July 2022 Est. 1985
The Northside Chronicle
Volume 38 Issue 7 - FREE -
The Community Newspaper of Pittsburgh’s Historic Northside
Northside Business Briefs: July 2022 By Ashlee Green
Northside Common Ministries reopens following major 18-month remodel Northside Common Ministries headquarters has been under construction for the past 18 months, but on June 3, the program revealed its completed facility improvements at a rededication ceremony and open house at the Brighton Road location. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Paul D’Alesandro from the Office of Congressman Mike Doyle, and both Northside Common Ministries Advisory Board Chairperson Mark Bibro and Director Michael Moore spoke at the event. The
Photo: Pittsburgh Public Schools Facebook Page
Pittsburgh Perry High School graduates convene at the school’s 2022 commencement ceremony on June 18 at the Petersen Events Center. Check out more photos from the event on Page 7.
Observatory Hill’s Pride Project not your average educational institution
By Lucia Shen
Photo: Northside Common Ministries
Northside Common Ministries revealed its completed facility improvements at a rededication ceremony and open house on June 3.
reception included a light lunch by Fabled Table and tours of the renovated space were provided. This year also marks Northside See Briefs, Page 11
INSIDE
In December 2020, Pride Project Inc. bought the former Chatham Elementary School building on Bonvue Street in Observatory Hill. With this purchase, a “research repository,” as founder Robert Howard II describes it, was revealed. Pride Project’s aim, according to Howard, is to “give students a place for opportunities outside of a traditional education setting where they can discover or become the best version of themselves.” He breaks the organization down into two facets: the building with all the facilities, and the programming. On one hand, Pride Project, with 6.3 acres of land on the end of Bonvue, aims to become a hub for the community.This “research repository,” as Howard coins it,
includes services for the community such as childcare, personal trainers, and wellness and nutrition coaches. The organization wants to look at what the community needs and see if the space can help foster those things. In addition to providing space for what the community needs, the second facet of Pride Project is the programming: the people who help guide and educate others. Howard himself is a teacher at Perry Traditional Academy, his alma mater. Before there, he worked in banking, and it was the impact that his teachers had on him that made him become an educator at his old school. “I had a pretty decent career in banking, but I stayed in touch with those educators and they just really stayed on me and said,
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“‘You know, you’re really missing your calling, you should’ve been an educator your whole life,’” Howard says. “And one day I woke up and decided I wanted to do that.” “I became an educator because when I look back on my life, I ran into some phenomenal educators, and they really changed my life. Actually, [they] really saved my life at a point in time in middle school,” Howard says. “About two or three of my best friends passed away via gun violence and my home life was kind of in disarray,” he continues. “The only thing that really kept me going was that I had two phenomenal teachers in middle school that gave me a reason to go to school everyday.” Now as an educator himself, Howard See Pride, Page 9
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