Education University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work said Aliya Durham is the school’s first-ever director of community engagement as well as an assistant professor of social work. In addition, she will teach graduate courses within the Community Organization and Social Action concentration. Molly Allwein was named director of professional education; and James Huguley was named interim director, Center on Race and Social Problems. He is also an assistant professor of social work.
"Event Chair Molly Allwein, WQED-TV's Rick Sebak, and Sisters Place Friends Board co-chair Lisa D'Onofrio joined the fun at the first annual "Scavenge the Strip." The event invited teams to complete a scavenger hunt throughout The Strip District while also raising funds for Sisters Place, a housing community committed to assisting homeless families in Southwestern Pennsylvania."
Taller Latino #SEENintheCity: Social events around Pittsburgh November 16, 2015
Where and when: AlphaLab in East Liberty on Wednesday night.
Taller Latino: This event — co-hosted by Cafe Con Leche, ALPFA Pittsburgh and AlphaLab — focused on Latinos living in Pittsburgh who work in the technology and media industries. The goal was to reframe the diversity conversation in Pittsburgh from the perspective of people of color who work in tech and media. “Because the tech and innovation industries are such influential parts of the new Pittsburgh economy, we want to plant the seeds of understanding about how to attract, maintain and elevate people of color within these professions,” said Cafe Con Leche founder Tara Sherry-Torres, who also moderated the event.
#SEEN: Panelists Joi Rogers, chief visionary officer at RE:Innovating; Cindy Fernandez of La Rumba Media; Kenny Casado, Supplier Quality Engineer at Philips; Micah Rosa of ShoutSide Media; Daniel Mosse, professor of computer science at the University of Pittsburgh and CEO of One Oak. Also in attendance were Diana Bellini, Maria Soledad Cabezas, Jenn Van Dam, Thomas Agnew, Jesabel Rivera, Kenya Dworkin, Gianna Paniagua, Molly Burke Allwein, Annie Clough, Mike Capsambelis, Jim Jen, Yolanda Schuman and La'Tasha Mayes.
Party for a purpose: Close to 200 friends of Sisters Place donned masks on Friday for a night of mysterious fun at Hotel Monaco, Downtown. The second annual Friends at the Tables Event, a casino-themed fundraiser driven by the young professionals’ board gave generously to support homeless, single-parent families in southwestern Pennsylvania. “I grew up in an underprivileged home, losing my mom when I was young. My dad raised me and we are best friends,” said event chair Jennifer Dully. “I feel that everyone should give back to their community when they can.”
Partygoers mixed and mingled while enjoying light hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and live entertainment inside the glamorous Sheffield Ballroom. “These are good, young, serious professionals who take their time and give it back to support those in need,” added Sr. Mary Parks, executive director. “The next generation is really doing great things.” To learn more about Sisters Place, check out www.sistersplace.org.
#SEEN: Co-chairs Lisa D’Onofrio and Mary Pat Stahler (with husband Lee Feigert), Nicole Bielick, events co-chairs Martica Koller and Molly Allwein, Melissa Ferraro, and Kelly Werner who said, “I work a corporate job, and this organization allows me to do something creative with a purpose.”
Ceramic Tile Quilt Reception Pittsburgh Business Times After Hours May 15, 2015
Paint the Town Purple Paint the Town Purple benefiting Center for Victims at 11:00 AM Story by Jill M. Kummer Photos by Jill M. Kummer
David Hixton, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Art Rooney II, Team President and co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League, and District Attorney Stephen Zappala joined the Center for Victims (CV) for a press conference during their “Paint the Town Purple,” awareness event at 11:00 am in Market Square. Those attending were welcomed with purple ribbon distributions, awareness materials, community peace quilt art installation, giveaways, and more in partnership with local partner business. The event featured a live WAMO 100 broadcast from 12 to 2 pm., with on-air radio personality DJ Mike Dean, music, and a prize wheel courtesy of WAMO 100 and First Commonwealth Bank.
“Recently, domestic violence has been in the spotlight. Let’s remember you don’t have to be the wife of a pro athlete to be a victim,” said Laurie MacDonald, president and CEO, Center for Victims. “Domestic violence knows no boundries and is a pervasive problem in our country. This October, more than ever, we have a unique opportunity to create widespread awareness and effect real cultural change. Stand up against domestic violence, wear purple, and be part of the solution.”
District Attorney Stephen Zappala said, “Center for Victims is the comprehensive provider of services advocacy and education for victims of all crimes in this region. A leading agency since 1976, CV provides services to victims of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and all other types of crimes in Allegheny County.”
Participants at the event could honor domestic violence survivors and loved ones by choosing to artistically create a community “peace quilt” square which will be added to an ever-growing peace quilt art installation at The Center for Victims offices in East Liberty.
Observed since 1987, Domestic Violence Awareness Month focuses on violence prevention and reaching out to victims and their loved ones, honoring those who have died.For more details about Center for Victims, please visit their website at: www.centerforvictims.org
Wednesday’s stabbings at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville has left many asking what steps can be taken to prevent these acts of violence.
The Center for Victims thinks an important part of the equation to stop violence is men.
That’s why the center kicked off its “Men Ending violeNce” (MEN) challenge, which encourages men to pledge to become proactive and speak out if they see violence.
Molly Allwein, Community Relations Coordinator, said men have a voice that women don’t. “They are able to go into social circles, they are able to say things in situations like…coaching situations with young boys, boy scouts,” Allwein said. “Areas like that that we’re not able to reach as women to spread this message of healthy relationships and anti-bullying, anti-violence.”
Allwein said most of the staff, volunteers and board members for the Center for Victims are women, and they want men to help be a part of the solution to acts of violence.
“We’re asking men to sign a pledge stating that they won’t participate in or accept violence in their life or in their communities,” Allwein said. “And then what we do is we enroll them in a yearlong campaign, and each month we send them educational tips, resources, videos and ask them to take an ‘Action Step.’”
She said one step could be as simple as intervening when other men are making inappropriate comments to women on the street. According to Allwein, the Center for Victims serves 15- to 16,000 direct victims of crime every year. She said that trauma affects the way the brain functions and victim’s psychological being.
“You can be financially impacted if you are a victim of assault and you don’t have health insurance, how are you going to pay medical bills?” Allwein said. “You can be spiritually affected if you’re a believer in a higher power and something bad happens that really changes the way you live, that can affect you spiritually, so physically, spiritually, psychologically, financially it affects you in all different ways.”
At Thursday’s kickoff event in Market Square, Stephen Zappala, Allegheny County District Attorney, signed the pledge. He said the events that took place Wednesday show that violence continues to exist in the community. Zappala said they want to be preventative and proactive - not just respond to tragedy and violence.
“I think what you’re going to see is a very methodical review of what led this young man to this particular point in his life,” Zappala said. “You know, using a knife to commit violent crime is very personal, and I’m not sure what the psychology of that is, but I’m sure that’s going to be developed at length.”
The Center for Victims will release a short documentary film about its work at a public screening at 6 p.m. Aug. 1 at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in Oakland.
Narrated by actor and activist Martin Sheen, “Life After” will tell the stories of people impacted by crime and how they were helped to achieve “a new normal,” says center spokesman Molly Burke, who is a licensed social worker.
“The stories are in their words, not ours,” she says. “They talk about what life is like for them now, and how crime changed their lives forever.”
Everyone who worked on the film including Sheen and director Ben Saks of Pittsburgh-based Float Pictures, donated their talents, Burke says. Sheen agreed to narrate the film free of charge.
“We didn't even have to pay for studio time to record him,” Burke says. “His help, and everyone else's, made this a truly awesome experience.”
The purpose of the film is to raise awareness about crime in communities, as well services the center provides victims, she says. It is designed to reach donors and prospective donors, as well as the general public, which is increasingly concerned about gun violence and other crimes affecting communities.
“Awareness is always good,” Burke says. “When you hear these people's stories, you realize that you, or anyone, can become a victim at any time.”
The Aug. 1 screening is free and open to the public, but with limited seating, reservations are required. Details: 412-482-3240, ext. 114
By Deborah Weisberg Published: Sunday, July 14, 2013, 10:15 a.m.
Tony Bock of Baldwin lost his older brother Albert to murder six years ago.
On July 5, Bock, a professional comedian, used humor to commemorate his brother's July 11 birthday and to generate support for the Center for Victims, the East Liberty-based organization that helps survivors of crime rebuild their lives. He performed at Altar Bar in the Strip District, with a portion of proceeds going to the center. The event coincides with the center's production of a short documentary film — “Life After” — aimed at calling attention to the services it provides to victims of rape, domestic violence, assault and other crimes.
Bock, 29, says the center was pivotal in helping him and his family cope with their tragic loss. “They give you a sense that you're not going through it alone,” he says. “We received pro bono counseling, and they offered my mother help with funeral expenses, although she declined. “We sent younger members of our family to the center, including my nephew, who was there when my brother was killed, and just 13 at the time.”
Albert “Gumba” Bock was shot to death on his own front porch, where he was entertaining friends. Bock says a 17-year-old approached with two accomplices and demanded money. “I'd just gone into the house with my nephew when I heard the gunshots,” says Bock, who raced outside to find his brother gravely wounded. “He died in my arms.”
Bock says Albert was killed trying to keep the robbers from entering his home in order to protect him and his nephew.
“It's something I relive every day,” says Bock, who described the emotional stages that followed his brother's death. “At first, it was disbelief. Nothing felt real. I was numb. Then anger followed … anger about what happened and anger toward the people who did this.” Bock's upset was heightened when, a year and a half later, he attended the trial of the young man who pulled the trigger and who now is incarcerated for his crime. Albert's birthday is a painful time that Bock tries to balance by arranging celebrations, such as Pirates games or picnics, for family and friends.
Doing something this year to benefit the center will be especially meaningful, he says. “The feelings kind of lessen over time, but I'm not sure they'll ever go away. The center has helped us manage as best we can, and I want to give something back.” Counseling is one of dozens of services provided by the center, which expanded a year ago after merging with Woman's Place, a McKeesport-based organization that offers victims of domestic violence emergency shelter and transitional housing.
“We're there solely for the victim, so they feel thoroughly safe and informed and know what their rights are,” Tracey Provident, the center's chief program officer, says. “We serve all of Allegheny County — last year, it was more than 13,000 children and adults — with services ranging from legal advocacy to therapy and counseling to victim compensation.” About 80 percent of clientele has been referred by police or the Allegheny County district attorney's office, which looks to the center to help victims and their families navigate the legal system.
“They are dealing not only with the impacts of abuse and violence, they're asked to go into a system unknown to them, which can be frightening and intimidating,” Provident says. Some of the center's programs focus on crime prevention, particularly among at-risk youths. Expect Respect helps teens understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy behavior in dating relationships, while the Victim-Offender Dialogue Program provides eligible juvenile offenders with an alternative to court.
“If their crime wasn't serious, and the victim is willing, they are given an opportunity to sit down together with a trained facilitator and engage in dialogue about the impact of their crime on the victim and the community,” Provident says. “The victim gets a say in what sort of restitution the offender should make, and the offender is given a chance to turn his life around. “If he genuinely takes responsibility for what he has done, it can be very powerful.”
But crime prevention is a relatively small part of the center's overall mission, and often the first to suffer from funding cuts, which are a constant threat to the agency's $3.5 million operating budget, says Provident, who notes that the center serves clients free of charge. “Most of what we do is respond to the needs of people who have been victimized by crime,” Provident says, “particularly those involving physical injury.” Many programs are provided for under the Pennsylvania Crime Victims Act of 1987, although the center has been assisting victims of sexual assault since 1983.
Services include 24-hour telephone support, individual and group counseling, and financial assistance with costs incurred by victims, such as crime-scene cleanup, funeral and burial expenses, transportation to and from trial and medical treatment. The center's victim advocates accompany survivors to court. After a case has been adjudicated, victims can register through the center to be kept informed of a convict's whereabouts and eventual release from prison.
Those who have lost loved ones to crime find their lives are changed forever, and it can take years to process the fallout, says Molly Burke, a licensed social worker and center spokeswoman. “We help them find a new normal.”
Candace Foster of Homewood-Brushton is receiving center treatment for the trauma she suffered when two nephews were gunned down within a month of each other in 2008. One was killed in front of her in July of that year. Their deaths reflect a homicide rate among young African-American men in Pittsburgh that is 60 times greater than the city-wide average and 50 times the national average, according to Allegheny County statistics.
“You no longer have a comfort level. You lose that,” Foster, 45, says. “I want to feel normal again, but I can't. I still have anger, and I live in fear for my own children. I need to know where they are at all times.” Foster only learned of the center this year from the family of another victim, and she says the specialized therapy she now receives has been more effective than help she sought elsewhere.
“They're helping me find answers and understanding,” she says. “They're a blessing, and I thank God they're there, because I needed them.”