I realized that while I’ve blogged about my job before, I’ve never really explained how the Foundation began or what all it does. And it is super awesome, so here goes.

Back in 2013, Alicia Mulraney, a sociology major at Pitt, and Janessa Crosby, a women’s studies major at Carlow, had internships at the Pittsburgh YWCA during their last semesters of college. They were impressed at the number of programs the YWCA offered women in the community, but they realized that there was more that needed to be done.

So they decided to take matters into their own hands. They applied for grants from the Sprout Fund, the Heinz Endowments and a few other places, and got them. They began renting a small one bedroom apartment in North Oakland and made it their headquarters.

The first program they began offering was the sports program. It’s basically a way for girls who normally are not encouraged to play sports to get involved in physical activities and build their self-confidence. And although the girls are not very athletically inclined when they begin the program, you better believe they’re true athletes within a few months. It’s pretty amazing.

After the success of the sports program, they decided to band with Students for a Sustainable Pittsburgh and advocate for on-site child care in the majority of businesses downtown - a pretty big deal, since this was about the time when all the technology firms were making their way to the Golden Triangle. Through their efforts, they managed to have all new incoming businesses and 70% of existing businesses with 25 or more employees in the city commit to on-site child care.

By then, the PWF had been in existence for five years and their success had caused them to hire more staff and move to the present offices, in Squirrel Hill. They began their own grant program for women who wanted to start their own non-profits.

I was brought into the PWF to work on their newest program, the girls’ creative writing program. The CEOs (still Alicia and Janessa) realized that girls who aren’t really interested in sports had few options for afterschool programs, so they started working with the local middle schools to offer the creative writing program to interested girls. So far, the response has been great and I can honestly say I love going to work every day.