The

Gathering

Place

on Mt. Washington

     Social Mission

The social mission of the Urban Mountain Gathering Place is to benefit the vulnerable children and youth of Mt. Washington and Duquesne Heights.

The meeting/event center began operations in 2004 as a nonprofit, social enterprise planning to generate revenue beyond costs that benefit our social mission. With the conferencing business (our "1st bottom line") now growing at a healthy rate, the Board of Directors decided through a strategic planning process to operationalize fully the "2nd bottom line": our commitment to children and youth in the neighborhood.

With sponsorship from the Birmingham Foundation, Dr. Stone (President of UMGP) supervised a four-month feasibility study of the need for after-school programming for middle school and senior high youth. With the closing of Prospect Middle School in June 2006, local after-school activities ended. On the basis of our study, and with the hard work of many community volunteers and the MWCDC, the Birmingham Foundation made funds available for YouthPlaces Inc. to begin their after-school recreational program at our newly-reopened Ream Community Center in September, 2007.

The UMGP is also partnering with the Presbyterian Church of Mt. Washington and the Bower Hill Community Presbyterian Church to sustain a Neighborhood Tutoring Program in Reading and the Arts. This eight-year program tutors 2^nd and 3^rd graders in reading, 4^th and 5^th graders in the arts. The children in this program attend Whittier Elementary School, Grandview Elementary School, and Bishop Leonard-St. Mary of the Mount Academy.

Thanks to a grant from the Estelle Campbell Charitable Trust, UMGP is currently expanding our tutoring program to assist middle school students with their reading and math skills as they prepare for the annual Pennsylvania System of Schools Assessment (PSSA) tests.

The Children and Youth Program's objective is "to earn for Mt. Washington and Duquesne Heights a reputation as a neighborhood to move into because of its caring for children and youth." We do that through tutoring in reading, arts education, and academic skill building. We do that through free family experience events: from game nights to a community Halloween parade to a petting zoo. We do that by gathering representatives of neighborhood organizations to form a Youth Policy Council that will keep the question, "How are our kids?" foremost in our concern. We do that by employing a Community Youth Advocate.