DR. KATHI ELLIOTT, CENTER, LEADS THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY FOR HER GWEN’S GIRLS ORGANIZATION’S NEW BUILDING IN WILKINSBURG, AT 600 ROSS AVENUE, JUNE 8. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
When Dr. Kathi Elliott told people about the $6 million price tag for the building she wanted to purchase as the new, expanded home of Gwen’s Girls, some were taken aback.
“This is what our girls deserve,” Dr. Elliott, the unwavering Gwen’s Girls leader, told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “When someone hears $6 million, I say, ‘yeah, this is what they deserve, a facility that has state-of-the-art equipment, state-of-the-art opportunities.'”
4-YEAR-OLD KAMRYN ELLIOTT GETS IN ON THE GROUNDBREAKING, TOO…WITH DAD, JORDAN, AND GRANDMOTHER, DR. KATHI ELLIOTT, BY HER SIDE.
Gwen’s Girls, the longtime Pittsburgh organization that aims to empower girls and young women to have productive lives through holistic, gender-specific programs, education and experiences, on June 8 broke ground on what will soon be their new location, 600 Ross Ave., in Wilkinsburg. The building is known as the Rochez Building.
More than 200 people gathered on a nice, sunny, Saturday morning to celebrate the occasion, including Allegheny County Chief Executive Sara Innamorato, Wilkinsburg Mayor Dontae Comans and Pa. Lt. Governor Austin Davis.
“Today is just an amazing day,” Dr. Elliott said at the ceremony. “It would have been my mother’s 80th birthday, so that’s one of the celebration points, but us really being able to break ground on a new facility that will help to change lives and the trajectory of the girls in our region is something we have been dreaming about for a while.”
DENISE MCGILL-DELANEY, BRANDI FISHER, DR. KATHI ELLIOTT
Dr. Elliott and her staff have been working out of an office on the North Side for years. They’ll remain there for at least the next year while renovations begin and are completed on the Rochez building, which sits across from the PRT Busway. But Dr. Elliott and Gwen’s Girls’ Chief of Staff, Denise McGill-Delaney, can’t wait to settle into Gwen’s Girls’ new home, which will have programming and activities on three floors.
McGill-Delaney told the Courier the bottom floor will house its “Caring Connections For Youth” program, which gives people the opportunity to call “211” instead of “911” to serve as a pre-arrest diversion option for both girls and boys. The first floor will have an open concept space along with a cafe, and the second floor would house the “Renaissance Room,” a recording studio, the STEM Lab and some staff offices.
The Renaissance Room was something the girls that Gwen’s Girls serves suggested. It’s going to have comfy chairs, a glamour space which includes a mirror, and an overall “chill out space to have fun and be in fellowship and enjoy the sisterhood,” McGill-Delaney told the Courier.
The building will also house a mental health suite for the girls, along with a pantry and laundry area, McGill-Delaney said.
“It’s not about us as adults, or Gwen’s Girls as a whole, but really what we’re going to give back to the girls and what they’ll get from it,” Dr. Elliott said
A RENDITION OF WHAT THE NEW GWEN’S GIRLS BUILDING WILL LOOK LIKE COME LATE 2025.
Dr. Elliott’s mother, the late Gwendolyn Elliott, founded Gwen’s Girls in 2002 after seeing that girls in the area, particularly Black girls, weren’t provided enough services to support themselves and their children. Gwendolyn Elliott died five years later, but her daughter, Kathi, kept the Gwen’s Girls legacy alive.
Dr. Elliott was asked what she thought her mother would think of this moment, the moment of breaking ground to a $6 million facility which will have the organization’s name proudly christened on the building. “She would be just so happy and proud, not only of me, but the community,” Dr. Elliott said. “As you see, there are a lot of people who support what we do and we just can’t thank them enough, and I think she would be so proud of that.”
Dr. Elliott had the groundbreaking on what would have been her mother’s 80th birthday.
HEALTHY START PITTSBURGH CEO JADA SHIRRIEL, WITH SON, NAHSHON
While Gwen’s Girls already serves and supports hundreds of girls per year, the organization anticipates it will be able to increase that number by 20 percent once they move into the new building.
“It’s important to have the visibility of Gwen’s Girls on an amazing corner like this, to be right across the street from the borough building, right in our business district; very important,” voiced Wilkinsburg Mayor Dontae Comans. The mayor and his wife, Ashley Comans, have been longtime supporters of the Gwen’s Girls’ mission.
“In the news, it’s a lot of girls that’s doing some of the crimes and also being victims at the same time, and we’re always seeing programs to uplift our young men, and in a time where this world’s going crazy, it seems like the girls and the women are being forgotten,” Mayor Comans told the Courier. “But Gwen’s Girls has always been there and will always be there to make sure they’re not forgotten.”
BARBARA MOORE, DENISE MCGILL-DELANEY
Among the activities and festivities during the groundbreaking ceremony was a performance from two of the girls that are involved with Gwen’s Girls, Naturayle Schley and Triniti Anderson, who are both 13. Following their performance, they each held a sign. One sign said, “I am proud to be a Gwen’s Girl,” and the other sign read, “Because of Gwen’s Girls, I feel capable, proud, understood, heard, worthy to receive, that I matter, strong, seen, and taken seriously.”
Barbara Moore, regional office director for the CYF (Children, Youth and Families) East office, told the Courier the groundbreaking moment was “awesome. It is going to be a wonderful space. It’s just what we need, it brings the community together for equity and inclusion for our girls.”
And Jada Shirriel, CEO of Healthy Start Pittsburgh, told the Courier that “I’m always here to celebrate Gwen’s Girls and the work that Kathi is doing and her mother’s legacy.” Shirriel formerly worked for Gwen’s Girls as the organization’s director of development. “Black girls and women are our future. We know that Black women hold up society in ways that are not necessarily recognized or thanked, so what Gwen’s Girls is trying to do is make sure that our girls don’t have to bear that burden when they become adults.”
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