Center (CEC) practitioners in reimagining how access, credentials, and belonging shape community-centered pathways. Drawing from the University of Pittsburgh’s CEC network and youth-led inquiry through HYPE Media, the session examines how everyday credentials such as ID cards function as both gateways and barriers within education, workforce development, and civic participation. Participants will engage a case study that centers youth analysis and CEC leadership decision-making to explore how symbolic systems of access influence trust, participation, and opportunity across neighborhoods and institutions. Through facilitated dialogue, attendees will consider how community-embedded organizations can co-design credentials, learning pathways, and engagement practices that reflect local knowledge and lived experience.