Our Vision

We believe that all children in Sto-Rox should be happy, healthy, and safe – supported by loved ones in a broader community that offers the necessary education, training, and opportunity for a bright future.

Our Mission

The Sto-Rox Youth Partnership is a platform for youth program leaders, school employees, businesses and other community members to collaborate, in order to improve the lives and futures of our children. By identifying existing resources and coordinating our efforts, we systematically address issues that adversely affect the wellbeing of Sto-Rox youth, using data-driven metrics to guide our progress. Together, we are better equipped to confront and improve the pervasive problems of poverty, crime, and disenfranchisement that too frequently affect the lives of our kids.

Place

McKees Rocks and Stowe Township (Sto-Rox) are a community of roughly 13,000 residents just three miles from the Ohio River. Once a thriving industrial community, five decades of decline have left the area with concentrated poverty and a decimated commercial core. This pervasive poverty and liabilities that accompany it, are the greatest contributors to an overall lack of vitality and reduced quality of life. These factors are also the greatest obstacles to the community as it continues to reinvent itself through attracting new economic vitality around several planning efforts.

Problem

The Sto-Rox community is blessed with a number of amenities for our young people, such as the Father Ryan Arts Center and the First Tee of Pittsburgh at Pleasant Ridge. Similarly, Sto-Rox has a number of youth-serving organizations, both large and small, that provide a wide array of programs and services.

What has become evident, however, is that there is not a coordinated effort between these organizations to strategically leverage their resources and amenities existing in the Sto-Rox community.

The result is that we hear routinely from parents, educators, and other stakeholders (including children themselves) that our young people need more enriching activities and learning experiences. These become even more critical in a community where the home environment often times lacks stability.

Project

Through existing relationships and networks, McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation (MRCDC) is seeking to first convene potential partners throughout Sto-Rox to discuss the roles and function of existing entities and solicit feedback as to individual (and collective) needs, challenges, and opportunities.

MRCDC can explore potential new collaborative ideas and projects that are suggested and facilitate connections between youth partners through its Neighborhood Stabilization function.

In short, this community doesn’t have to build new places or organizations, just better utilize what already exists within Sto-Rox and what is offered in the Pittsburgh region.

Partners

Boys and Girls Club

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Provides after-school programming and summer camp opportunities for kids ages 6-18 of Stowe Township, Kennedy Township, and McKees Rocks.
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Faithbridge Community Ministries

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faithbridge community ministries

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Faithbridge Kids Club provides an opportunity for kids to learn scripture, do crafts and games and engage in service projects for the community.
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Family Resources BJWL

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Provides a host of extracurricular programs, including homework help, tutoring, arts and crafts, nutrition, and physical activities.
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Father Ryan Arts Center

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The Father Ryan Arts Center creates opportunities for the community and the individual to be inspired, empowered and enlightened through the arts.
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First Tee Pittsburgh

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The First Tee provides young people with character-building and life skills lessons using golf as the platform.
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Focus on Renewal

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Focus On Renewal offers many community-based services: a food pantry and emergency support program, free daily lunch program for those in need, early Head Start program and family support program for children, the only library for miles around, and arts center for children, adults and families, and so much more.
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The Community Builders, Inc.

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The Community Builders works with local programs to offer college application assistance, athletic opportunities for kids, scholarship searches, and many more programs.
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Family Foundations Early Head Start

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Family Foundations Early Head Start provides early, continuous, intensive and comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income families with children up to age three.
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Holy Family Institute

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Holy Family Institute works with children with severe behavioral issues, youth who are about to graduate high school that may lack goals and ambition to find and maintain gainful employment, and families struggling with poverty, neglect, abuse, and addictions.
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Parents of Third Street Park

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parents of third street park

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Grassroots effort to keep our park clean, and provide a space for kids to have outdoor programs.
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Contact: Louise Kardell
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Positive Parenting Support Program

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positive parenting support group

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Provides free preschool, parent groups, parent-child activities, and support to parents in 3 sites throughout Sto-Rox.
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412-331-1685
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Reach Out and Uplifting District Youth (ROUDY)

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ROUDY provides a public forum to concerned citizens to apply for grant monies allocated to prevent youth crime, and to provide and facilitate activities, education and conflict resolution strategies to the youth of the local community.
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Second Baptist Church

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Provides year-round church school to ages 2-12, and a summertime week-long “Vacation Bible School” to ages 4-13.
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Sto-Rox Family Center

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Provides a wide variety of programs, including home visits, weekly parent and child groups, monthly fatherhood programs, help with kindergarten registration, access to community resources like transportation, and many more.
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Sto-Rox Elementary School

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Sto-Rox Middle School

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In addition to middle school education, the SRMS provides youth leadership, mentoring, and athletic opportunities, in addition to programs like Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), restorative justice practices, and many more.
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Sto-Rox High School

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In addition to high school education, the SRHS provides student government, mentoring, and athletic opportunities, in addition to programs like ACC (a college prep course), Echo (a healthy relationship/dating program), a
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Sto-Rox Little Vikings Football

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The Little Vikings provides a positive and safe atmosphere for kids to participate in football, and achieves that through conditioning, teaching techniques, and providing healthy competition and appropriate recognition.
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The Youth Partnership enabled me to identify individuals in the neighborhood who were working toward the shared goal of providing enriching programs to children and youth. I work at a housing site where I constantly see the need for youth programs. After Lisa from the Sto-Rox Elementary School spoke about her successful afterschool program and mentioned the need for more programming, I knew she would be a valuable partner. Through brainstorming, planning, and partnering with the Sto-Rox Elementary School,  Lisa and I were able to begin a successful running program for young girls at the housing site that teaches teamwork, confidence and life skills!

Leah Marmo

Resident Services Coordinator of The Community Builders Inc.
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One of the great benefits of the Sto-Rox Youth Partnership is the opportunity to network with other youth-serving organizations. I met Adrienne of the Second Baptist Church at a meeting and now we are hosting their kids at our facility.  Without this partnership, those kids wouldn't have the opportunity to learn about golf and all of it's inherent values. The kids are discovering how skills essential to success on the golf course can help them in their lives at home and at school.

Paul Coultas

Director of Programs and Instruction of The First Tee of Pittsburgh at Pleasant Ridge