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UrbanKind in the News
Why Embedding an Artist in Your Nonprofit Is a Sound Investment
Since 2020, I’ve served as the Community Artist in Residence at UrbanKind Institute, a nonprofit organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We focus on eliminating barriers to families thriving in over-burdened and under-resourced communities. I spend time painting murals, creating visual art, and collaborating with people locally and nationally. People often ask me to envision my dream job. When they do, I don’t hesitate. I tell them I’ve found it. Through my work, I’ve been able to move beyond art as only beautification to embracing it as a creative tool, internally with UrbanKind and externally with community partners, to help others communicate ideas, experiences, and solutions.
Equitable Data Analysis: Lessons from a COVID-19 Research Collaborative
The health inequities exposed by COVID-19 underscored the importance of collecting race-stratified data to inform local policymakers. For the public health researchers trying to provide that, the pandemic also revealed some major pitfalls, especially about relying on open-source data. Information is almost never neutral: What gets collected, how it is analyzed, reported, contextualized, and used—all that reflects pre-existing assumptions and biases.
Commentary: CMU’s map of Pittsburgh neighborhoods is a symptom of larger disinvestment and neglect
What does it mean to be invisible?
Ralph Ellison in his novel "Invisible Man" describes the concept in these words: “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Ellison uses the metaphor of invisibility to describe the relationship that Black Americans have with white Americans. Through their social conditioning, whites are unable to see Blacks as actual beings.
Three community leaders who led COVID vaccine events in Pittsburgh offer ‘one step in the solution..
Navigating the COVID-19 vaccination scheduling site in Allegheny County is like taking an online final exam when none of the multiple-choice options is the right answer; a privileged few are wrecking the grading curve; and the entrance to the exam site is obscured for the poor, homeless, Black and Brown.
Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show, Pt. 2
Lynne Hayes Freeland spoke with members of the Black Equity Coalition about concerns surrounding rising COVID-19 cases.
Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show, Pt. 1
Lynne Hayes Freeland spoke with members of the Black Equity Coalition about concerns surrounding rising COVID-19 cases.
Impact of Vaccine with Lynn Hayes Freeland, Part 3
Lynne Hayes Freeland spoke with Dr. Tiffany Gary-Webb and Dr. Jamil Bey of Black Equity Coalition to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine and what it means for the African American community.
Impact of Vaccine with Lynn Hayes Freeland, Part 1
Lynne Hayes Freeland spoke with Dr. Tiffany Gary-Webb and Dr. Jamil Bey of Black Equity Coalition to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine and what it means for the African American community.
Impact of Vaccine with Lynn Hayes Freeland, Part 2
Lynne Hayes Freeland spoke with Dr. Tiffany Gary-Webb and Dr. Jamil Bey of Black Equity Coalition to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine and what it means for the African American community.
Jamil Bey wants you to use the Pittsburgh Land Bank to revitalize the ...
In January of 2016, he founded UrbanKind Institute, a community engagement consulting firm dedicated to strengthening resident participation ... read more
How Amazon's HQ2 may both bring growth and imperil Pittsburgh's ...
Co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Human Rights Project, UrbanKind Institute and the University of Pittsburgh's Urban Studies ... read more
Why Environmentalists Are Poking Holes in Pittsburgh's Climate
And yet many of them didn't seem convinced it would work. “We don't see this actually as a plan,” said Jason Beery of the UrbanKind Institute...read more
Will McKinley Park Upgrades Improve the Struggling Beltzhoover
Jamil Bey is the executive director of the UrbanKind Institute. He has been a key voice in discussions about McKinley Park and how the project ... read more
Report Examines Challenges Pittsburgh Faces in Attracting, Retaining Young Black Professionals
Tayler Clemm, 23, is the kind of ambitious young black person an informal coalition of groups has begun working to keep in Pittsburgh ... read more
Neighborhood Allies Interviews Dr. Jamil Bey
Dr. Bey, Executive Director of UrbanKind Institute, is a researcher, analyst ... to the Neighborhood Allies Team, and to Pittsburgh neighborhoods ... .read more
Latest Insights
The Fierce Urgency of Our Environmental Now
UrbanKind Institute's Dr. Jason Beery set aside some time to think through the present and future environmental health threats in Pittsburgh.
"Despite Pittsburgh’s transformation from its dirty industrial past, its residents still deal with air pollution, toxic and polluted water, and other environmental problems that threaten their health. At the same time, future environmental threats—the development of the local petrochemical industry and climate change—stand to make existing problems even worse. These threats require urgent attention." Read more
