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Celebrating 7 Years of Joyful Fundraising at SHIM: Bridging Hearts and Impact

Seth Dubin, Director of Development and Communications As I approach my seventh anniversary working at the South Hills Interfaith Movement (SHIM) as a development professional, I find myself reflecting on the pure joy that comes from fundraising for a community-focused, hyper-local, and mission-driven human services non-profit. When I first joined SHIM, I was drawn to the organization’s unwavering commitment to the South Hills community, a place where I’ve lived and grown to love. What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was the satisfaction that comes from connecting generous people in the community who want to help with those who need help right in our own backyard. At SHIM, fundraising isn’t merely about securing dollars; it’s about weaving a vibrant tapestry of human connection. It’s about nurturing a community where children joyfully donate food, neighbors gather to support one another, and individuals use their hard-earned dollars to make a difference in their own South Hills community. It’s about understanding that each contribution, whether large or small, is a testament to the shared belief that together, we can create meaningful change. Skills for Building Bridges of Compassion To succeed in fundraising at SHIM, one must cultivate a unique skill set. It’s not just about spreadsheets and solicitations; it’s about empathy, storytelling, and building bridges of compassion. 1. Empathy: To connect people who want to help with those in need, one must first understand both sides deeply. Empathy fuels our ability to resonate with the concerns and passions of our donors and the challenges faced by our clients. 2. Storytelling: Stories are the heart of our work. They turn statistics into faces, challenges into opportunities, and donors into champions. Crafting and sharing these stories allows us to engage hearts as well as minds. 3. Community Engagement: Building and nurturing relationships within our community is a priority. Whether it’s partnering with local businesses, schools, or faith-based organizations, it’s these collaborations that amplify our impact. 4. Stewardship: Acknowledging the importance of donor engagement is key. Expressing gratitude and reporting on tangible impact ensures that our supporters feel valued and connected to the change they enable. From Children to Philanthropists: Every Contribution Matters One of the most beautiful aspects of working at SHIM is the wide spectrum of giving. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing children donating their allowances, teenagers organizing food drives, and retirees dedicating their valuable time. Simultaneously, I’ve stood beside individuals and families who contribute significantly, providing the financial backbone of our organization and enabling SHIM to sustain well into the future. Every contribution, regardless of its size, is a testament to the incredible spirit of our community. It reminds me that philanthropy knows no bounds; it’s an act of love and compassion that transcends age and financial capacity. Donor Engagement and Reporting: Strengthening the Bonds Donor engagement is not just a buzzword at SHIM; it’s a core value. We believe in building lasting relationships with our supporters. We invite them to our events, share our successes, and ensure they know that their partnership is genuinely appreciated. Our commitment to reporting on tangible impact is equally important. When we can show donors […]

Cropped Seth Dubin

Violins of Hope Event

Rachel White, Development and Communications Manager Pittsburgh does a great job of bringing people together. We’re the city of bridges, and I think that includes both physical and spiritual bridges! As we’ve worked together with the Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh, I have gotten to witness the power of music in connecting communities. From students to professionals, from the North Hills to the South Hills, Pittsburghers of all religious and cultural backgrounds are gathering in the spirit of unity. The Violins of Hope exhibit is a collection of restored instruments that were played by Jewish musicians during the holocaust. They represent resilience and hope as lasting symbols from a time of injustice and suffering. The value of this exhibit and the many performances being presented across the city are the connections being made. Performers are touching history when they play on these instruments that were once played by persecuted Jews. Through remembrance, we learn lessons about acceptance and peace. Peace requires active participation, and sharing the stories of these violins within our city allows us to collectively reflect on our responsibilities to maintain peace. Especially as we hear about the tragic events in Israel, I am heartened to participate in events that bring diverse audiences together. Coming on November 13, we will be hosting an event that will include student readings, student performances, and music played by the renowned Clarion Quartet. WTAE News Anchor Shannon Perinne will emcee the event, which is free. Register for the event HERE. I hope you will join me in gathering in the spirit of unity here in the South Hills!

Hope in the South Hills graphic

Netra Explains Dashara

Netra Kafley, SHIM Fatherhood Program Coordinator Working at SHIM, I have the pleasure of meeting people from many cultural backgrounds. We enjoy learning from each other and sharing our traditions. As a former Refugee who moved to the US 14 years ago, I value my ability to celebrate Hindu holidays like Dashara. Dashara is also known as Vijayadashami (Sanskrit), Dashara or Dashain and is a major Hindu festival celebrated by the Hindu community. This festival usually falls in September or October, depending on the Lunar Calendar. The exact dates vary each year, as it depends on the position of the Moon. This festival celebrates the victory of good over evil and is observed by Hindu. The festival lasts for 15 days, with each day having its own significance, rituals, and celebrations. “Vijaya” means victory and “Dashami” means tenth day on the lunar fortnight. The main highlight of the festival, Vijayadashami, occurs on the tenth day when families come together to exchange blessings and apply Tika (a mixture of rice, yogurt, and vermilion) on each other’s foreheads. I usually celebrate by blessing my children first, then we go to my parents’ house. My siblings also come along with their family. My family gather in our Parents’ house with cultural dresses on, cooking cultural food, and getting blessing from our parents by applying flower and Tika on our foreheads. After that, we go to other relatives’ houses like my in-laws or uncles to continue the festival. This year, people celebrate Vijayadashami on Oct 23, and some do on 24th as well, depending on if they follow the Calendar which is developed based on Nepal’s time, or America’s time. Whichever day you celebrate, I wish you peace, prosperity, and Happiness! Happy Vijayadashami!!

Netra Dashara Picture

Little Amal at the Citizenship Ceremony

Casey Rich, SHIM South Hills Family Center Site Director On September 21st, I had the opportunity to participate in a spectacular Welcoming event that I know I will remember for many years to come. I set out for the City-County building that day excited to observe a naturalization ceremony, something I have not had the chance to do in quite a few years. A SHIM client that I have worked with through some pretty difficult times, Lila, was granted her United States Citizenship after seven years of perseverance and hard work. Candidates for citizenship go through months of applications, interviews, and an exam in English and United States History. They also must be found to be “of good moral character” – i.e. that they have not committed any serious crimes during their time in the United States. Lila, a 60-year-old single woman who arrived alone as a refugee from Bhutan, had challenges with the testing and applications due to her age and low level of English. So, it was very exciting to get to see her complete the naturalization process and officially become an American citizen. That alone would have been reason to attend the ceremony on a gorgeous day in September in downtown Pittsburgh. But the Mayor’s office had a surprise for the candidates that day. Little Amal was going to join and be part of the naturalization ceremony. Little Amal is a traveling experiential art piece – a 12 foot tall puppet depicting a Syrian refugee girl on a journey to find her new home. In each city she travels to, she visits theaters and outdoor public events to spread awareness about the stories of displaced people across the globe. Pittsburgh was one of her first stops in the US; by the end of her trip, she will have travelled over 6,000 miles across the country. Before coming to the US, she walked all over Europe in places like Turkey, France, the UK, Greece, and Poland. In conjunction with her appearances, the Walk with Amal organization coordinates with local governments and nonprofits to hold film screenings, group discussions, school events, and large-scale community projects focused on welcoming. Here in Pittsburgh, Amal visited the Carrie Blast Furnaces, the August Wilson Center, and Whitney Park in Wilkinsburg, as well as the City-County building for this very unique naturalization ceremony I attended. When I arrived at the intersection of Grant Street and Fourth Avenue, I saw crowds of school kids in uniforms – not the typical setting for this ceremony, which usually takes place inside the courthouse or at the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) Field Office in the Southside. This ceremony was set up outside with rows of folding chairs under the portico. And while these are usually pretty low-key events, with speeches and quiet applause, this one had a buzz of excitement around it. The kids held little American flags and handmade signs and were obviously excited to be out of the classroom for the morning. But the real excitement came when passers-by on the street started to hold up their cell phones like they were taking […]

Lila's citizenship ceremony with Little Amal, Michelle, and Casey

Welcoming Week Spotlight on Language Access

Casey Rich, SHIM Family Center Site Director Did you know that more than 7% of people in Allegheny County speak a language other than English? Equity is recognizing that all people are not given the same resources and opportunities. When we think about equity, we often focus on systemic racial discrimination, like unfair housing policies. But we would like to focus here on another issue related to inequity: language access. And Welcoming Week is the perfect time to highlight this issue – every step we take toward increasing language access makes Pittsburgh more welcoming to our foreign-born community! “Everything comes back to language access. You can have challenges with housing, healthcare, or employment. In all of those challenges for life necessities and happiness, language access is a barrier.”- Holly Hickling, Executive Director, The Global Switchboard Pittsburgh’s South Hills suburbs have the highest concentration of refugees in the Greater Pittsburgh region. Here in the Baldwin Whitehall School District (BWSD), the Asian population grew 477% from 2010-2020, mostly from Asian countries. BWSD students speak 30 different languages and 23% of the district’s elementary-aged students speak Nepali at home. As a trusted partner of the refugee and immigrant community, we have seen firsthand how language barriers contribute to inequality. Many refugees and immigrants arrive in Pittsburgh with little or no English, and they struggle to access available resources. These new neighbors are full of ambition, but it takes time and perseverance to learn a new language. Not only is the process difficult, but many have to work long hours to support their families with low-paying jobs and are unable to make time for weekly English classes. Additionally, there is a strain on existing resources, and capacity is limited for ESL classes. Many potential students are on a waitlist until more spots open. In the United States, 11 million people aren’t proficient in English. That’s about 10% of working age adults. “It takes about 350 hours of instruction to reach a functional level of language proficiency, says Johan Uvin, a former official in the Obama administration’s Department of Education, but most students spend only about 140 hours in formal English classes.” (Why Can’t Immigrants Learn English? – The Atlantic) Transportation can be another barrier, as can childcare needs and isolation. Add to that the trauma that many have experienced in their journeys to America, and finding brain space for language learning can feel overwhelming. When I learned languages in school, it took years to become proficient. Even with my limited proficiency in French from my college study abroad program years ago, it would definitely take me a while to get comfortable functioning day-to-day in France now! Many foreign-born parents find themselves relying on their children for translation and interpretation. This puts kids in a difficult situation, putting too much pressure on the parent-child relationship. Interpreting for a parent can be uncomfortable, and there may be pieces of information the parent chooses not to share because it’s inappropriate. Some of the most common situations where kids are relied on for interpretation are at doctor’s offices, in schools, and in emergency situations. All these scenarios require […]

Welcoming week blog

Gardens Help to Alleviate Hunger

Rachel White, Development and Communications Manager We’re enjoying an excellent harvest season in our community gardens, and at the same time we are observing Hunger Action Month, which focuses on food insecurity. The juxtaposition of bountiful baskets of food and long lines of people attending our food pantries gave me pause. How is it that a country so full of resources, not to mention so much food waste, has so many hungry people? Our food pantries benefited 6,205 people last year. Men, women, children, veterans, seniors, immigrants and refugees—no one is immune to hunger. More than half of households relying on our food pantries are employed, and many have more than one job. Unfortunately, their wages aren’t high enough to keep up with the cost of living. While some of the people who come to pantries are experiencing a crisis, such as a job loss or an unexpected medical bill, we’re seeing more people just struggling to keep up with monthly bills like rent and utilities. While inflation is slowly dropping, food prices have remained high. Hopefully, inflation’s steady decline will help ease the burden on low-income households, but changes to eligibility for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have hit local families hard. How do we make things better? Luckily, we have amazing neighbors here in the South Hills who help to provide 700,000 pounds of food to people facing food insecurity. Through generous donations of food, personal care items, and monetary donations, we keep our shelves stocked. With a focus on nutritious offerings, our Community Garden program plays an essential role in providing healthy produce at a low cost. What is the Community Garden program? Twelve years ago, our first garden was established outside our Bethel Park facility by our amazing garden coordinator Becky. As the need continued to grow, Becky contacted local congregations to add community gardens to our network. The program BLOSSOMED (perfect garden pun, right?), and we now have 11 partners growing food for our pantries along with our two SHIM gardens. These gardens grow more than 15,000 pounds each season! What is unique about our gardens? One of the best things about the garden program is its ability to adapt to the preferences of the people we serve. About half of the people who utilize our pantries are refugees and immigrants. They like different foods than Americans, and those foods can sometimes be hard to find. Our dedicated gardeners consult with pantry clients and include their most desired items in their planting. They grow long beans, bitter gourds, and hot peppers- things that you would never find at Giant Eagle! Who does this work? The most inspiring thing about our community gardens program is the volunteers. With only one part-time garden coordinator managing 2 SHIM gardens and overseeing 11 partner gardens, we rely on a team of dedicated volunteers. From planting to weeding, watering to harvesting, volunteers take on the many duties required to keep plants producing all season. On hot, humid summer days or on cold rainy fall days, our volunteers are committed to growing as much food as possible […]

Gilfillan Garden 2023

My Experience at the Afghan Support Center Resource Fair

Casey Rich, Family Center Site Director Last month, I had the opportunity to participate in Pittsburgh’s Afghan Support Center (ASC), a huge resource fair designed specifically for Afghan families who have relocated to the area. The four-day event showcased a host of Allegheny County’s most dedicated social service providers at the Pittsburgh Marriot downtown. Run by staff at Cherokee Federal, the ASC was the fourth in a series of seven resource fairs held across the country this year geared toward newer arrivals from Afghanistan as part of Operation Allies Welcome. At SHIM, we work with a relatively small number of Afghan families, so we thought this would be a great opportunity for outreach to a new community, some of whom live and work in the South Hills. Who brought this event to Pittsburgh? Cherokee Federal is “a team of tribally owned federal contracting companies focused on building solutions, solving complex challenges, and serving the nation’s mission.” The Cherokee Nation is the largest Native American tribe in the United States, with more than 400,000 members. Entirely owned by the Cherokee Nation and headquartered in northeast Oklahoma, they aim to invest all profits back into Cherokee communities, by supporting native-owned businesses, community education and training programs, and various social services. Why did they choose Pittsburgh for the ASC? Partnered with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Cherokee Federal identified Pittsburgh as a city that would benefit from hosting this event – a place with a significant population of Afghan families that continues to grow. As of a year ago, local refugee resettlement organizations had welcomed between 700-800 Afghan individuals. These families are living all over Allegheny County. Affordable housing is scarce, so it’s rare that families get to live in the same community or neighborhood as other speakers of their language. Instead, they’re scattered across the city, often without access to cars or drivers’ licenses. These are the folks who need resources the most – those who are not well-connected to an immediate support system they can lean on. Enter the Afghan Support Center: a limited-time, one-stop shop for any resource ranging from public benefits to employment help, family support services to legal assistance. What is this community facing? What are their needs? First, some important things you might not know about these new Pittsburghers: 1. People from Afghanistan are referred to as Afghans (the noun) or Afghan (the adjective). Sometimes you may hear the term Afghani used to describe the people, which is incorrect and can be offensive. Only the unit of money used in the country is called an Afghani. 2. Most people from Afghanistan speak either Dari or Pashto. Which language you speak depends on what region you are from. They are both written with the Arabic alphabet, so it is often assumed that Afghans speak Arabic – especially since they are also generally Muslim. 3. A large percentage of recent Afghan arrivals come to the US with a unique visa designation called a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) that is available only to those who worked for the US government in their country as translators, interpreters, or in […]

Interpreters at ASC

School Supplies Strain a Budget!

Rachel White, Development and Communications Manager I recently teamed up with my colleague, family and community engagement specialist Dawn Rees, to see how much school supplies cost this year. It seems the cost to send kids back to school only rises and never falls, and we wanted to see just how hard families are going to get hit this year. Since our youth programs mostly serve kids from the Baldwin Whitehall School District (BWSD), we used their school supply lists to make our estimate. Many of the families we serve have more than one kid, so we estimated for a family that has a 2nd grader, a 5th grader, and an 8th grader. We wanted to get the most accurate estimate. Knowing that most of the families we serve shop at Walmart, Dawn headed off to the local Walmart to check out various supplies. Dawn looked for pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, not to mention dry erase boards with markers, and so much more. She also checked out the backpack selection, which ranged from $6 all the way to $35! Once we had our price list, we obtained last year’s school supply lists from BWSD. While these can vary between schools and even between teachers, we came up with an average amount. Are you ready for this? This family would pay $397.50 to get everything the school requests! For families just getting by, this is an enormous expense. Especially as inflation has kept prices high, we’re seeing more families on the brink of economic hardship. Imagine spending all your paycheck on rent, utilities, and food, and then wondering where you can find $400 to purchase school supplies. We know many parents feel crushed by this extra expense. Thank goodness we have the best neighbors here in the South Hills, who help us to provide backpacks and school supplies to local kids. Can you help us collect school supplies for this year’s distributions? We expect to serve 1,500 kids at our three distributions, so we could really use your support! Much like our food pantries, participants have a chance to pick out the items they like best, so we hope to have a large selection of school supplies available to them. For more information, head HERE to see our most needed items list, register a donation drive, or make a financial contribution. You will empower local kids to head back to school with confidence! If you need help getting supplies for your kids, our distributions will be on Aug. 15, 17, and 18. You can find more information HERE by scrolling to the bottom.

Resized Dawn BTS shopping

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