The City has announced a new strategy to encourage mentoring and volunteerism called servePGH, which is basically a call to residents to step forward and take on some responsibility for making life better for ourselves and the people around us.

The PHCA was way ahead of him!  As a (very) small nonprofit, we’ve been relying on the power of dedicated volunteers since our founding in 1969.  In recent years, we have the Green Team, the neighborhood cleanup crew, and were the pilot neighborhood for a Stair Stewards program.  And last year, after the mega-snow, we started the Polish Hill Snow Shoveling Team, who head out after snowstorms to clear the sidewalks along the main pedestrian routes.

The Post-Gazette had an article yesterday on the new program.  You can get an overview on servePGh’s information page — or even more information, check out the full 17-page report.  We notice that there is an initiative for Fall 2011 called Snow Angels, which echoes what we’ve been doing in Polish Hill for some time:  asking people to help out by shoveling for their elderly or disabled neighbors.  In fact, the photo the City used alongside the Snow Angels information (above) is of a Polish Hill resident, Josiah Parkinson, in his capacity as a member of the Polish Hill Snow Shoveling Team!