Sharing $100,000 in funding to implement the Best Ideas of Engage Pittsburgh

The Sprout Fund received 19 proposals in response to the Requests for Proposals released in April 2007. Four new projects are fulfilling the wishes of the Engage Pittsburgh community and introducing the power of civic engagement to new audiences across Pittsburgh.

Gumband / Lost and Found

In Fall 2007, East Liberty based geographic software and design startup deepLocal, Inc. launched their response to the Urban Info Kiosk RFP. Codenamed GumBand, this information platform will allow users to send short text messages to a local phone number to find nearby events, restaurants, or activities and potentially directions by car, or bus to get from where they are to where they want to be.

Building off of the Gumband platform, deepLocal is also developing Lost and Found in response to the Hot Spot Signs RFP that addressed the need to create a comprehensive, interactive catalogue of Pittsburgh places. Lost and Found highlights historic sites and local landmarks that are often left out of the public eye and off of the standard maps. By courting nominations from the public, Lost and Found will, over time, become a useful tool for decoding Pittsburgh’s secrets.

Green Vision for East Liberty Vacant Lots

Green Vision for East Liberty Vacant Lots, a pilot project to transform vacant lots in East Liberty into energy-producing crops, was funded in response to the Lots of Green RFP. The plantings of sunflower and canola on 3 acres of land in East Liberty will simultaneously clean the soil, reduce the blight and public danger associated with vacant land, and if that’s not innovative enough, the crops harvested can be used as the raw material for biofuel production.

Led by GTECH Strategies, a green start-up that launched energy-crop experiments at the LTV Hazelwood site earlier this year, the East Liberty project is the company’s first activity based in a residential community. GTECH hopes the project can become a model for similar initiatives in other communities.

Alternative Transportation Festival

Finally, this October also witnessed the inaugural Pittsburgh Alternative Transportation Festival. Coordinated by Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities, Bike Pittsburgh and Restorative Events, the multi-faceted event showcased the groundswell of locally-led innovation and partnerships that put Pittsburgh at the forefront of alternative transportation solutions.

A week of activities and promotions culminated on Friday, October 5th with festivities in Market Square Downtown, Schenley Plaza in Oakland, and South Side Works. Featuring alternative fuel and vehicle demonstrations, educational and technical workshops, FlexCar and PAT Bus Pass giveaways, and the premiere of the Bike Pitttsburgh Map, the event attracted participants from all walks of life and ever corner of Pittsburgh. With over 45 participating organization, the ATF represented the bulk of activity in transportation innovation currently happening in Pittsburgh and set the stage for an annual event.

The Manchester Climbing Wall

Sadly, The Manchester Climbing Wall has been canceled due to conflicting plans to erect a Tribute to Children and memorial sculpture of Mr. Fred Rogers on the proposed location of the climbing wall.

Community Change through Civic Engagement

Engage Pittsburgh began at The Idea Round Up in September 2006, an unprecedented event that convinced 300 participants from in and around Pittsburgh that together, they could make a difference.

United by a common love for Pittsburgh, these perfect strangers produced 100 brain-busting ideas for community innovation—from the wacky and out-there to the necessary and practical—these ideas formed a community blueprint that has served as the foundation for the rest of the Engage Pittsburgh initiative.

After the dust settled from The Idea Round Up, Sprout launched www.engagepittsburgh.org to continue the dialogue and development of ideas in a unique online setting. Designed as a public bulletin board, this web forum created an environment to expand the work that began at The Idea Round Up. Months of dialogue helped to narrow the field of ideas and propelled the strongest concepts to the forefront.

Finally, Sprout took the ideas to the experts, consulting with specialists from around the region to help evaluate which ideas would make the best community projects. Taking into account the wishes of the community and the wisdom of the experts, Sprout crafted 5 Requests for Proposals to implement the 5 strongest ideas: The Manchester Climbing Wall, Hot Spot Signs, Lots of Green, The Alternative Transportation Festival, and Urban Info Kiosk.

After receiving 19 proposals, The Sprout Fund awarded funding to four projects to launch activities in Fall 2007. These projects are now hard at work, changing Pittsburgh for the better and introducing a whole new audience to the power of an engaged community. In addition to funding exciting initiatives these projects have begun, Engage Pittsburgh has laid the groundwork for future collaborative civic dialog, the kinds of discussion that result in stronger communities capable of working together in mutual aid.