YWCA GP in Action - April 2026
Spring is here and with the new season comes a busy time of year for our organization. Take a look at what’s been happening across YWCA GP: check out the latest moments, milestones, and stories shaping our work.
Many Hands Make Light Work
A huge thank you is in order for our volunteers, including YWCA GP Young Leaders Board Member Olivia Ricci and employees from Covestro, who recently helped us sort, organize, and assemble hundreds of STEM kits for our STEM Impact Initiative. Each kit has a total of eight individual lessons on biology, biodiversity, and bioluminescence, providing hours of hands-on learning for students in programs run by our community partners across the region. Thank you to all who participated!
From Equity to Engineering
Through our STEM Impact Initiative, over 100 students in programs offered by our community partners recently learned about racial justice, inclusivity, engineering, and STEM. Our racial justice unit taught lessons such as fairness compared to true equality and the value of teamwork, while our engineering unit included lessons on chromatography, paper algorithms, edible DNA, and testing acids and bases.
Car Creations
Middle School (MS) PATHmakers have been learning creativity, problem solving, and engineering design through working with littleBits Invention Kits, which facilitate the use of screen-free, engaging electronic building blocks called Bits. With different colored Bits for power, input, and output, students are learning the basics of circuitry to design and create their own inventions. Recently, MS PATHmakers were asked to build a car and engage with social-emotional lessons while utilizing the Bits.
A Just Films Milestone
Just Films wrapped up its tenth season on March 23 with a screening of the Emmy-award winning Patrice: The Movie followed by a panel discussion with local advocates about disability justice. For the past decade, YWCA GP has co-organized Just Films with our partners at Women's Law Project, Women and Girls Foundation, and Chatham University. This year, we expanded our collaboration to include Point Park University, where we screened four social-justice-themed films to intergenerational and diverse audiences of students and community members. Just Films will be back in the fall for another thought-provoking season dedicated to showcasing films by and about women.
Building Community Connections
Last month we were pleased to host a group from Connect U, a program of United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania that develops the philanthropic leadership skills of young professionals while connecting them with community leaders and subject experts. During their visit to our Southside office, Connect U participants spoke to YWCA GP VP of Programs Nichelle Nelson and Development Manager Megan Hasenauer, as well as United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Building for Success in School and Life Manager Damon Bethea, about YWCA GP’s programs and impact.