Year: 2014

We salute our dear friend and champion Wendell G. Freeland, Esq. at his passing. Wendell served as Chairman of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh’s Board of Directors from 1962-1967. Prior to becoming Board Chair, Wendell chaired the Board’s Education Committee and established the paradigm for dialogue between the African American community and the Pittsburgh Public School Board that laid the foundation not only for desegregation but also for the hiring of African American teachers.  Mr. Freeland subsequently served on the Board of Trustees of the National Urban League, rising to the position of Senior Vice President during Whitney Young’s tenure and served on the search committee that brought Vernon Jordan to the National Urban League helm in the 1970s.   On the occasion of the kick off of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh’s 95^th Anniversary on February 9^th, 2013, Wendell learned of the establishment of the Wendell G. Freeland Living Legacy Award by the Pittsburgh Urban League with he as the inaugural recipient.  This award to be given at no pre-set time, but only on such occasion as the exemplary effort and contribution of the honoree’s work has been of such benefit as to entwine itself into the very fabric and foundation of the mission of the Urban League.

Please join us in lifting Mr. Freeland up in prayer, with prayers of support for his wife Jane, his daughter (and current Urban League Board member) Lisa, her brother Michael, and their entire family.

Complete obituary from  January 25, 2014 Pittsburgh Post Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/obituaries/2014/01/25/Tuskegee-airman-lawyer-pioneering-civil-rights-leader.html

By Matthew Santoni

Published: Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014, 10:24 p.m.

For 96 years, the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh has fought to advance and assist the region’s black community, and in a thunderous sermon at the annual Urban League Sunday service in the Hill District, the Rev. William Curtis said the group should not shy away from more fighting.

Jumping off from the passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus says, “I do not come to bring peace, but a sword,” Curtis preached about the value of using people’s tensions, disagreements and strongly held convictions to tackle tough issues and find resolutions. The alternative, he said, lets good ideas and necessary changes get buried by attempts to establish a consensus or suppress dissenting voices.

“The Urban League is designed to carry our dreams and goals to where it’s not welcome, to where it’s not accommodated,” Curtis, pastor at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Larimer for the past 17 years, told several hundred gathered in Ebenezer Baptist Church on Wylie Avenue. “It can’t always be pleasant, polished and sanitized.

“In our not getting along, we can at least value human life and hear each other’s dissenting ideas,” Curtis said. “As long as we go around trying to get along, progress stagnates.”

Since its founding in 1918, the Pittsburgh area’s chapter of the Urban League has offered programs in employment, education, family support, health education and housing counseling, and has become one of the largest and most active of the national organization’s more than 100 local affiliates, said chapter President and CEO Esther Bush.

The annual gathering kicked off the league’s membership drive, and copies of their annual report outside the church sanctuary highlighted some of the group’s achievements from 2013: 2,265 people got help with job training; 220 children participated in science and technology programs; and 2,389 families got housing counseling in areas such as financial literacy or eviction and foreclosure prevention.

“There is so much happening in our town, so many things changing behind closed doors,” Bush said. “We have to come together as a community, on behalf of our children, to at least have a voice.”

Bush said the league was backing educational changes in city schools, including new teacher evaluations, curriculum changes and more volunteering from the black community.

“They go to bat for the underserved community,” said Crystaline Barger, 35, of Braddock Hills, who attended the service. “All the time, when they’re going into these meetings (with local officials), they’re going in with opposing ideas, not just to get along and have tea and crumpets.”

Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5625 or msantoni@tribweb.com.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5529318-74/league-urban-community#ixzz2wKg4CjIp

April 3, 2014 – The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, which serves over 20,000 individuals in education, health advocacy, housing, early childhood and youth development, hunger services, employment, career training, counseling, and economic empowerment, announced today that Monique McIntosh has joined the organization as the new Vice President of Programs and Services. McIntosh is a former Senior Director of Programs/Director of YWCA Homewood-Brushton Center and managed programs in Housing, Early Childhood and Youth Development, Teens, Women’s Resource Centers, and Health Equity.

“Monique is a results-driven administrator with a comprehensive background in program development and evaluation, outcomes management, budgeting and human resource development. She is a highly experienced professional and a valuable new asset to our organization.” said Esther Bush, President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

Monique McIntosh said, “My interest in nonprofit organizations has been driven by my desire to empower people with education and skill development, to lead them into the economic and social mainstream. I am honored to have been selected to join the leadership team of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh with their mission of enabling African Americans to achieve economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.”

McIntosh served the YWCA in various job titles since 2007, she has a Master of Education from the Department of Early, Middle and Special Education from California University of Pennsylvania; a Bachelor of Arts-Communication degree from the University of Pittsburgh; and also earned a Multimedia Technology Graduate Certificate from the Department of Applied Engineering and Technology at the California University of Pennsylvania.

McIntosh is an Advisory Council Member of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy Fire Project.