412Connect’s Collaborative Development

The CAASI 412Connect team is proud to work with the Pitt Community Engagement Center (CEC) in Homewood and CMU’s Center for Shared Prosperity (CSP) in our Fall 2022 scavenger hunt. Our Fall 2021 scavenger hunt was curated by Riverside Center for Innovation.

The CEC in Homewood is part of Neighborhood Commitments, Pitt’s effort to build stronger communities and a stronger University based on long-term place-based partnerships. In partnership with residents and stakeholders in communities like Homewood, the University is making long-term commitments of investment, infrastructure, programming, and staffing in Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods.

Each organization featured in this scavenger hunt was hand picked to us through the CEC in Homewood. Each is a reflection of the strength, creativity, and pride of this community. Through engagement with The CEC in Homewood, each organization submitted information about themselves such as their photos, websites and social media links. Following this recruitment process, the 412Connect team worked with CMU's CSP to integrate each organizations’ rich history, mission, and operations into this platform. Together, we coordinated with the organizations to determine which of their attributes to highlight in the trivia questions and the types of social media support that would best help them grow their audience.

In recognizing CMU as a significant economic driver in our Greater Pittsburgh Region, CSP aims to leverage its university assets to make an impact on the local economy. Specifically, CSP aims to create a sustainable and replicable model for community-university collaboration, with a focus on deploying solutions for socio-economic inequities and making measurable progress toward greater economic prosperity and overall well-being of residents. CSP rounds out the inter-university and community partnerships central to Project 412Connect with a commitment to leverage financial resources to support minority organizations.