The Urban League Young Professionals of Greater Pittsburgh concluded their weekend of events with a donation of more than 900 school supply items to Mt. Ararat Baptist Church’s school supply campaign. The offering on Aug. 23 was the culmination of four days of events to showcase UYLP-GP’s new leadership and mission for the 2009-2010 term.
“ULYP-GP has been empowering the lives of young professionals and assisting them in enhancing the communities in which they live, work, and serve for over seven years,” said ULYP-GP president Sabrina Saunders. “Our goal in establishing the ‘new ULYP’ is to foster a greater commitment to community and professional development of our membership.”
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| YOUNG PROFESSIONALS —Sabrina Saunders welcomes everyone to the ‘It Takes a Village’ networking reception Aug. 20.
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ULYP-GP is a group of approximately 70 professionals between the ages of 21 and 39 who represent a variety of occupations and businesses throughout the Pittsburgh area. Their mission is to enhance their community in the areas of education and youth empowerment, economic empowerment, health and quality of life, civic engagement and leadership empowerment and civil rights and racial injustice empowerment.
“The purpose of this weekend is to celebrate the new ULYP. We have new leaders, new structure and a new attitude and so we are excited about it,” said community service chair Marita Bradley. “We want to demonstrate our care and concern for the community as a whole which in part is the reason why we choose the activities that we did.”
The ULYP-GP Weekend focused on community service efforts throughout the city, beginning Aug. 20 with a recruitment effort for the “Be a 6th Grade Mentor” program.
“We as young professionals see the importance in giving back to those in need and we all know that someone did the same thing for us to be the successes that we all have become,” Bradley said. “Knowing this we decided to make it a major part of our weekend because in everything we do we want to be able to give back.”
On Aug. 22, UYLP-GP led a cleanup effort in the North Side area of California-Kirkbride where they spent their morning cleaning up trash, cutting grass and painting.
“We chose to help the California-Kirkbride neighbors because they are making great strides to clean up the California-Kirkbride area that has been devastated for awhile now,” Bradley said. “If we can contribute to creating a better environment that will decrease crime and increase community development, than we are all for it.”
Part of the proceeds of ULYP-GP’s Black and White Affair at Ava Lounge Aug. 22 went to the Northview Heights Family Support Center. At this and each event throughout the weekend, the ULYP-GP continued to collect school supplies.
“The school supply collection is important because this is the time of year where many students are returning to schools without the necessary supplies to help them be successful,” Bradley said.
ULYP-GP was founded in February 2002 and is one of 36 chapters of the National Urban League Young Professionals. For more information on this organization or to join, visit www.ulyppgh.org.
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