Promote Diversity

Promoting Diversity and Taking Care of Our Diverse Neighborhoods:

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is advancing the diversity of City government so that it represents the people in which it serves. Luke believes strongly in reaching out to our diverse neighborhoods, providing youths and adults with rewarding job opportunities which enhance community pride. In only three years, the Mayor has created a City with the most diverse leadership in its history.

Visiting our Diverse Neighborhoods. Luke created a position to evaluate where the City is lacking in diversity employment and challenged Pittsburgh’s minority to learn about the City’s job opportunities. As a result, the City’s equal employment opportunity officer created a minority recruitment campaign, called DiverseCity 365. To combat the lack of diversity in the City’s public safety department, African American officers, firefighters, and paramedics visited Pittsburgh’s diverse neighborhoods to educate youths and adults on the application process. Already, the numbers are speaking for themselves: Minority applicants in public safety professions jumped dramatically. Minority applicants for paramedics alone made the most dramatic jump, from 12 to 41 percent in the program’s first year.

Diverse Leadership. Under Luke, diversity in leadership roles is important and sends a strong message of opportunity to the community. The Mayor’s board appointments, at 37 percent minority, are the most diverse in the City’s history. Luke’s hired Pittsburgh’s first African American fire chief, treasurer, assistant female police chief, and housing authority board chair.

Luke continues to actively work to retain and recruit a skilled, diverse workforce and he is also reaching out to minorities who may want to do business with the City. He has partnered with the Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (MWDBE) to hold small business seminars and trade fairs offering opportunities and educating businesses on how to seek contracts with the City. Again, the numbers speak for themselves: Between 2006 and 2008, the value of city contracts of minority-owned businesses increased by nearly 400 percent. During that same period, the value of contracts held by women-owned businesses increased more than 20 times.

Giving our Youths Hope and Opportunity. Luke is reaching out to youths in the City’s African American communities, giving them hope and opportunity through the promise of jobs and higher education. Luke re-instated the Pittsburgh Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides at-risk youths the opportunity to earn cash, develop healthy work habits, and foster community pride. In hot summer months, youths are teaming up with City workers to take care of community parks, playgrounds, or trails. During the summer kids now have the opportunity to earn cash and take care of their neighborhood at the same time. And during the winter, fall, and spring months, the City’s children are in school working hard to achieve their dreams of higher education, thanks to the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship fund.

When Luke brought the PSYEP program back in 2007, hundreds of youths applied for a limited amount of jobs. Understanding the desire and pride youths have for this program, the Mayor reached out to one of the City’s foundations. By identifying the need and creating partnerships, Luke was able to employ 40 percent more youths last year and is looking for ways to make the promise to more this summer.

Back to Issues