Bus driver suspended
The W.L. Roenigk bus company suspended Pat Kinnear last Monday while they investigate allegations that she left a sleeping first-grader on the bus after she dropped off students at Linden Elementary. The student was found at the bus garage by another driver and then taken back to school. This is the second time in the past three months, the company has faced an incident where a driver left a student on a school bus.
LIHEAP opens centers
The Allegheny County Department of Human Services announced the opening of two Pennsylvania Home Energy Assistance Program crisis centers in the region. The program gives assistance to low-income households that fall below the poverty level with heating issues such as termination, system repairs and replacements and a lack of deliverable fuels. The offices are located at the Human Services Building, Downtown on Smithfield Street and at the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches in Natrona Heights. LIHEAP is scheduled to run through March 15, depending on federal funding availability. For more information on the program, call 1-800-851-3838.
Black college
tour changes
The Kingsley Association’s Mary L. Stone Black College Tour, which is Pittsburgh’s original tour for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, has been changed from its usual spring dates to June 20-27, in order to accommodate and promote preparation for students taking the mandated PSSA statewide achievement tests given around the time of the original date. With the tour being rescheduled to June, there will not be the usual concerns of students missing school, or being overwhelmed by trying to complete missed assignments. Applications are being accepted up to March 1. Qualified high school sophomores and juniors will visit 12 HBCUs and meet with representatives from the institutions they visit. For more information on the tour, visit www.kingsleyassociation.org.
The fight against
homelessness
The Allegheny County Department of Human Services has been awarded a $9.9 million Continuum Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue the fight against homelessness by providing safe havens, transitional housing and support for homeless individuals and families. The county has received this grant in previous years.
“The Continuum of Care grant will bring us closer to achieving the goals of our 10-year plan to end homelessness in Allegheny County,” County Executive Dan Onorato said in release. “Coupled with the $6.7 million in stimulus funds for our Homelessness Prevention & Rapid Re-Housing Program, we’ll be able to assist additional individuals and families move toward self-sufficiency and permanent housing.” The Prevention & Rapid Re-Housing program is for those who are close to losing their home, whereas the new grant is for those who have no home and have complex issues. There are 28 agencies with 41 programs that will benefit from the new grant. For more information about their services, visit www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs
First professional gala
In an effort to support the Renaissance Fund established with NEED, the Renaissance Group will host their first ever African-American Young Professionals Black Tie Gala Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. at the August Wilson Center. The gala will raise money for their scholarship fund, which supports the relocation costs of graduating college seniors, who intend to return back to Pittsburgh to work and live. “We clearly understand the potential that Pittsburgh has for young professionals,” K. Chase Patterson, chairman and co-founder of the Renaissance Group said. “We think it is important to add a small, yet compelling, incentive to those Pittsburgh natives who are graduating from college and intend to return to our city with skills and the talents that they have acquired during their collegiate career.”
The Renaissance Group began in July 2008 and had grown to six members. The organization recently became a state certified non-profit corporation. The gala is open to all and the cost is $25. There will be food, entertainment and a brief program. For more information, please call the Renaissance Group office at 412-353-9431.
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