Penn Hills CDC project aims to collect community census data

Penn Hills residents will have the chance this summer to voice their needs and vision for the future of the municipality through a community-wide census.

The project, known as Penn Hills Rising, is led by the Penn Hills Community Development Corporation in collaboration with more than 65 community groups, regional organizations and resident leaders.

A survey with 100-plus questions is currently online, and a team of residents aims to distribute flyers advertising the census to every home in Penn Hills starting in June. Members of this Community Corps will conduct more intensive outreach in neighborhoods with lower levels of community engagement and broadband internet access, offering residents in these areas the chance to complete the survey in-person. Not every question is required to submit the survey and specific areas haven’t yet been determined.

The corps will be assisted by Pat Clark and Jada Rossman of Jackson/Clark Partners, a Pittsburgh-based company that specializes in planning and development initiatives. The firm has done similar surveys throughout the region, including the North Side, Hazelwood and Larimar.

Residents can also expect to encounter members of the corps at local churches, Penn Hills Library and other gathering places. In addition, the corps will be attending local events to spread the word about the survey, such as the Memorial Day Parade, where they’ll be stationed outside of the municipal building and aboard a float.

While the project has been in the works since before the covid-19 pandemic and ensuing shutdowns, active outreach started in May and is expected to continue through late summer. The survey questions were created through 30 one-on-one interviews with residents and a series of eight meetings in neighborhoods across Penn Hills, according to a news release.

“We have a set of questions that we’ve developed ever since we started doing business surveys in places like Morningside,” Clark said. “But we do not show up and say, ‘here’s our survey, take it.’ What we do is actually work with the community through a specific design process.”

Not only will the project create an extensive dataset on residents’ households, habits and hopes for the community, but it’ll also take stock of needs and connect people to appropriate resources with their consent.

For example, residents who fill out the survey can opt for assistance getting resources such as smoke detectors, Narcan, water pitcher lead filters, trees for their yard and coupons to local businesses.

In total, the project will cost around $167,000, though Clark noted that much of that money will be reinvested into the community by paying the outreach team and patronizing local businesses.

A portion of the funding comes from S&T Bank through the Allegheny Conference on Community Development’s Strengthening Communities Partnership, a program that assists communities in getting financial help from businesses. The bank will receive some of the money back through tax credits.

The remainder comes from the municipality’s American Rescue Plan funds. No local tax dollars are being used for the census.

One of the primary benefits of the census, according to PHCDC treasurer and corps member Jeff Rhoades, will be the ability to quantify community needs when seeking grants.

“We know that there’s housing needs in Penn Hills, we know there are food needs in Penn Hills, we know these things exist, but we don’t have hard data proof these things exist,” Rhoades said.

According to Clark, the granular data will be available to local nonprofits to help them pursue funding. A trust of local organizations is working with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services to draft a responsible use agreement for the data. An anonymized overview of the results will also be made available to the public.

These community censuses have a track record of bringing in funding, according to Clark, who said the company’s work in Larimer helped the City of Pittsburgh get a $30 million federal grant to build hundreds of new housing units and a neighborhood park.

Jeff Dawson, a Penn Hills resident of nearly 35 years and member of the corps, said he received a generally positive response during a full day of talking to fellow residents.

“I initially felt like people were going to kind of be against it,” Dawson said. “But once I began talking to them and explaining what was going on, then they at least appeared to be interested. Some I was able to sign up to take the survey later online.”

Members of the corps, including Hebron Community Center director Jen Balkey, said a sense of duty and desire for change motivated them to sign onto the project.

“We want to see change and progress happen, so without taking an active part in making that happen, how do you anticipate to see change?” Balkey said.