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Pittsburgh · Allegheny County · Pennsylvania

Black communities already know what they need.We help build
the power
to get it.

Black Equity Coalition brings residents, data, organizations, and resources together to turn community knowledge into collective action.

See our workJoin the coalition
Black Equity Coalition members and neighbors gathered together on a Pittsburgh street
205
community organizations
105
community events supported
25,000+
residents reached
315
CPR & first aid certifications

The challenge

These gaps
were built.

  • 01Health.
  • 02Housing.
  • 03Education.
  • 04Economic opportunity.
  • 05Access to information.
  • 06Decision-making power.

800 feet.

Larimer ↔ Highland Park

The approximate length of the bridge connecting two Pittsburgh communities.

Nearly 20 years.

Difference in life expectancy.

A stark example of how dramatically health outcomes can change across a short distance.

A short distance. A profound inequity.

Gaps like this don't happen by accident. They are shaped by policy, disinvestment, access, and who has power in the decisions.

That means they can be unbuilt.

Neighbors in conversation at a Black Equity Coalition community session

The vision

Neighborhoods where Black families have the power, resources, information, and relationships to thrive.

  • A model of collaboration, partnership, and innovation
  • Uniquely diverse, beautiful, vibrant, and connected
  • Reinvesting culturally, spiritually, and economically
  • The best opportunity for everyone to live, learn, work, worship, and play

How BEC helps

Community knowledge becomes collective power.

No single organization can undo generations of structural racism. The coalition builds the connective tissue — a co-leadership model linking physicians, epidemiologists, social scientists, public health practitioners, funders, educators, business leaders, government officials, and community advocates into one coordinated network.

  1. 01

    Listen

    Community knowledge and lived experience lead.

  2. 02

    Connect

    Residents, organizations, researchers, institutions, and resources come together.

  3. 03

    Build power

    Communities strengthen access to information, relationships, resources, and decision-making.

  4. 04

    Create change

    Community priorities become strategies, investments, policies, and action.

Where power is being built

The work is happening now.

Explore all initiatives
Residents working with neighborhood data at a data justice session
Data justice

Community Data Justice Collaborative

Residents shaping how data about their neighborhoods is collected, governed, and used — with the City of Pittsburgh, one of four U.S. cities selected for the Modern Anti-racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice initiative.

Read the initiative
Neighborhood residents planning together
Neighborhood power

Neighborhood Power Building

With the Larimer Consensus Group, residents use data to name and act on the conditions that shape health where they live.

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A community health session in progress
Health equity

Community Health

Proactive health support, training, and certification delivered through the organizations neighborhoods already trust.

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Collective impact

Progress that coordination makes possible.

0

Community organizations engaged across the coalition

0

Community events supported, reaching over 25,000 residents

0

CPR, First Aid, and AED certifications awarded in Pittsburgh neighborhoods

0

PA United ambassadors statewide addressing social determinants of health

A full room of residents and partners at a Black Equity Coalition convening

The coalition formed in 2020 as an emergency response to inequities a pandemic made impossible to ignore. Those response-era numbers are part of the history. The work today is broader: data, neighborhoods, health, and the decision-making power that makes progress last.

In the community

This is what power-building looks like.

Residents and partners working together at a Black Equity Coalition session
  • Residents identifying neighborhood priorities together

    Residents identifying neighborhood priorities.

  • Community members examining neighborhood data

    Community members examining the data.

  • Coalition members hosting a community information table

    Organizations coordinating resources.

  • A community leader speaking to an audience

    Partners turning priorities into action.

See the work in action

One coalition

Different expertise. One shared strategy.

Working groups organize around community priorities and stay linked through the core team — so effort compounds, not duplicates.

Data & Data Justice

Experts and residents together acquire, interpret, and govern the data that shapes decisions about Black neighborhoods.

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Community Health

Proactive health support, training, and tools built around what neighborhoods actually need.

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Policy & Advocacy

Translating community experience and evidence into policy that reaches decision-makers.

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Community Engagement

Clear, consistent communication and multimedia storytelling that centers lived experience.

Explore
Black Business

Supporting the economic stability and growth of Black-owned enterprise across the region.

Explore
Statewide Coalition — PA United

Extending the coalition model beyond Allegheny County through ambassadors across Pennsylvania.

Explore

Shared commitment

Lasting change takes all of us.

Lasting systems change takes residents, community organizations, researchers, institutions, funders, advocates, and public partners moving together. Pittsburgh's selection for MADE for Health Justice is sponsored by the de Beaumont Foundation with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Selected collaborators and supporters

  • City of Pittsburgh
  • Allegheny County
  • UrbanKind Institute
  • The Forbes Funds
  • Larimer Consensus Group
  • UPMC
  • de Beaumont Foundation
  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • POISE Foundation
  • MADE for Health Justice
  • Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh
  • The Future Is Black

Get involved

Find your place in this work.

Equity isn't given.
It's built together.

Real change happens when communities have the power, information, relationships, and resources to shape their own future.

Build power with usSupport the work