ABOUT

The goal of the Pittsburgh Platform is to establish significant, tangible and measurable outcomes in improving environmental health equity.

The Pittsburgh Platform connects individuals and organizations to share knowledge, discuss strategies and establish a united front.

The Pittsburgh Platform serves as a catalyst for change and outcome by connecting individuals and organizations to gather and share knowledge to align efforts for a stronger outcome.

The Pittsburgh Platform is grateful to the Heinz Endowments for its support of this initiative.

 WHY PITTSBURGH

The need for the Pittsburgh Platform originated from the recognition by the Heinz Endowments that the Pittsburgh region’s environmental health challenges have to be addressed through an equity and inclusion lens (see www.p4pittsburgh.org).  Often these challenges are approached apart from each other, limiting the effectiveness of solutions and even exacerbating societal tensions around health, environmental improvement, and social justice.

The motivation behind the Platform was that urban planning and design initiatives could be informed by projects that brought together these objectives in an intersectional manner. Further, the region could also benefit through the sharing of experiences from other cities confronting similar problems. In this regard, the Platform’s Steering Committee is not asserting that Pittsburgh has solved these problems. To the contrary, it is because Pittsburgh remains one of the most racially and economically divided cities in the United States that it needs to be the hub of transformative activities that achieve lasting impacts.  The singular contribution of Pittsburgh to this broad mission is its place in the creative centering of collective talent around the environmental health equity theme. It is why this endeavor is called the Pittsburgh Platform even though its scope extends well beyond the region.