State grants help nonprofits’ teen programs reduce violence while creating careers

Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania will receive $950,000 over three years in Violence Intervention and Prevention, or VIP, funding to cover the costs of virtual and in-person mental health care and counseling services for teens most at-risk for gun violence.

Café Momentum Pittsburgh has been awarded $914,300 in VIP funding for workforce development internships for 75 at-risk youths.

In addition, the Boys & Girls Clubs organization here is part of a statewide Building Opportunities for Out-of-School Time, or BOOST, initiative. It will receive $204,000 over two years for its after-school programming for children from 7 to 19 at the organization’s Shadyside club. Currently about 40 young people actively take part in activities there.

PCCD awarded $56.5 million in grants to support community violence reduction and after-school programs across Pennsylvania, according to a Boys & Girls Clubs news release. These funds, part of the 2024-25 state budget, reflect a comprehensive approach to enhancing public safety.

This is the second VIP grant that the Boys & Girls Clubs here has received, Petrosky said. The first grant amount was much higher, but the current award will help provide two important parts of the after-school teen programs it offers — mental health support, which includes individual and group counseling that is offered in-person and online, and stipends and some wages that are integral to its Career Works High offering.

“Our focus is taking a look at the root causes of violences. In this case, [they are] the lack of mental health care and poverty,” Petrosky explained. “We make sure that our young people have access to mental health supports. Then they get skill development and opportunities to start curating their pathways after being with us to family-thriving careers and family-thriving wages.”

One of the reasons its Career Works High program, for example, pays participants $200 monthly stipends and in some cases hourly wages, is the staff knows often their program’s teens must support themselves and/or help their families financially. So the funds ensure they don’t miss out on mentorship and career guidance opportunities available to them at their clubhouses or have to make a choice between being part of programs and a minimum wage job.

The grant covers Boys & Girls Club programs at its five locations: Downtown Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville, Carnegie, McKeesport and Shadyside.

At Café Momentum, the funds may cover more than the 75 interns listed in its grant application. It is a three-year grant, and Executive Director Cheyenne Tyler said it also has a grant though the Pennsylvania Academic, Career and Technical Training Alliance managed by PCCD for its internship program operations.

It targets a specific group: 15- to 19-year-olds who have been involved with the juvenile justice system within the past 12 months. This may include probation, a summary offense, a consent decree and/or a court-ordered placement, according to Café Momentum’s website.

Interns are crucial to Café Momentum’s operations. It will reopen for dinners on Monday, Feb. 10, and is adding a lunch service Tuesdays through Fridays the next day, Tyler said. Last week the current group of 30 interns began their orientation to get ready. Intern orientations occur quarterly.

The interns learn front and back of the house work during their time with Café Momentum. In addition to hands-on restaurant skills obtained in six-week rotations through nine stations, during the first eight weeks they receive life skills support, employee adjustment and confidence skill building assistance. Just like the Boys & Girls Clubs, the students receive mental health care and education support, which Tyler explained is the nonprofit’s holistic approach at all its locations.

Chad Houser and others started the nonprofit in January 2015, opening its first center in Dallas in 2019. It expanded to Pittsburgh in 2023 and has opened additional locations in Denver and Atlanta.

In total the interns spend a year in the program, although some can extend that or leave earlier in what the executive director called a self-paced design. They are paid $13 to $16 an hour, depending on the internship phase.

To date 128 young people have completed Café Momentum internships in Pittsburgh, according to its website, and most of the time, Tyler said, the nonprofit has a waiting list. Teens can apply for an available spot year-round via its website.

Most of the interns come to it via community-based program partnerships, the largest being the Allegheny County Juvenile Probation Office and Family Court. Schools and other nonprofits who work with the target audience and word of mouth from past participants bring others in, Tyler said.

Some of the interns have found positions with the nonprofit’s community partners, Fig & Ash restaurant on the North Side and Eat’n Park Hospitality.

The education aspect is important, she said. Most interns come already enrolled in school, but Café Momentum will facilitate re-enrollment, transfers, GED attainment and secondary school exploration with its interns.

Both Café Momentum and the Boys & Girls Clubs here create safe spaces for the teens, which both Tyler and Petrosky said is critical to success.

“We create this safe place for them to be exactly who they are, learn from what they have experienced and then navigate to where they want to go in life, and they have support from the Café Momentum team,” Tyler said. “We can follow them up to three years afterward.  We get young people engaged, and they are always welcome to come back and see us.”

On its website, Café Momentum explains that it offers 24/7 case management for its participants, in addition to the other services and support.

What it all adds up to is “transforming the narrative that society has placed upon them. And living in their fullest potential and value,” she said.

Petrosky said the Boys & Girls Clubs teen programs have been successful because of the safety it provides participants and the strong staff it employs. It starts with teens having a say in what the spaces look like and what happens in them, with the staff supporting them in every aspect, from counseling to career exploration and more. The mental health counseling is provided directly by licensed professional contracts, but staff members are always present during those sessions.

“[Our staff] is truly invested in the well-being of our young people,” she said. “The teens look up to them as adult mentors. It’s truly life-changing for our young people. That safety in providing counseling and support is important because there is a stigma around mental health.”

Mentors and outside groups that provide programs for Boys & Girls Club teens are all vetted to adhere to safety guidelines. Two examples include the Pittsburgh Legal Diversity and Inclusion Coalition, which taught the teens about not only the court system but also careers within that system, and ran a mock trial with them in the county courthouse, and the National Organization of Minority Architects Pittsburgh chapter, which provided a new possible career choice. The University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, PPG and other partners connect the students to high priority Pittsburgh industries and job possibilities.

Teens find their way to the Boys & Girls Clubs via nonprofit partners, which include REACH, Cure Violence East and AIM. Some of those have street outreach teams out in neighborhoods and provide an important referral system. “They can identify at-risk teens we can help with our supports and our programs,” Petrosky said. “It allows us to work together to reduce violence.”

Café Momentum was also fortunate to receive $71,000 in December from the Pittsburgh Steelers Social Justice Match Fund. “Nationally our organization is tied into the NFL coalition,” Petrosky explained. “The partnership and relationship support from team and many players has been astronomical and so beneficial for our Café Momentum. All funding comes in as supportive to our general operations and programs.”

Tyler said the PCCD grant is “a significant win for us to continue our journey toward sustainable funding.”

She explained, “It’s big. It’s necessary for us to establish ourselves in the community as a pillar in the community and really changing what juvenile justice looks like and how it serves our young people. To do that we need financial resources to provide high-quality services, and this grant helps make this happen.”

Boys & Girls Clubs have about 150 teens, 13- to 19-year-olds, right now actively enrolled in its five locations. That number can fluctuate as teens juggle after-school activities, sports, part-time jobs and caring for younger siblings.  The core group often includes younger students from its other programs who just naturally move up.

So can the teens. The Boys & Girls Clubs organization here has its own AmeriCorps program they can join and work with younger children at other clubhouses, for example. At 18 and with high school diplomas, they can take advantage of a partnership with Per Scholas, a nonprofit technical organization. It has a four-week bridge program into its longer free certification program that teaches participants cybersecurity, IT security support and data management systems skills.

From her career experiences, which included positions at Nazareth Prep and Holy Family Institute before she joined Boys & Girls Clubs here nearly six years ago, Petrosky said the reality is all nonprofits with at-risk teens programs have to work together to serve young people.

“[There are] way too many teens out there, even collectively,” she said. “If we were all at capacity, we couldn’t serve all of them. That is how we truly meet the needs of our community. We all have robust offerings. We’re really focused on getting our young people have great futures, doing whatever it takes to ensure that happens.”

Other regional and city local nonprofits and programs receiving VIP grants from the PCCD include:

• Center for Employment Opportunities: $950,000 in VIP funding for programs in Allegheny, Dauphin and Philadelphia counties to assist recently released individuals with gun-related offenses to reduce recidivism.
• Foundation of HOPE: $949,253 in VIP funding for expansion of reentry programing, street outreach, and violence prevention.
• Homewood Children’s Village: $950,000 in VIP funding to support its Holistic Anti-Violence Education Network (HAVEN) program, which embeds violence prevention in community schools, trains parents and family members in anti-violence techniques, provides youth mentorship, and expands access to therapeutic services.
• The University of Pittsburgh: $949,856 in VIP funding to support expansion of the Empowering Teens to Thrive (ET3) hospital-based violence intervention program and community-based mentorship program for ages 12-25 injured or impacted by community violence.
• Youth Enrichment Services Inc.: $950,000 in VIP funding to enhance its youth-led peer engagement and violence prevention programming. Program components include the Fitness Fun Involving Sports and Health program, implementing youth-created Big Ideas for addressing gun violence, and scaling the annual Teen Violence Prevention Symposium. The enhancement would allow for increased frequency of the Fitness Fun Involving Sports and Health program, an annual Youth Job Fair, and expanded reach of the Teen Violence Prevention Symposium.

State Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, and state Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, and Abigail Salisbury, D-Swissvale, announced other PCCD grants to local organizations, public school districts and nonpublic schools. The latter provide resources for school security and mental health resources. They include:

• Allegheny Youth Development: $139,520 in BOOST funding for additional staff hours, training and programing.

• SLB Radio Productions: $192,410 in BOOST funding to expand its summer programing for at-risk teens at its Youth Media Center on the North Side.

• Oakland Catholic High School: $75,000.

• Yeshiva Boys School: $75,000.

• Yeshiva Girls Schools: $75,000.

• Kentucky Avenue School: $61,900.

• Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh: $44,900.

• Pittsburgh Public Schools: $528,221.

• Woodland Hills School District: $178,029.

• Wilkinsburg Borough School District: $120,054.

• Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf: $75,000.

• Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Academy: $75,000.

• Pittsburgh Urban Christian School: $71,760.

• Pace School: $50,000.